This Friday, I’m emceeing the Burlesque Rocks show in Wellington!

Combining sexy burlesque with pulse-pounding rock music for a fresh show, the line up is fantastic:  Fanciforia Foxglove, Winnie Chester, The Deity Dollicious, Sarah Marie Summer, Volumptous Twinkle, Miss Kimberly Grace, and, all the way from Colorado in the USA, Vivienne VaVoom. Tickets available here!

Last night, I went to the delightful thirteenth birthday of Tuesday Night Dinner in Wellington. My contribution was brownies with a cream-cheese-and-cherry swirl baked into them.  “Do you have the recipe?” Why, yes, and here it is, entirely from scratch so you can make it anywhere in the world. Cherry Bomb brownies, behind the cut.

Cherry Bomb Brownies

Brownie batter:

• 1 ½ c. White sugar
• 2 eggs
• ¾ c. Butter
• 2 tablespoons water or cherry juice
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¾ cup baking cocoa, the best you can get your hands on (I used Blooker from the Netherlands)
• 1 and 2/3 cups flour

Cream cheese swirl:

• 250 grams cream cheese
• ½ cup caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla paste (I used Heilala)
• 1 cup stoned dark cherries (fresh or jarred)

Bake ’em up:

1. Preheat oven to 180 C/ 350 F.
2. Line a 13 x 9 metal baking pan with tinfoil. Butter and flour the tinfoil.
3. Prepare the cream cheese swirl. Blend the cream cheese, sugar, egg, and vanilla paste in a bowl. (If the cream cheese is firm, warm it in the microwave to soften..
4. Once thoroughly blended (no lumps!) add the cherries and fold them through once or twice. Set aside.
5. Prepare the brownie batter. Melt the butter.
6. Add the sugar to the butter, followed by the eggs, vanilla extract, and 2 tablespoons water/juice.
7. Add dry ingredients in this order: baking soda, cocoa, flour. Blend thoroughly.
8. Using a spatula, fold the thickish, stiff brownie batter into the baking pan. Use the spatula to cover the base of the baking pan with an even layer of batter.
9. Create three channels in the batter, vertically down the pan.
10. Pour the cream cheese swirl into the three channels. Then, with a fork or spatula, “swirl” it through the brownie batter several times.
11. Bake for 35 – 45 minutes, until a pick comes out mostly clean.
12. Cool, then chill in the fridge overnight. The flavors develop and improve.

With the swirl, these look great cut into rounds. Serves 15 as rounds, or can be sliced into 16 – 32 brownies.