Brownie Cupcakes- Mummy Style

My husband's best friend had a Halloween party so I decided to make some Halloween cupcakes. My intentions were to get some cute Halloween wrappers and sprinkles or something generic like that, but then I figured I'd go all out and try my hand at some special decorating. I toyed with the idea of making a Reese's style cuppie, but decided on making some brownie cupcakes frosted to look like mummies:

Ugh, so cute! I was pleased with how they turned out- I got the idea off the interwebs and was worried that I wouldn't be able to replicate them, but it was much easier than I anticipated to make them turn out right. I also like the hazy effect in this photo created by the immense amount of fog in my friend's house for festive effect.
I used Martha's brownie cupcakes recipe, but I think I doubled it because there were supposed to be a lot of people. Here's the original recipe though, that should make about 18:

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 11 ounces best-quality semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, (optional)
• Nonstick cooking spray

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-count muffin tin with cupcake liners, and spray generously with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.
2. In a saucepan over low heat, melt the butter and 8 ounces of chocolate. Stir until smooth. Remove from heat, and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar. Add flour, cocoa, and baking soda. Stir in the melted chocolate until combined. Stir in remaining 3 ounces of chocolate and nuts if desired.
4. Using a 2-ounce ice cream scoop, fill cupcake liners 3/4 full with batter. Bake until a firm crust forms on the cupcakes, about 20 minutes. Remove to a wire rack to cool, about 10 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan, and continue to cool on a wire rack.

Read more at Marthastewart.com: Brownie Cupcakes - Martha Stewart Recipes

*I did as the recipe said and sprayed the crap out of the liners with non-stick spray and I'm glad I did, although they felt a little greasy on the bottoms. I knew they were going to crack on the tops but I figured it would be a good effect for the mummy-look I was going for. I topped them with some basic buttercream frosting. Must I post the recipe? *sigh* ok... I think I made about the amount of half of a box of confectioner's sugar because I knew I wasn't going to need a whole lot. I actually just added unmeasured ingredients until it reached the consistency I wanted, because it's really hard to screw up a basic buttercream. But here's a recipe for those that want it:

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 1/2- 2 cups confectioner's sugar

1/2 teaspoon milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

pinch salt

Beat butter with milk, and extract until blended. Add sugar in batches until it reaches desired consistency.

To decorate, I used my circular piping tip and un-colored frosting in a criss-cross fashion to make the little bandages. Once I finished all of those, I tinted the frosting yellow and used the same tip to pipe on the eyeballs, then topped each eyeball with a black sixlet. This kind of decoration worked perfectly because I wasn't too fond of the idea of a heavily-frosted brownie. I felt it needed to be a decorated brownie, not a frosted one.

The results? They tasted like brownies and people liked them. I think they were winners, and some people went back for seconds. I add this in the "win" column :)

These cupcakes inspired me to make some homemade brownies a few weeks later. But I didn't like the way they turned out as much as I liked the cupcake version (used a different recipe). They ended up being more cakey than my liking, and I prefer my brownies to be fudgey. Yes, I like brownies. It's on my list of the few chocolate things I actually enjoy.