Heart Brownie Cupcakes from Betty Crocker's website

Today I woke up and had a bit more energy than I had yesterday.  Hey, at this point I'll take what I can get!  :)

I sorted through some of my recipes trying to remember what on earth I had read and then had my hubby me up some more Bakers Unsweetened Chocolate!!  Any ideas?  Ya, that's all I've got too!

Anyways, sorted through a few recipes that I wanted to try out and had the ingredients for.... then I got up, washed my hair, got dressed in a pair of ... Oh great... what are they called??  All I can remember is what my mother calls them: Pedal Pushers... Oh well, it'll come to me later... Nope, I'm going to stop trying now.  I also wore my flip-flops (which to me isn't accurate because what I had on my feet were thongs.  I don't own a pair of flip-flops, I only have thongs!  You know, the kind of sandal that goes through your toes and barely holds on to your foot and heaven help you if you should step on a stone because you're ankle is going over.)  Ok, my point is that it is nice enough outside that I could wear no shoes/socks & shorter pants... Capris!!  Knew I'd figure it out!!  :)

I got downstairs and the kitchen was not baking-ready.  I don't know about you but I like to have the counters clear, the sink and dish drain empty, dishwasher empty and stove cleaned off before I start to bake.  I know how much room I'll need to prep, bake, and then clean up afterwards.  If I don't have this done I usually will deflate quickly and lose the will to live...  Ok, not quite that bad, but I will usually not bake.  I have a limited amount of energy and if I have to do all that work beforehand, I won't have enough to finish the job properly.  I'll rush something and ruin what I've just spend hours getting ready for.  Oh, did I forget to mention that I not only walk in slow motion but tend to do everything that way lately.  It takes a lot of effort to fight the constant (and sometimes stabbing) pain and the effects of the drugs that I'm taking to enable me to kind of function.  Moving fast can cause me to move incorrectly and the result is a huge burning down my right leg.  Also, moving fast causes that odd feeling in my right calf... It feels like there's a shortening of the gastrocnemius muscle (the cause of my sexy, slow limp).

So, kitchen NOT baking-ready, daily baking aspirations were starting to float away.  Thank goodness one of the recipes used a pre-mix in the form of Betty Crocker's Brownie Mix!  The day was saved!

The recipe said it made 24 brownies at 2 level measuring tablespoonfuls of batter but I was only able to get 18 out of it.  Let me tell you, using a measuring spoon was a nightmare!  I couldn't get it all out and my spatula wouldn't fit in... I tried two different measuring spoons until I gave up and used a large silverware spoon and it, heaped with the batter, filled up the cups to 2/3 full as did the measured out batter. *whew!  Was about to throw in the towel if I couldn't get it to work. (Previously, two bottles of PAM decided to not work properly by shooting the wonderful non-stick stuff directly in a stream into my cupcake cups. Not one but two of the cans decided to kick the bucket on the same day, during the same recipe. Almost impossible!  Thank goodness I'd splurged on a Professional PAM and had that one in the cupboard too! PTL for the small blessings, eh?) 

Here's a picture of the baked brownies when they came out of the oven. I only have 1x12 and 1x6 cupcake trays so I put these six into an 8-in silicone baking dish.  They look almost the same as the ones that were in the baking trays. 

Now, you may be wondering if I had the capability to bake 18 at a time in trays why I put these in something else??  Good question...  I didn't know when I started that I'd only get 18 out of the batter so I put these in here to bake them while I was getting the others ready.  Then when I got to the 1x12 I could only fill it 1/2 full.  <sigh> Confused myself there for a minute!  ;)

After they've baked and cooled you take them out of the paper cups and turn them upside down and place a cut-out of a heart (I used a cookie cutter and traced the hearts on wax paper... by the time I got them to the cupcakes/brownies' bottoms they were too big I had to cut them again.) on the bottom and then dust with icing sugar. I used my cookie decorating tweezers to remove the wax paper.  I pushed down in the center of the heart with my left finger thus lifting the edge enough to get the tweezers underneath.

You can see here, the three stages of the brownies/cupcakes.  They were quite tasty but I think I'm going to experiment on a few more brownie recipes before I settle on the one I want to serve at my son's rehearsal dinner come late May.  I'm going to have to experiment with freezing and defrosting brownie/cupcakes in order to have enough for the day before the big day.  :)  I'll transport them to the locale and dust them up there.

Anyways, that was the excitement of my day.  I've given my mother 3, hubby 1, ate 1 and gave Ted 1.  I'm sending the remainder to Toastmasters with  my husband tomorrow for my friends that I haven't seen in absolutely ages!  I really miss my social life!

Oh, a bit of excitement yesterday, my pastor finally called to see how I am!  I haven't seen him in over a month and was beginning to feel quite bummed that something this serious has happened to me and I hadn't even had a call yet. Was happy to receive the call.  He prayed for my surgery date to be brought forward as well as for healing if that's what the Lord has planned for me.

I hope you enjoy the recipe/suggestion of what to do with the recipe... :) 

The weather's good!  Go out in your thongs and capris!  ;)

Much love,

Lea B