Good Eats: Easter Brownie Cupcakes

Happy Easter! I made these festive brownie cupcakes to bring to my mom's house this evening. However, my procrastination forced me to make a few small changes to the recipe that I had found online. While the good people of Waukesha attended Easter Sunday church services, the other procrastinators and I shopped at Pick n' Save, where shelves were fairly empty and picked-over. Thus, I had to make a substitution or two to make the recipe work. The brownies didn't turn out exactly as pictured online, but they were quite tasty if I do say so myself!

Recipe for: Easter Brownie Cupcakes
From: http://www.verybestbaking.com/

Ingredients:
1 package (19.5 oz.) chocolate brownie mix
36 Nestle Butterfinger or Crunch NestEggs, divided (I couldn't find any Nestle NestEggs, but I did find other egg-shaped chocolates.)
12 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flaked coconut
2 drops green food coloring

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.
2. Unwrap and chop 12 Nestle NestEggs.
3. Prepare brownie mix according to package directions. Stir in chopped Nestle NestEggs. Spoon batter evenly into prepared muffin cups.
4. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes or until edges are slightly firm and centers just begin to sink. Cool in muffin pans for 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks to cool completely.

5. Beat cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla extract in small mixer bowl until smooth. Spoon a dollop of cream cheese mixture over tops of brownie cupcakes; smooth top.

6. Combine coconut and food coloring in medium bowl; stir with fork to combine. Sprinkle coconut over cream cheese frosting. Top each with 1 unwrapped Nestle NestEgg.

My brownie cupcakes don't exactly match the cupcakes that are shown in the photo at the top of the post, but they didn't turn out half-bad!