whopper brownie cupcakes

We’ve had a bowl of Halloween candy sitting in our TV room for two weeks. Dave bought about 15 pounds of candy for some reason, and we got a total of two trick-or-treaters.

Both kids live on our block.

The leftovers have been sitting in this bowl calling out to us. It was impossible to resist the Snickers, Almond Joys and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups–we picked those clean after about three days.

Now all that’s left are Whoppers and Heath bars, which are sort of the bottom of the candy totem pole in our house.

So what to do with all that deliciously fattening leftover Halloween candy?

Make it more fattening and more delicious, of course.

I picked the Whoppers out of laziness. The Heath bars would have to be chopped up or crumbled. The Whoppers, on the other hand, were already in delicious little bite-sized pieces.

Laziness is my life.

Ready for a sugar coma? Then let’s start with a pretty basic brownie recipe.

First, you’ll need more chocolate.

A cup and a half of semi-sweet chips, to be exact…

…and three squares of unsweetened baking chocolate.

When I was little I ate a piece of this stuff thinking it was regular old chocolate. Let’s just say I only did it once.

As all good recipes require, butter–6 tablespoons of the unsalted variety.

Unsalted? Unsweetened? Wassup with this recipe?

Now you need sugar, naturally. 1/2 cup packed brown plus 1/3 cup of white. I used the same measuring cup because I hate doing dishes.

1/4 teaspoon of salt. Oh, mysteries of baking, you allude me.

Two little eggies sittin in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g.

1/2 cup of flour…

…and finally, vanilla extract–the root of all that is good and tasty in baking.

Got all that? Sweet. Now, let’s bake some deliciousness.

Chop up the unsweetened chocolate…

…and do not–I repeat, DO NOT lick your fingers afterwards.

I didn’t do it.

I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Now toss the butter, unsweetened chocolate and half of the chocolate chips into a double boiler.

In my house, double boiler roughly translates to glass bowl sitting on top of a pot full of water.

And, by the way, I’m ashamed to have my poor little electric burners in this photo. How I long for a gas stove *tear*.

Turn up the (electric) heat to medium-high to get the water boiling, and then let it simmer at medium-low.

Let it get all melty melty, stirring often…

…until it looks like this. Go ahead and remove it from heat.

Now, then. Transfer the chocolate mixture into a big ‘ol bowl and dump in the sugars. Give it a good stir.

Crack those eggies and toss ‘em in the bowl. Mix it on up.

Now dump in a tablespoon of vanilla extract…

…the flour…

…the remaining chocolate chips…

…and the Whoppers (reserve a few of the whoppers for topping the cupcakes), mixing well after each addition.

It should be illegal to have this much chocolate in one bowl.

A felony, at least.

Now, spoon the mixture into 12 cupcake liners.

Make sure to get little globs of it all over the pan.

C’mon. Don’t make me feel bad.

Bake at 350° for 16-20 minutes.

Individual brownies with little surprise Whoppers inside! Oh, these are going to be dangerous.

While those are cooling, let’s make the frosting. Here’s what you’ll need:

1 package of cream cheese, 1 stick of unsalted butter, and 2 cups of powdered sugar.

Let the butter and cream cheese sit out for a while to get to room temperature…

…and then cut ‘em up into pieces and throw them in the mixer.

Cream until it’s nice and smooth, and then add the sugar one cup at a time.

It should be nice and creamy. Give it a taste, just to be sure.

You should probably lick the blade too.

Spoon the frosting into a sandwich bag and cut of the tip. Or if you’re all fancy-pants, you could use an icing bag.

I’m not fancy-pants, clearly.

Ice those little puppies and top with a Whopper to make it all purdy.

Wow.

Oh, my.

I must admit, these were a little bit of overkill. I only made it though half of one before I had to give up.

Granted, I also had a tummy full of cream cheese frosting and chocolate chips, so maybe I wasn’t the ideal test subject.

The brownies were moist with a bit of crunch from the whoppers, and the frosting was a nice creamy addition. Incredibly rich–reserve these for your sweetest-toothed friends.

Happy baking!

-RDG