The other day I showed you the Christmas Wreath Brownie Cupcake, and today I’m going to show you a whole batch of brownie cupcakes. I guess I was in a creative mood the day I made these, because I think they turned out even crazier than my Crazy, Colorful Cupcakes. If you like these, you should definitely check out that post!

I described the premise of the brownie cupcake in the Christmas Wreath post, but just to remind you: all you have to do is pour brownie mix into cupcake liners in a muffin tin. Because brownie cupcakes take less time to bake than brownies in a pan, be sure to keep checking on them while they are in the oven. When they are done baking, they won’t have a dome top like regular cupcakes–they will be relatively flat. These particular brownie cupcakes (shown below) were some of the best I’ve ever made because they were moist and fudgy on the inside, but chewy around the edges. Sometimes even I am guilty of over-doing them, but not this time.

Also, if you’re one of those people who always tries to snag the corner brownie, you’ll definitely love brownie cupcakes; the whole surface area of the brownie has the chewiness and flakiness of that corner piece. (No more need to buy one of these)

Here they are! (inspiration: Tokyo)

(Whenever I see the next one, I think of Big Bird)

Because these brownie cupcakes are so colorful and so crazy, I think this is the perfect place to talk about form vs. function when it comes to desserts. I absolutely love decorating desserts, even more so than baking them. So when I do have the opportunity to decorate desserts, I make each serving (in this case, each brownie cupcake) unique, because it’s more fun for me and more special for whoever is doing the eating. I usually have a general theme (here it was Tokyo), but other than that, I just decorate as I go, with no plan in mind; I just do what comes to me!

The issue is… even though I make all these crazy-looking desserts for other people, if I had to choose one of my creations to eat, I would choose the simplest one there was. To me, the perfect cupcake just has frosting on it–no chocolate chips, no sprinkles, no other random candy I have lying around the house. So sometimes I feel like a hypocrite–because I decorate with the mindset of form over function, when it really should be the other way around (and I think this goes for all types of food). I think that my desire to create these arguably over-decorated desserts stems from my love of crafts and design in general (and also my wanting totake “pretty&cute” pictures). Perhaps I should rethink things and keep my design interests out of the kitchen, though. Let me know what you think.