What a wonderfully, decadent, amazing little brownie. This one is so simple, and it uses only a few ingredients. It uses white chocolate or vanilla chips to make it rich, and the cake or cookie decorating sequins (rainbow sprinkles) in the batter to give it bursts of color. It is a dense, gooey bar that is spectacular in appearance as well as taste. If you’re looking for easy, economical, quick, delicious, and a brownie (blondie) without nuts, this is it!
Isn’t it pretty?
I had only one problem with this recipe. Mine took a lot longer than the 25-30 minutes the directions say to cook it. The author said “trust me” take it out while it is still soft in the center. Against my better judgment I took it out after 35 minutes (5 minutes longer than the directions stated). I let it cool about a half hour, cut it, and my husband walked by and said, “that looks like it should have cooked a little longer.” BINGO! Because it was still too goopy I had to put it back in the oven for another 20 minutes! Even after cooking it for 50 minutes it was still dense, gooey and it had a wonderful and amazing texture. (My 50 minutes looked about what 30 minutes baking time looked like in her pictures). Perhaps because I cooked it in baking pans rather than in a casserole dish it didn’t cook as quickly as the creator’s batch did. But I know my oven is calibrated to 350, so it shouldn’t be that my oven was too slow of temperature.
I think you have to use common sense when making this recipe. I will tell you, I don’t like cooking this type of recipe by time alone because there are so many variables with ovens. I prefer to test with a toothpick to see if cakes, breads, or brownies are done. The brownie batter even after 30 minutes can’t still be goopy and moving in the center when you shake it no matter what the recommendations are for cooking time. Even still, this did not turn out as a disaster even though I cooked it twice!
As you can tell from looking at this picture and 50 minutes of cooking, it is still gooey inside like it’s supposed to be. It is NOT overcooked! But you should have seen it at 30 minutes like the original recipe said to cook it for. Yikes!
I recommend to my readers that they check this blondie recipe at 30 minutes for doneness, but be prepared to check it again every 5 minutes or so up to 45 or 50 minutes. Avoid the temptation to overbake it, but make sure it is not still excessively goopy in the center of the pan. I would probably take it out after 50 minutes regardless because you don’t want to overcook this so it is dried out. If your oven runs high it may be done in 30 minutes. But I would recommend you check it and actually give it a gentle shake to see if the batter jiggles in the middle. If it does you won’t be able to get this out of the pan!
This recipe was created by girlmeetslife.com and she has many other cake batter recipes like Snickerdoodle Blondies, Red Velvet Blondies, Carrot Cake Blondies, Nutella Cake Blondies, Coconut Cream Blondies, and others. If you like making cookies and brownies and other goodies from cake mixes this gal has an amazing collection. I highly recommend you get on her website and browse around. Her food pictures look fabulous too.
Here’s another look where you can see the texture.
Here’s what I did.
I’m not sure what I was thinking when I took this picture. The Ghirardelli chocolate was for another recipe and I left out the eggs and the milk!
I stirred the sequins (rainbow sprinkles, or whatever you want to use) into the flour with my hands. Then I added the eggs and oil.
This is what it looked like after beating with a mixer.
I added vanilla chips rather than white chocolate chips and milk and stirred them into the batter gently. I doubled the amount of vanilla chips and used 1 cup instead of merely 1/2 cup.
I sprayed my pans with Baker’s Joy cooking spray. Here’s what the blondie mixture looks like after all the ingredients have been added.
Instead of using the round sequins, (rainbow sprinkles) these ones are kind of flower shaped.
This is what it looked like at 25 minutes. It is definitely NOT done!
As I stated earlier, against my better judgment I took it out of the oven at 35 minutes. It looked like this.
From this picture you can see that the blondies sank down in the middle. I tried cutting after 30 minutes and they were a goopy mess. So I put the whole pan back in the oven and baked an additional 20 minutes.
This is what it looked like after I took it out of the oven the second time.
I think you can tell from this picture that even after cooking it 50 minutes it was still gooey like it’s supposed to be and not dried out in the middle.
These would have looked a little better had I had time to cool them completely before removing from the pan. But we were taking them to friends in the hospital and were on a time crunch since I had to put them back in the oven and bake longer than anticipated.
Here’s another look. I made two pans of these delicious bars: 1 1/2 batches for our friends, and 1/2 batch for us and our company last night!
Here’s another view where you can see the texture. While my oven took longer, I think this is about the texture these blondies are supposed to have when finished.
One more look.
Here’s the recipe.
CAKE BATTER BLONDIES
(Recipe adapted from girlmeetslife.com)
1 box yellow cake mix
1/4 cup canola oil
1 egg, beaten
1/4 – 1/2 cup milk (I used about 1/3)
1/4 cup rainbow sprinkles (I used rainbow sequins from the cookie and cake decorating section)
1/2 cup white chocolate chips (I used 1 cup vanilla chips)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the cake mix and sprinkles in a large bowl, then mix in the oil and egg. Stir in the milk and vanilla chips or white chocolate chips slowly just until the batter is combined – you want it to remain as dense as possible. Place batter in a greased 8×8 pan or 8-inch cake pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes or just until the edges turn golden. [At 30 minutes baking time my brownies were still soupy. I cooked these 35 minutes and they were still NOT done! I’d recommend baking these about 45-50 minutes or they may be so gooey that you can’t get them out of the pan.] Let cool for 20 minutes before cutting because the gooey center needs to set. The result will be a decadent, cake-batter texture.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Also – you might think that it’s not fully done because the center will still be quite gooey upon first exiting the oven – but that’s what you want! After cooling for about 20 minutes, the gooey center is what will lend to the decadent, cake-batter texture.
MY NOTE: Perhaps it is my oven [even though it is calibrated to 350°], but I let these bake 35 minutes and then cooled them over 30 minutes. They were still not baked enough in the center. I had to put them back in the oven to bake another 20 minutes (after being cut!) in order to get them cooked enough.
Do these not look scrumptious??
Yes, they’re gooey!
Yum, yum!
One last look. The container on its side is the type of sprinkles I used. You do need to measure these because a whole container is more than the 1/4 cup needed for the recipe.
Oooh, these look amazing, I love the colours mixed in the batter
Very yummy, indeed!
That just gave me an idea on how to use up the big sprinkles I have. I can throw them in cake batter. I knew since I was a kid that that I could use the non-perrielles (sp?) but never thought about these hard big ones they make today would work ok in mix. Thanks for the idea.
I bet you could use them in all kinds of cakes, perhaps even certain types of coffeecakes or cobblers, too.
That looks delicious!! I am vegan but like to look at recipies of anything sweet (but meat grosses me out)…if you have any suggestions for the recipie without animal products let me know
You might consider using coconut milk for the milk in the recipe. It’s probably sweeter than almond breeze (almond milk) & would probably work better. I’m not sure about an egg substitute. What do you usually use for egg substitutes? I can check around & see.
Sent from my iPhone
I usually use applesauce for egg substitutes, but unless I have an exact recipie I never know how much to put in. Thanks
Another person wrote in that she substitutes applesauce for eggs and oil in recipes. You might try coconut milk for the milk and applesauce for the eggs. It will give it a different taste with the apples, though.
Great, thanks so much! I’ll let you know how it is after I make it
These look so good and moist!
They are!