Cinnamon Squares

Looks pretty with flowers from my mom's yard

This week’s TWD baked goodie was selected by Tracey of Tracey’s Culinary Adventures. You have to visit her blog, she has a lot of goodies (sweet and savory) to share with you and her photos are really beautiful. Tracey picked Cinnamon Squares and she did it 2 ways – as a cake and as a cupcake. My version of Cinnamon Squares wants to be Tracey’s version when she grows up!

I was really pleased with this week’s pick because I LOVE cinnamon! Cinnamon and chocolate together? What could be better than that? (Other than more cinnamon and chocolate…)

I always read the P&Q post for helpful hints because I usually tend to bake over the weekend and most of the TWD bakers are a lot timelier than me. A really good hint was to make the bottom layer of the cake thicker than the top layer because the cinnamon/chocolate layer in between tends to sink a bit. I followed that advice and unfortunately, my cinnamon/chocolate layer still sunk towards the bottom! Although it was really deceiving because as it was cooling on the rack I was admiring it – the middle layer looked exactly like that – a middle layer! I was feeling pretty pleased with myself (I think I remember myself doing an impromptu happy dance, and yes, I was all by myself in the kitchen).

Doesn't it look like it's in the middle?? Soo cruel to tease me like that.

I let it cool to room temperature and then wrapped it in saran wrap to take to my mom’s house for a family get together. The only thing that bothered me a little bit was that it looked a little over baked at the edges. That doesn’t bother me because I like the burnt edges of cakes, cookies, brownies, anything really. But I wasn’t eating this cake all by myself; although that cake batter was sooo tasty I totally had to restrain myself from liberally tasting it, just to make sure there was enough cinnamon you know. But not everyone likes burnt edges…

At my mom’s house I made the chocolate frosting. How simple was it you might ask? Just melt chocolate and butter together and you’re done! You can even microwave it to get it done more quickly. Sheesh, so simple and really delicious – just ask my mom, she was licking the bowl! HAH! A change from when I used to be the one licking the bowl while she was doing the baking!

I am not proficient at all with making my frosting look nice and pretty like Dorie did with hers or Tracey with her cake and cupcake, and most of the other TWD bakers. I need a lot more practice. But I just pretended that the frosting was too warm and thin for me to make it look pretty and frosted the cake. My mom was disappointed that the frosting didn’t cover the whole cake. She got over it when the cake was sliced because my niece pointed out that she loved how thick the frosting got on top! It was a baking success with the family, everyone loved it!

The frosting does look pretty thick on top! =)

Don’t forget to visit Tracey’s blog and I suggest you copy the recipe and try this one for yourself – especially if you love cinnamon! And definitely visit the other TWD blogs to see how their Cinnamon Squares turned out because there’s always lots of different takes done by the TWDers!

Next week: Parisian Apple Tartlet
Last week: Chipster-Topped Brownies