Meat Cake

Wait. Does the title of this post makes you go all ewwwwww or do you sit up in delight?

As for me, when I stumbled upon the recipe for bacon brownies I was slightly disgusted but still I went on reading because the recipe did remind me of a friend who is particularly obsessed with meat. He always told me to bake a meat cake but I never took it seriously. I mean, meat? Dessert? It toally doesnt match man.. That was what I thought, until today.

Introducing.. beef brownies.

Initially, I was planning to try out the exact recipe. Bacon and all. I was so spirited to the extent that I got out of my house just to go shopping for the ingredients! Unfortunately, the place I went did not sell bacon (bacon being pork). They only had beef strips so I grabbed what I could grab and brought back home a packet of Beef Breakfast Streaky.

Immediately got to work! I was very enthusiastic. I could not possible fathom what meat would taste like with chocolate. But unfortunately all the while, I was thinking that the beef strips I had substituted for bacon was bacon itself. There IS a difference. The most glaring difference being that beef has a stronger smell than bacon. It's redder and leaner too. The other not so obvious difference is that all chinese can take pork but not all can take beef. So anyways, I went about with my brownies happily combining the ingredients and all.

Baked them and just when I was cutting the brownies, planning on who to give, my heart sinked with dismay upon the realisation that one of my closest friends would not be able to eat it because it is BEEF and not bacon!!! Beef is NOT bacon. Seriously, the whole hype of meat cakes got me so excited today that I conveniently categorised the both of them together. How sad.

Anyways, here is the recipe that I used. Adapted it rather quite dramatically (since bacon is NOT beef) from the recipe I got from 17 and Baking.

Beef Brownies

113g unsweetened chocolate, chopped

8 tablespoons of butter

1 1/2 cup sugar

1/4 tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup flour

2 tablespoons of natural cocoa

5 strips of beef

1. Preheat the oven to 350F (177C). Grease a 8″x8″ pan and set in parchment paper, letting the two ends hang over the edge. This makes a “sling” that will make lifting the brownies out of the pan very easy. Grease the parchment.

2. Heat a large pan over medium heat. When hot, lay in the strips of bacon. You want them to be crispy. Let them cook on each side until sufficiently cooked, then transfer to a plate with several layers of paper towel. Once cool, cut or rip the bacon into bits about the size of your fingernail.

3. Place the chopped chocolate and the butter in a metal bowl, and set it over a pan of gently simmering water. Stir the mixture until the smooth and the chocolate has melted completely. Remove from the heat and let cool slightly, then whisk in the sugar, salt, and vanilla. Then add in the eggs, one at a time, stirring until smooth.

4. Sift in the flour and cocoa, and whisk to combine. Stir in the bacon bits.

5. Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Bake brownies 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the brownies cool in the pan for a few minutes, then use the parchment sling to lift the brownies out of the pan. Transfer them to a wire rack and let cool completely before cutting into bars.

Yes, that red strip is beef.

My brother was the first to try. He said they were alright. The beef chunks were like raisins, apparently. lol.