Battle of the brownies

I have a wedding order coming up in July.  The bride is the sister of someone I used to work with.  The wedding reception in a huge Lawrence of Arabia style tent, all atmospheric, pointy roofed and romantic.  The bride and groom have requested a mix of carrot cupcakes and banana and walnut cupcakes.  To match the theme I have suggested a sophisticated mix of gold and bronze stars with gold and bronze glitter as decoration, which I think will turn out very prettily.  It does mean making over 200 tiny sugar stars, but I think it's worth it.

They have also asked for chocolate brownies to serve as pudding alongside the cupcakes.  Now, I have made brownies before but wanted the recipe to be just perfect.  This meant researching and trying out various recipes on my willing volunteers.  It didn't take long to recruit them.  The boys and I have just had a lovely weekend at marvellous mum and dads, and as brainy bro and his partner were down for the weekend too they formed the trial group.  

The first recipe was a plain chocolate brownie, rich with dark chocolate, and the second was a double chocolate brownie made with dark chocolate and densely studded with milk and dark chocolate chips.  The trial group were unanimous. The double chocolate brownie won.  It scored much more highly on all counts of fudgyness, chocolateyness and squidgyness- all essential factors in the pursuit of brownie perfection.  The next day I visited an old school friend who I hadn't seem for years.  It was really lovely to see her, and meet her two kids.  They also agreed with the trial group...it had to be the double chocolate brownie.

I have emailed my cousin in America for her top tips and brownie recipes and will be trying them out too.  This does of course mean more brownies for us to have to eat, purely for research of course.  It's a tough job, but some one has to do it...