boy birthday

Brownie Cups

Posted by

2

brownie cup mint chip sundae single

I hate it when my ideas don’t work. Mr. Star Wars had his 10th birthday yesterday, and he wanted brownies with ice cream on top for his birthday dessert. This was just going to be a family dinner and celebration since we celebrated his birthday with a few friends before school started, but I still did not think that a plain old pan brownie was birthday-y enough, so I hunted down an alternative.

I had seen an idea on Pinterest for brownie cups. They seemed easy enough and upon closer inspection, they even used a boxed brownie mix, which I thought would translate into minimal time and effort.

Here is what Dreyer’s Ice Cream told me I could make:

dryers ice cream brownie bowl

 Here is what I actually made:

brownie cup separating the pans

Ingredients

  • 1 box brownie mix
  • 2 cupcake tins
  • Pam spray or Crisco
  • a little luck

brownie cup materials

Directions

  • Make the brownie mix according to the box directions. I think a fudgier brownie mix would work better than the one I used.
  • Spray with Pam or grease with Crisco the insides of a cupcake tin and across the top of the pan where the brownies will rise over the edge of the cup VERY WELL.
  • Fill the cupcake tins about 2/3 full with brownie mix.

brownie cup pans

  • Spray or grease the bottom of the second cupcake tin VERY WELL and gently rest the second cupcake tin on top of the filled cupcake tin.

IMG_5540

  • Bake brownies according to the box directions. I baked my brownies about 20 minutes at 350 degrees.
  • Remove from the oven and remove the top cupcake tin. I thought it was best to remove while the brownies were still warm, but my brownies stuck to the pans, so I am not sure what to advise on this. I let them cool before lifting the cup out of the bottom cupcake tin after seeing the disaster with the top pan, but the base of the brownies completely stuck to the pan, so I ended up with brownie crumbles and broken brownie cups.

brownie cups sticking in pans

  • Take whatever brownie pieces you can salvage and put them in the bottom of a bowl.

brownie cup coffee sundae

  • Top with ice cream. Mr. Star Wars and Miss Priss wanted mint chip. TheRoomDad and I had coffee ice cream. Drizzle chocolate syrup over the ice cream.

Thankfully, broken brownie cups taste just as good as perfect brownie cups. Anyone else want to give this one a try and report back? Is it my cupcake tins that are the problem?

brownie cup mint chip sundae

Pirate Birthday Party

Posted by

4

I know it is crazy to plan a backyard birthday party in late August in South Carolina, but my son wanted to dig for treasure, and I saw this great cardboard pirate ship at Mr. McGroovy’s.  The day was super hot and humid, but everybody had a great time (and I lost five pounds) so it all worked out!

The Invitations: I ordered blank invitations from Fine Stationery and ran them through my home printer.  The invite said things like, “Aaaargh Mateys” and “Join (name) for pirate adventures and buried treasures” and “RSVP to the first mate or prepare to walk the plank!” The font, Blackadder, is very pirate-y looking.

The Pirate Ship: Plan ahead!  It took several weeks of calls to every appliance store in the area to collect all of the refrigerator boxes I needed for the pirate ship.  We then spent two weekends cutting and painting the boxes.  The assembly wasn’t too difficult, and Mr. McGroovy’s instructions are pretty simple.

The Outfits: As guests arrived at the party, we painted faces with scars, mustaches, and beards. We also gave each guest a man’s white t-shirt that we had cut along the bottom to look like rags. We offered red sashes (plain red fabric cut into strips) and bandanas to each child too. The foam swords came from the $1 aisle at Target.

The Treasure Hunt: On brown paper grocery bags, we printed different clues/riddles that sent the kids all over our front and backyard. We buried two separate treasure chests (shoe boxes painted brown).  The pirate chests were filled with plastic jewels, plastic insects, individual candies, dice, and other booty from Oriental Trading.

The Treat Bags: We ordered black drawstring bags along with the other loot.  We wrote pirate names on playing cards and tied those to each bag.  The guests put their loot in the bags after the treasure hunt.