Make It Monday: Dessert Stencils

My favourite brownie recipe happens to be the delicious fudgey kind that does not need icing to hide the boringness that characterizes other cakey brownies. You can find the Best Brownies recipes on Allrecipes.com. The recipe there does have an accompanying icing recipe, but I prefer a dusting of icing sugar instead.

I recently made brownies for a last minute poker night. I know what your thinking "Who makes brownies for poker night?" Well, normally I wouldn't, but we had a pre-poker BBQ which included a few friends and Sophie's favourite little girlfriend Ava. Definitely a suitable brownie occasion.

So here are the brownies...

Boring right?

I had a few spare minutes so instead of my usual icing sugar dusting over the whole batch I figured I'd try my hand at making a custom stencil.

What you'll need:

Thin cardboard - a cereal box or file folder will do

A printed or sketched design

Tape

Exacto knife

Mini sieve

Icing sugar or cocoa powder

Prepared brownies, cake or other dessert

Directions: (Photo directions follow)

Step 1. Tape your printed or sketched design to the thin cardboard. I just did a google image search for "card suits" to acquire this one.

Step 2. On a suitable cutting surface (ie. cutting board) carefully cut out the design with an exacto knife. You may have to go over it twice to get through the layers.

Step 3. Remove the tape and printer paper. Lay the cardboard flat on your brownies or cake. Place a small amount of icing sugar in a sieve and tap it gently over the entire stencil.

Step 4. Carefully remove the cardboard stencil by lifting straight up. Voila! You're masterpiece is revealed.

Yum-O! Happy Monday!