Mini Brownie Cupcakes (makes 72 mini cuppies or 18 regular cuppies)

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. semisweet chocolate; finely chopped
• 1 cup butter; room temperature, cut into pieces
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• ¼ tsp. salt
• 1 cup flour
• ¾ cup pecans; chopped (optional) *can also substitute for mini chocolate chips, white chocolate chips or chopped cherries

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line prepared cupcake pans.
2. Melt chocolate and butter together either over a double boiler or in the microwave. Stir until smooth and combined, then cool to lukewarm.
3. Transfer to a large mixing bowl. Whisk in brown sugar until well blended. Then whisk in eggs, one at a time making sure each egg is well absorbed before adding the next one. Add flour (and nuts/chocolate chips) at the same time and fold into batter until there are no more flour streaks.
4. Divide batter evenly into lined cupcake pan. They will rise slightly and bake up with a flat top. If making larger cupcakes, bake for 25 minutes. If baking mini cupcakes and baking must done in 2 batches, bake for 12-13 minutes each. When done, the tops will be slightly dry and crackled but extremely moist in the center.
5. Cool in pans for 5 minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
6. Decorate: Mix up a batch of your desired confectioner’s butter cream frosting (feel free to try out any frosting you like - a whipped cream frosting would have worked out nicely too). Pipe onto cuppies with a large star tip and top cupcakes with a mold chocolate heart. Or don’t… it’s up to you.

*Recipe from A Baker’s Field Guide to Cupcakes