Black Bottom Cupcakes

By srumbel

Yup, they're that good. Dark chocolate cupcake with a chocolate chip cheesecake center ... Oh. My. Gracious. Amazingly delicious.
from thekitchenismyplayground

Ingredients

• Cheesecake center:
• 1 c. cream cheese
• 1/3 c. sugar
• 1 unbeaten egg
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1 c. mini chocolate chips
• Chocolate bottom:
• 1 1/2 c. flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 c. sugar
• 1/4 c. cocoa
• 1 c. water
• 1/3 c. oil
• 1 T. white vinegar
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Preparation

Step 1

Prepare the cheesecake center:
1. Combine cream cheese, 1/3 cup sugar, egg, and 1/8 teaspoon salt in a small bowl. Beat well.

2. Stir in mini chocolate chips. Set aside.

Prepare the chocolate bottom:
3. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and cocoa. Add water, vinegar, oil, and vanilla; stir to combine.

4. Line a muffin pan with paper cupcake liners. Fill each cup 1/3 full of chocolate batter. Top each with a heaping teaspoon of cream cheese mixture.

5. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 - 35 minutes. Makes 18'ish.

I always seem to have extra cheesecake batter. I drop a 'Nilla Wafer, an Oreo, a crushed up graham cracker ... or whatever I have on hand ... into the bottom of a couple of cupcake liners as a crust, top them with the leftover cheesecake batter, and bake these up as mini cheesecakes right along with the cupcakes. I've even used a couple of animal crackers as the crust! These make-shift mini cheesecakes are quite tasty, too.