Smiley Face Brownies!!! :)

  So, brownies. Haven't done them in a while. Last brownies I remember finding themselves on the blog were the Black Bean Brownies way back in May of 2015. Now , that is a long time to go without brownies. Seriously !! Well actually, I didn't even  bake the brownies then. Last I checked, my mom did. That's right. I'm not the famous Harveen Roy. I'm her daughter, Yagyesha Roy with some good old fashioned chocolate brownies.Since they are my first bake, I am going ahead and giving them a fancy name - "Smiley Face Brownies."

Why this name, you ask ? The picture should give a clue. Well, there was more text on the surface of the brownies which you will come to know later but the smiley got lucky as it got to be the one which got photographed and thus found itself  on the pages on this blog.

Okay, now that we've got that out of the way, let's talk about brownies! When somebody says brownies, what comes into your mind? The All-American fudgy ones, with the crust breaking apart? Or perhaps the ones stacked on top of one another, soft and warm to the touch, fudgy and decadent to taste? Whatever your definition of brownies is, you'll get the brownies of your dreams when you bake these( provided you measure the ingredients accurately and follow the recipe instructions precisely. (Except minus the fudgy part, because these are more cakelike.) My brother declared them to even better than moms..no mean feat considering how good of a baker she is and also because  if you have an elder brother you know how stingy they are with compliments.

So these days I haven't been going on a shopping spree, but on a brownie one.( I hate shopping.) I've already baked brownies twice before, but that was using a mix. But it was also on 2 consecutive days. Then I took a break. For one day.(No one can never get enough brownies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) My brother was going to D.C. for 3 days as part of his NJHS team , and his teachers told them to bring small snacks along for the journey , (Well brownies aren't small snacks, but I had to make them. They were just going to have to deal with it.) so I made brownies from scratch.  We didn't have any mixes left and Mom wasn't about to go get me another one especially when she kept reminding me that all ingredients to make them were available in our pantry.From scratch it was then   So, I followed one of her  recipes and accomplished my first from scratch bake. I decorated the top with a "Have a great trip" message with a smiley at the end . 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter

1 cup white sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup all purpose flour

2 eggs

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. baking powder

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 350℉ and prepare your baking tray (grease and flour it ).

2. Take a saucepan and melt the butter on the stovetop..
3. Remove from the stovetop  and mix in vanilla extract, eggs, and sugar

4. Then slowly beat in the salt, cocoa powder, baking powder, and flour . 
5. Transfer the  batter into the prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes.
6. Cool them on a wire rack , cut into individual slices and enjoy with your friends.
(Making smiley faces on them is entirely optional :-)).
Baked by : Yagyesha Roy