I take a pretty authoritarian stance on brownies. If they’re not dense and fudgy (to the point of being mud-like in the middle), with a paper-thin crispy layer on top, I won’t even call them brownies ― they’re a chocolate traybake at that point. And I’m as stringent with carrot cake, I’m afraid. I wasn’t always this way. Both rules are born out of deeply disappointing bites ― in the latter case, dry, crumbly, poorly iced concoctions haunt me.So, in my hunt for the perfect recipe, I was on the lookout for the following: I wanted a big, moist crumb, a thick cream cheese icing, a decent balance of spices and the perfect balance of juicy fried fruit and buttery walnuts. I tried four recipes in my quest, including some from Gordon Ramsay, Nigella Lawson and even Mary Berry. While I liked some elements of all of them (i