Mini Black Bottom Cupcakes
This recipe for mini black bottom cupcakes is stellar. They are super moist, and they have the perfect combination of cream cheese and chocolate.
I’m afraid if I even start describing these tasty little morsels, this could be the longest blog entry known to man.
Suffice it to say, these delicious mini-cupcakes were moist (so moist!), the perfect combination of cream cheese and chocolate and really fun to make.
I have seen them on a myriad of blogs including, A Southern Grace and Smitten Kitchen, and have been excited to make them.
I finally made them yesterday with my kids and I cannot stop eating them!
I made them as mini-cupcakes because I am all about portion control and I think I’ve had about 19 portions of them. Delicious!
You can see from my pictures that the cream cheese layer kind of baked right on top of the chocolate layer.
I think the idea is that the cream cheese is supposed to bake down into the chocolate cupcake.
Next time I’ll use less chocolate batter and use a larger dollop of cream cheese (and give it a little push to settle it into the chocolate batter). Either way, I know they will taste fabulous.
Mini Black Bottom Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the filling:
- 8 ounces (227 g) cream cheese, regular or reduced fat, at room temperature
- ⅓ cup (71 g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 2 ounces (57 g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I just used semisweet chocolate chips and gave them a rough chop)
For the cupcakes:
- 1 ½ cups (213 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 cup (212 g) firmly packed light brown sugar
- 5 tablespoons natural unsweetened cocoa powder, not Dutch-process
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup water
- ⅓ cup unflavored vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon white or cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Make the filling: Beat together the cream cheese, granulated sugar, and egg until smooth. Stir in the chopped chocolate pieces. Set aside.
- Make the cupcakes: Adjust the rack to the center of the oven and preheat to 350°F (175°C). Butter a 12-cup muffin tin, or line the tin with paper muffin cups.
- In a medium bowl sift together the flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together the water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla.
- Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and stir in the wet ingredients, stirring until just smooth. Stir any longer and you will over mix the batter and end up with less-than-tender cupcakes.
- Divide the batter among the muffin cups. Spoon a few tablespoons* of the filling into the center of each cupcake, dividing the filling evenly. This will fill the cups almost completely,** which is fine.
- Bake for 25 minutes, or until the tops are slightly golden brown and the cupcakes feel springy when gently pressed. These moist treats will keep well unrefrigerated for 2 to 3 days if stored in an airtight container.
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: The Great Book of Chocolate, David Lebovitz
If the cream cheese mix doesn’t sink down into the cupcake part on its own, I think your chocolate batter mix might be a bit too dense.
Could I not include the cream cheese at all?
The entire recipe would change if not using cream cheese so I’d recommend making it as is.
what a shame that you’ll have to make these again to try to get the proper layering! 🙂 i hope you’re able to tweak the recipe to suit you, but i’m sure none of the not-quite-there versions will be inedible…
OMG! I didn’t have breakfast today, and your cupcakes look SO good!!! I have to eat something sweet RIGHT NOW!
Mini = diet, right? So you can eat lots of these guilt free! I haven’t tried the whole black bottom cupcake thing before. On the to-try list though!
Oh, my friend made black bottom cupcakes the other day and I got the recipe from her. They were absolutely to die for. They looked a little different than yours – we’ll have to compare recipes when I post mine. Yummy!
Yum! They look delicious! I always try the portion control thing, but I think I end up eating more than i would have the original way! I have to keep telling myself that just because they are tiny it doesn’t mean I can have a hundred of them!
I still have two blocks of cream cheese left over from the Daring Baker’s Challenge… now I know what to do with them! Thanks for the awesome post!
Mel, I made these little devils! My batch made 48 mini cupcakes and I ate 40 of them so I WON’T be making these again! 🙂 Thanks for the yummy treat!
Melanie,Your entry was randomly selected to win my Show Me Spring recipe contest! Congratulations! E-mail me your address and I’ll send your package of Missouri goodies.
I grew up on these babies – one of my favorite treats!
Hahaha – Love the portion control comment! That is me all the way! These look so so good.
Hi Melanie –Thanks fo visiting my blog – and thanks for the welcome to the DB’s. I am going to try your recipe for the cupcakes, mine were drrryyy. Maybe user error, mixing too long. They looked so good though! Oh well, another excuse to make more!!