Homeschool Cooking With Kids Series: Pull-Apart Brownies

The rage against social media and the influence it has on our young ones is everywhere. See how it has a positive influence in our home when used right! 

I can hardly scroll through Facebook without seeing some concerned parent asking for help to unplug their child.

And I get it, I really do.

But I also know that each child is different.

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With proper internet safety training, great conversations, and setting a good example, social media can be a GREAT place to learn, discover new things, and be inspired to try something new.

For example, in our house, Instagram means pull-apart brownies. 😉 YUM!

Inspired by Instagram

My daughter has had an Instagram account for years now. Her brother does not.

This has nothing to do with age, responsibility or household rules. It is their personal preference. My son happens to think Instagram is stupid. Ha!

My daughter loves to bake and has taken a keen interest in learning to decorate baked goods.

I’ve shared her struggles with self-confidence and math in general and how we use different programs, journals etc to help her overcome those struggles.

You can read about those here, Why Homeschool Math Programs Don’t Work For My Daughter…And What Does!  and here, Homeschool Cooking Curriculum We Love – Our Experience With the Kids Cook Real Food Program.

The truth is, it’s a never-ending battle. For me and her.

I love watching how a “hobby” such as baking allows her to continue to work on her skills, building self-confidence while allowing her to have fun.

She follows several accounts, and one of her new favorites is Wilton Cake.

I got her as a gift a piping set from Wilton. She was very excited. It has 22 tips, a case to store them in, and this thingamajig that looks like a giant thumb tack.

Armed with her tablet and her new set, she came out to show me what was next on her “baking hit list.”

So far she has done:

• Gluten-Free Mini Cheesecake
• Pinwheel Sugar Cookies Recipe
• Homemade Lemon Meringue Pie  <–that is on Instagram
• Atom Cookies from Nerdy Numies Book (picture)

Pull-Apart Brownies it was. We watched the video on Wilton Cake Instagram Pull-Apart Brownies together.

We discussed what we would need and she made a list.

I’m going to share with you the original recipes and any changes she made that way you can make them with your kiddos too! It is a great way to reconnect with your kids when life is busy.

5 Ingredient Brownie Recipe

Next, she found her brownie recipe that she had tried before. You can grab that here in all it’s unchanged glory. Five-Ingredient, Super-Easy Brownies 

She says you’ll know you’ve got the right recipe if she is ranting about the difference between cocoa powder and chocolate. (Apparently, her definition of rant and mine are quite different!)

She gathered all her ingredients and her tablet with the recipe pulled up.
In order to make the heart shape, she recommends you double the recipe. Sneaking some math in here, shhhh.

Otherwise, she stuck to this recipe pretty much.

We recommend you use parchment paper and a glass baking dish. You can lift your brownies out easier this way. Let them cool completely and use a sharp knife to cut clean squares out.

If you cut them too early you end up with crinkle sides.

Set these aside as you make your buttercream frosting.

Favorite Buttercream Icing Recipe:

Gonna warn you, you need a lot of icing.

She uses this Quick and Almost-Professional Buttercream Frosting Recipe, grab that in its unchanged glory.

I’ll share the measurements and changes she made below. She really wanted a chocolate mint flair. I love seeing her getting creative and comfortable enough to make adjustments to recipes.

Buttercream Icing Recipe Her Changes:

It is really critical to read the recipe through and then take note of changes you want to do. These are her changes for this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup margarine (or you can use salted butter), softened
• 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
• 2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
• 2 tablespoons milk -start with 1 tablespoon until desired consistency is reached.

Keep food coloring set aside at this time. You will want 2-3 colors.

She uses my KitchenAid Stand Mixer and the paddle attachment, I call it the K.

Add softened margarine to bowl and cream. Let it go on medium until butter is softened and looks pasty.

Slowly sift in icing sugar. Slow is key. Using a spatula you may need to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Dump in the Peppermint extract all at once.

Next, add milk to change the consistency. You need it very creamy to pipe properly.

Let it mix on to high for about 6 minutes until it starts to fluff.

When done, divide the icing into 3 bowls.

Choose 3 colors of your choice. She picked Light Blue, Darker Blue and White to offset the Blue colors. You can choose anything you like.

We use Wilton Gel Food Color to get a deeper color. Keep playing with it until you get the colors you want.

Mix the colors in really well.

Putting It All Together

Now you want to choose your design. She wanted heart-shaped.

If you have a large serving dish or platter use that. We didn’t. She used cardboard and covered it with Aluminum foil. Play around until you get the shape you want.

Choose the tips you want for the different styles of flowers. She decided on 3 tips from her Wilton Tip set 12, 32 and 2D, shown below.  You’ll need to decide which ones you want.

Next, take time practicing until you get what you want. Hint: You can reuse these if you wish. Just carefully slide them off the dish and place where you want.

Using 3 tall glasses or a stand carefully place your frosting in the bags. By the tips go in the bag first in case you were wondering, followed by the frosting.

She uses the glasses to hold the bags when she isn’t using them. Unless you have a holder shown below.

You can get a holder like this one or just glasses to hold the bags upright.

Working from one end to the top add the flowers in any pattern you like. The purpose is to make it look like one big cake but in actually you can just “pull it apart” each brownie. Neat huh?

Social Media Brownies

Social media is like anything…used properly it can build, inspire and create.

Technology is an amazing tool and allows me to keep in touch with my kids while working, teach them things I can’t explain and to connect with friends and family worldwide.

Plus…brownies?! So good! Try them today with your little ones and let us know how they turned out.

Take care,

Jen

PS. Both of my kids are pretty comfortable in the kitchen because I feel it is a needed life skill. You can read about one of our favorite programs and our thoughts here: Homeschool Cooking Curriculum We Love – Our Experience With the Kids Cook Real Food Program

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