My Brownie Is Smoking

Tonight I began making Warm Delight Brownies for the mess of kids we had at our house (our 4 plus their 4 friends). If you haven't been introduced to the fine art of Warm Delights, you're missing out (thank you Armfields!!). It is basically a single serving of a brownie that you can mix up and cook in your microwave. A fast, easy, yummy dessert that our kids love. As I have the 8 little containers spread out on the counter I begin to think that I'm missing the point and that perhaps I should have just made a package of brownies, but that would have required forethought and planning, and besides spontaniety is fun, right? So anyway, I have the 8 bowls on the counter when Cory walks in and instantly knows what I am up to. Being the budding chef that he is, Cory wants to help, so I put him in charge of microwave duty--he has to put the mixture into the microwave, hit 3-0-start, remove the baked brownie and then start all over with the next mixture. Meanwhile, I'm distributing completed desserts and spoons to the other kids who are outside. He's doing an excellent job, and quite proud of himself. I leave him with the last mixture--HIS. He's very excited, of course. I go back out and soon see Cory coming outside crying. This can't be good--did he burn himself? I told him not to eat it immediately out of the microwave because it's too hot and needs to cool down. I try to understand what he is telling me through the tears--no, he's not burned, no he didn't shut his finger in the microwave, what? your brownie is burned? At this point I'm walking in the house with him and the smell hits me--ugh! Luckily, our friend was in the kitchen with him when it began burning and quickly got it out of the house and the stove fan on. This is her version of what happened: Cory says "look! my brownie is smoking;" she turns to see what he's talking about and notices the time on the microwave says 1:35--clearly much more than the 30 seconds he was supposed to cook it for. She opens the microwave and smoke billows out of the box. Poor guy--I had no extra Warm Delights and had already given the other 7 to his siblings and friends. He was crushed. Not crushed enough to refuse an ice cream sandwich, but still not totally accepting that his brownie, even once cooled, would not be edible.