Last week we were invited to a Halloween party and I wanted to bring an easy but tasteful dessert. After posting about our simple pineapple brownie cake for Ada’s birthday I had them on the mind and decided to make brownies in cupcake liners. The cupcake form meant that we didn’t need to worry about portioning them or having them fall apart when being cut or transported. Since it was a Halloween themed party I hopped on Amazon to look for some Halloween themed cupcake liners. I ended up choosing some that came with cupcake toppers though I didn’t realize until after they arrived. All you need to do is change up your cupcake liners and/or toppers to make these brownie cupcakes work for any holiday or birthday party.

I also want to share my biggest challenge with these. I made two different versions of the brownie cupcakes. The pineapple version came out from the wrapper easily but the coconut chocolate version was badly stuck to the wrappers. I’ve since looked up an article on Craftsy on how to stop your cupcakes from sticking so next time I’ll either grease the liners themselves, buy a higher quality liner, or, more realistically, just make the type of brownie that didn’t stick.

Materials Needed

• I used I bought from Costco for the base recipe
• Flavors made
• Pineapple flavored brownies using the liquid and a third of the pineapple in a can of chunked pineapple
• Coconut Chocolate by adding flaked coconut and extra chocolate chips
• Cupcake liners and toppers
• Muffin pan
• Stand mixer to make it easier to mix
• Oven for baking

I made two pouches of brownie mix (separately) resulting in two different kinds of brownie cupcakes. The brownie mix box says one pouch makes 16 servings but I wanted to fit both batches in the oven at once so I made one pouch fit a dozen brownies (the muffin tin amount) so I’d only have to bake two muffin tins of brownies. I don’t know if it was because the brownies were larger, wetter, or just because I put both trays in the oven at once but I ended up extending the bake time by ten minutes.

Coconut Chocolate Brownie Cupcakes

For the first batch I followed the directions for a single pouch of brownie mix and then after adding the mix I also added flaked coconut and more chocolate chips before mixing it all up. This flavor came out with the perfect crisped and flaky brownie top but when we went to eat them (after cooling and putting them in the fridge for several hours) they were really difficult to remove from the liner. Next time, if I use these liners again, I’d grease the liners so it would be easier to remove the brownie cupcakes. For Ada’s birthday last year we made brownies that included M&M’S, ROLO chocolates, coconut, and several types of chocolate chips so basically any candy would work in this brownie mix as long as they can be baked without melting (looking at you cupcake sugar icing decorations). Just a heads up when we made the everything brownie cake it went rock hard after putting it in the fridge and was really difficult to cut so if you make them larger I’d recommend cutting them after cooling but before it goes in the fridge.

Pineapple Brownie Cupcakes

I had experimented with pineapple brownies before though I hadn’t made them in cupcake form yet. This time I had made pizza the day before and had saved the leftover pineapple liquid and about a third of the chunked pineapple in the fridge. This ended up being the perfect amount for the pineapple brownies. When making the brownies I followed the boxed directions except I replaced the water with the pineapple and it’s liquid. I didn’t want the brownies to be too runny so I didn’t add the water as there was more than a third cup of pineapple liquid added. I love how these turned out. The pineapple liquid makes the entire brownie cupcake taste pineapple’y and moist. The chunked pineapple was broken up in the stand mixer and added the perfect amount of fruit. If you want the pineapple chunks but not the pineapple taste in the brownie mix you can leave out the pineapple liquid and add the required amount of water.

After these brownies cooled I put them into a container to bring to the Halloween party and topped them with the Halloween toppers. With the lid on the container the toppers were tilted a bit but still had enough room to not bend. This is a perfect recipe to make the day before and be an easy item to grab on the way out the door without having to do last minute prep the day of.

I hope this helps you come up with a simple dessert for your party. I’d love to hear from you about what brownie cupcakes you made and how you made it fit your holiday or birthday theme. Feel free to share in the comments below, on my Facebook page (SimplyKyra), or through Instagram (@simplyartsykyra). I hope you have a great day and an awesome party.