This month my dad turned 90! What a milestone birthday. With Covid going on, I couldn’t make my annual March trip to visit and celebrate with my family in Lebanon. But, I did get to make this brownie cake.

I’m calling it a brownie cake only because I decorated it like a cake and it photographed like a cake for my Instagram feed. I used the brownie recipe from the Moosewood Restaurant Cooks At Home cookbook. It was my first time using it, and it is absolutely delicious. The brownies had a nice crusty surface and were incredibly moist and fudge-like on the inside.

I made 2 changes to the Moosewood Restaurant recipe: I used 7 tablespoons of pasteurized egg whites instead of the 2 eggs they called for, and I added 1/2 a cup of mini chocolate chips. Using mini chocolate chips ensures that the chocolate chips don’t sink to the bottom of the batter.

For the icing, I used a cream cheese frosting because I wanted to elevate the icing on the brownies, and I wanted to have a white background for the decorated cake. I colored some of the icing a teal blue and I used green M&Ms to make the number 90. To give the cake a festive look, I added sprinkles on the side of the brownie, and curled ribbons around the cake. It’s that simple.

Here’s the recipe for the brownies and the cream cheese frosting. The frosting is enough to ice two brownie pans, so if you feel  like making half of the frosting recipe, go ahead. I have not made that small of a batch of frosting, but you decide.

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