LAMORINDA WEEKLY | Cream cheese-filled chocolate cupcakes make a delectable duo dessert


Black Bottom Cupcakes with Cocoa Buttercream Frosting Photo Susie Iventosch

I used to make black bottom cupcakes with my grandmother when I was a kid, and remember loving them so much. Being both a chocolate and cheesecake lover, I guess that's not such a huge surprise. But I recently learned that I'd never made these delicious treats for my own kids when they were growing up, and that came as quite a shock. When, I had a hankering to make them the other day, my son and daughter had no idea what I was talking about. What??? I thought I'd made every, single recipe in the family tome by the time they left for college. But, apparently not. I may need to pour over those files again to see what other fabulous recipes we've missed. So for the very first time, my adult children experienced the joy of biting into these cream cheese filled chocolate cupcakes and they loved them! This time, we added a cocoa buttercream frosting, because really, why not? If you're going decadent, why not go all the way?

These are plenty delicious if you don't have time for the frosting, but if you do frost them, (highly recommend) just one big swirl in the center will do the trick, so you can still see the marbled effect of the chocolate cake batter and cream cheese filling.

INGREDIENTS

Cake

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup sifted unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

2 cups cold water

1 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp. cider vinegar

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup dark chocolate chips

Cream Cheese Filling

8 oz. cream cheese, softened to room temp

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 egg

1 cup dark chocolate chips

Cocoa Buttercream Frosting

4 oz. butter, softened to room temp (1 stick or 1/2 cup)

1/2 cup sifted unsweetened cocoa powder

3 cups sifted confectioners (powdered) sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1/4 cup +/- milk as needed for consistency

DIRECTIONS

Cake

Prepare 24 regular muffin tins with cupcake liners. Preheat oven to 350 F.

Place flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl. Blend with a wire whisk. Stir in water, oil, cider vinegar and vanilla and blend until smooth. Mix in chocolate chips. Set aside.

Cream Cheese Filling

Put cream cheese and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat with electric beaters just until smooth. Add egg and beat until integrated. Don't over beat. Stir in vanilla and chocolate chips. Set aside.

Fill cupcake liners 1/3 full with cake batter. Using a large soup spoon, distribute cream cheese filling evenly over the top of the cake batter.

Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until the cake is done and the cream cheese has sunk into the cupcakes. Cool completely before frosting.

Frosting

Beat butter in a large mixing bowl or your standing mixer until creamy and fluffy. Stir cocoa powder into butter using a fork. (If you use the beater, cocoa powder will fly everywhere!) Once the cocoa powder is blended in, you can go back to using the beater.

Beat in powdered sugar, one cup at a time. Alternate cups of powdered sugar with a little bit of the milk at a time. Stir in vanilla. (Note: if the frosting seems too runny, simply add a tablespoon or two of powdered sugar to the frosting and if it is too stiff, add milk, just a spoonful at a time until you arrive at a good spreading consistency.)

Using a pastry bag with a #824 tip and the complementary coupler, pipe the frosting into a beautiful swirl just in the middle of each cupcake so you can still see the marbling of the chocolate and cream cheese filling. If you don't have a pastry bag and tip, simply drop a spoonful of frosting in the middle of the top of each cupcake or spread the frosting with a knife.

Store cupcakes in an airtight container in the refrigerator. When ready to serve, allow to sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes before serving.