American Cake - Cake #26: Bangor Brownies

Time Period: 1870-1899

Hopefully, nobody asks you too much at a trivia contest about the origin of brownies. Are they named after the pixie-like characters in Palmer Cox's cartoons and poems? Are they named after the color, derived originally from the toasted nuts and molasses used to make them? Did they first come about because someone forgot to throw baking powder into the mixing bowl? Did someone at a chocolate company simply decide to toss in extra egg and chocolate to the cake recipe? All of these are described as possibly having a hand in the brownie's inception. This recipe honors the deep roots that brownie have in Maine, though at the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition, chocolate cake was already being cut into squares for portability.

As far as the project goes, I am quickly running out of easy recipes. Almost gone are the days of simply mixing six ingredients, then baking. Before we transition to the more complicated cakes, though, turning out this pan of brownies took hardly any effort. They were fairly tasty, though I wouldn't say this recipe blew me away. The brownies also didn't solidify quite enough, which meant that cutting and serving turned into a very messy process. Still, they were a satisfying dessert to serve at an afternoon of playing cards with friends; brownies are the laid-back member of the cake family, and that makes them welcome at almost any event.