Birthday Cupcakes

For my son Max's birthday this year, I decided to make brownie cupcakes instead of the usual birthday cake. I used a recipe I found a few years ago in Woman's Day magazine. After the first attempt 5 years ago, I wrote on the recipe, "very good. Dean gave me a hug they were so good!"

I like this recipe because it uses semi-sweet chocolate. Many brownie recipes use unsweetened baking chocolate. So you can always use semi-sweet chocolate chips if you don't have baking chocolate squares on hand. As you can see in the photo, we indulged in chocolate whipped cream on top...it was a special occasion after all.

Brownie Cupcakes (from Woman's Day, September 1, 2003)

1/2 cup butter

4 squares semi-sweet baking chocolate

3/4 cup sugar (the original recipe calls for 1 cup)

2 teaspoons vanilla

3 eggs

2/3 cup flour

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

* In a saucepan on medium heat, melt the butter and chocolate. Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar, vanilla and eggs. Add the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder and stir until just blended. Divide batter among 12 muffin cups lined with muffin papers. Bake at 325F for 25-30 minutes.