Strawberry Brownie To-Go Cupcakes

Yes, you guessed it, I saw these on Pinterest and had to try them. I thought I should post them before Valentine's Day. They were the best cupcakes ever (in my opinion)! They are brownie and strawberry cupcakes with vanilla icing. I preferred them sans the icing, but I'm not a huge icing fan. They were appealing because they are so cute, but also because I was able to make them milk-free. I made these for my mother-in-laws birthday. We were all meeting up at a restaurant so baking them in ice cream cups was a perfect solution to traveling with them. My ice cream cups came with lids and little wrapped wooden spoons. I was really happy with how they turned out and they got rave reviews. Everyone loved the idea of the cup, it was great because there was no mess while eating it! Monk would have been so proud.

This recipe was originally found on All Recipes (one of my favorite recipe sites). Reviewers complained of two things. First, that the brownie stuck to paper wrappers. Someone suggested adding a little cake batter in before adding the brownie batter. I tried this on the paper wrappers and it worked fine. For the ice cream cups, I just sprayed them with a bit of Pam and added the brownie batter first. Second, people complained that the brownie didn't cook as fast as the cake and ended up gooey. I simply added the brownie batter to the cups and baked them for about 5 minutes. I then removed them, added the cake batter and cooked them until the cake was finished. You can do less than 5 minutes depending on  how fudgy you like the brownies, but not more. Problem solved!

I used Pillsbury Strawberry Cake, Ghirardelli Double Chocolate Chip Brownie Mix, and Pillsbury canned Vanilla Frosting. I chose these because they are all made without milk, however they do have a warning that they may be processed on equipment shared with items that contain milk.

Baked in the paper wrapper:

These are baked in ice cream cups and wrapped up for traveling.

Only the birthday girl had this special writing that was made from Wilton Candy Chips.