Shortcut Brownies with Cake Mix

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Its football season! In this house we are Packers fans. My husband and I are on diets and cannot eat typical brownies at this time. With that in mind, we have decided not to purchase things like cake mix and such unless it is needed for a birthday. However, just because we can’t eat brownies doesn’t mean we can’t treat the kids.

I was cleaning out my pantry and found a couple of left over boxes of cake mix from my daughters birthday. I wondered, “Can I make brownies out of cake mix for the kids on football Sunday?”

The History Of Cake Mix

Let’s take a moment and appreciate the history of cake mix. Why? To remind us that convenience has not always been the way of things.

Many, many years ago cake mix was not something you could simply purchase off of a store shelf. In 1933, P. Duff and Sons, a molasses company out of Pittsburgh patented the first cake mix. In 1947, there were more than 200 companies that produced cake mixes for distribution regionally. (Remember, supply chains were not what they are now.)

1947 saw a new movement in the food industry–convenience foods. However, it took some time to catch on. Many women used “ready made” products reluctantly. It was such a new thing, and how often have you heard “everything tastes better from scratch”?In 1949, devils food cake and party cake mix were debuted by General Mills. Fun fact, do you want to know why you have to add your own eggs to the mix when it used to have dried eggs in it? Well, at the time, marketing studies suggested that the simplicity of the recipes made women feel too self indulgent.

Experimenting to make Brownies

I really thought it would take me both cake boxes to make brownies turn out right. I was not quite sure what I was doing. Doing some research, I learned that using oil instead of butter will create a fudgy texture. Butter would make it cakey.

So, I began by adding 2 eggs.

Once I mixed the eggs in, I started adding oil, little by little. It took 1/3 cup to get to the right consitency. I nodded at my work, then threw in a cup of chocolate chips. The consistency is like play dough–if you are mixing by hand this will take elbow grease.

I greased an 8×8 pan, then added the batter. And yes, should I have started by preheating my oven before I started making the brownies. Hey, I’m the Strong Homemaker, not the Perfect Homemaker. So, then I preheated the oven to 350 F.

While it preheated, I continued working on my new facebook page. (I haven’t had facebook since 2013.) I finally decided it was time. It is still a work in progress, but check it out. My goal is to bring the things I have learned as a Strong Homemaker to women everywhere to make them just as strong. Check out my page here.

Once the oven was preheated, I put the brownies in. I baked them for 20 minutes and tested it with a toothpick. That worked!

So, voila! Have cake mix but don’t want cake? Make brownies! If you want to balance out some of the yummy unhealthy brownies with something healthy…check out my seven layer salad.