Brownies (in Nordic Ware Honeycomb Cake Pan)

Honeycomb Pan Brownies
Next time I'll use cocoa and flour mixed to dust the pan.

Hmmm... This brownie is from the same batch, but taken during
a different photo shoot. Different time of day, different plating...

I got this cute new honeycomb cake pan for my birthday last week, and I decided to break it in with some brownies. It came with a recipe for a honey glazed cake, but since I'm not much of a honey fan, I went for chocolate. I usually use Ghirardelli Sweet Ground Chocolate when I make brownies, but the price of that product is forcing me to use regular cocoa and sugar. Of course, I've used it as an excuse to purchase some Penzey's Dutch cocoa powder, which in the end may be as or more expensive, but this is what I do. I rationalize. 
At any rate, I think the brownies turned out great tasting AND very cute. After I turned them out onto the cookie sheet and saw the cute little bees and honeycomb, I of course had to take it a step further and add a bit of chocolate ganache on top. What I've ended up with is actually more of a dense deep dark chocolate cake, which is just fine by me. 
If you don't have the cute pan that you need to turn out in order to see the design, skip the flipping it over step at the end, and just use a spatula to get them out of the pan. You wouldn't think I'd have to actually write that out, but for people who don't bake much, I like to be as explicit as possible. At least I try.

Brownies (in a cute pan)

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs @ room temp. 
• 1 cup sugar (there's more sugar below too)
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract 
• 1 cup butter, melted & cooled 
• 1 cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour, plus more for dusting
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Ganache Topping:

• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 12 Dove Dark Chocolate Promises, chopped

Instructions:
Prepare cute pan by spraying with nonstick cooking spray and then dusting thoroughly with flour or a flour/cocoa mix (I should have done the mix, but did only flour and that's why there are whitish looking bits on my finished brownies). If you don't have the cute pan, use a 9 x 13 inch baking pan.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Using a spoon, stir eggs with 1 cup sugar and vanilla. Add melted butter. In a separate bowl, mix the cocoa powder, 1 cup sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt with a whisk. Stir flour mixture into egg mixture. Spread evenly into a prepared pan. If you're adding nuts to half or all of the pan, sprinkle those over the batter and gently press. Bake 30-34 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out relatively clean. Allow brownies to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Place a cookie sheet over the top of the pan and with oven-mitted hands, carefully flip the pan over so that the brownie pan is on top and the cookie sheet is on the bottom. Gently tap the bottom of the brownie pan and then carefully remove the pan. Allow brownies to cool completely.

Makes 19-ish servings.

Nordic Ware Honeycomb cake pan from Williams Sonoma