Maple Rye Brownie Cake

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F. Grease and line an 8” baking pan with parchment paper. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, add all the dry ingredients except the sugar and whisk to combine. Set aside.
2. Into the bowl of a double boiler, add the butter and oil and heat up until all the butter is melted.
   Whisk sugar into warm butter-oil mixture until a thick, glossy syrup-like consistency is achieved.
3. One at a time, whisk eggs into the wet batter followed by the maple syrup and vanilla extract.
4. Mix dry ingredients into wet batter just until the brownie batter comes together without any streaks of flour. Take care not to over mix batter.
5. Pour brownie batter into prepared baking pan and bake for 35-45 minutes. Brownie cake is ready when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs.
6. Allow cake to rest in pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Cake should be completely cooled (at least 1 hour) before frosting.

Whipped Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

1. Place a mixing bowl into the freezer to chill. In a small bowl, add and whisk together the cream cheese, powdered sugar, cocoa powder and vanilla extract until smooth.
2. Retrieve chilled bowl from freezer and add in the cold heavy cream. With a hand-held mixer or whisk, beat the heavy cream just until it starts to thicken and before soft peaks are formed. Stop and spoon in the cream cheese mixture. Continue to beat cream until stiff but spreadable peaks is achieved.

Assembly

1. Spoon frosting onto the surface of cooled brownie cake. With an offset spatula, spread the frosting until the top of the cake is completely covered.
2. Arrange blackberries and mint (if using) along the outer rim of the cake.