Bucket of Gems Brownie Cupcakes

The cupcake kick continues! My 3rd cupcake post in a row.

This time some "buckets" filled with "dirt" and "gem stones" aka chocolate brownie cupcakes, chocolate icing with crushed chocolate cookies and pieces of rock candy.

I love the colors that rock candy comes in.  The rainbow of colors is so pretty and they always have reminded me of fancy jewels.

I also like baking cupcakes in candy cups.  They are so sturdy and you can totally decorate them with markers because they are lined inside.  For these "buckets" I just colored them in with brown and black sharpie markers to look like little buckets.

I filled these with a box brownie batter and baked according to box directions.  You don't even need a cupcake tin since the cups are so study they stand up even with the batter added.

Add some chocolate frosting (use your favorite homemade recipe or a can frosting works great - and saves time too!)

Sprinkle on some crushed chocolate wafer cookies to look like dirt.  

Crushing cookies is actually a nice after work stress reliever too :)

Break apart the rock candy into small and larger pieces and add them to the top of your dirt piles.  If you can't find rock candy you can also just use other colorful hard candies broken into pieces.  You could do all one color per cupcake or mix and match like below.  Personally I like the rainbow colors together.  

Don't they look like little piles of fancy gems?? 

Hope you had an awesome weekend! Thanks for stopping by!

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Bucket of Gems Brownie Cupcakes

by Michelle Clausen April-10-2016

Ingredients

• 1 box mix chocolate cake or brownie
• 1 can   chocolate frosting
• 1 and 1/2 cups crushed chocolate cookies or wafers
• assorted colors rock candy lollipops
• 12-15 candy paper cups

Instructions

1. Mix cake/brownie mix according to box directions.2. Color candy paper cups with brown and black marker to resemble buckets.3. Add batter a little more than half way full and bake as directed.4. When cool, add chocolate frosting.5. Sprinkle with crushed chocolate cookie wafers as dirt.

6. Add pieces of rock candy as gems.

Details

Prep time: 25 mins Cook time: 20 mins Total time: 45 mins Yield: 12-15