It’s August, so that means we’re celebrating an onslaught of Leo-centric birthdays around here. As if we don’t have enough fire in our lives already, this month marks another trip around the sun for American Skillet as a company, along with myself and my little kiddo! So basically, we are making cakes & burning candles every weekend for almost a full month straight. I’m not complaining :}
I learned that when you have a 4 year old, they begin to get very specific about things like birthday cakes. There were direct instructions for me to make a chocolate mint strawberry cake with rainbows inside and pink frosting with the strawberries on top. Wow. Really?! Ok ok ok…. I own a cookware company, not a bakery, but I love a good challenge, so let’s go.
Needless to say, my bigger plans for this extraordinary birthday cake shifted in our rush to get up north to celebrate with my folks over the weekend. My partner scrapped the specialty grocery list for a box of Ghirardelli Double Chocolate Brownie mix that we had in the cupboard, and we were on our way. Best quick fix ever! The entire recipe fit exactly into a pair of Minnesota + Wisconsin skillets which were already up at my parents house, and the whole preparation too less than 15 minutes to assemble. Be still, my heart.
We improvised the original instructions from our 4 year old, and added 3 scoops of mint chocolate chip ice cream to the top of a warm chewy brownie, and sliced up seasonally perfect strawberries & peaches to go around it. We brought out the Fiesta bowls instead of making rainbows pop out of the middle, and added a drizzle of chocolate syrup on top to finish it all off.
Not a complaint in to the house, and everyone was beaming with a chocolate / sugar overload that lasted well into the night. This is summer!
How do you like to celebrate a birthday? We ALWAYS bust out a cast iron state skillet because it’s just fun and it perfectly bakes out anything you want it to. Plus, clean up is a snap with these well-seasoned pans. Just rinse, dry and hang them back up on the wall until the next party!