Black bottom cupcakes are a fabulous combination of moist chocolate cupcakes with a cheese cake filling, and what a combination it is! I fondly remember making these treats with my grandmother when I was a kid, and loved 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, Courtney (my partner-in-chef) had no idea what I was talking about. What??? I thought I’d made every single recipe in the family home 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.
Black Bottom Cupcakes with Cocoa Buttercream Frosting
Equipment
- 2 regular muffin tins
- 24 paper or foil cupcake liners
Ingredients
Dark Chocolate 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 (we use canola oil or safflower oil)
- 1 tsp. cider vinegar
- 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips (60% cacao)
Cream Cheese Filling
- 8 oz. cream cheese, softened to room temp
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 1 large 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 powdered sugar (confectioner’s sugar)
- 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup milk +/- as needed for spreading or piping consistency
Instructions
Dark Chocolate Cake
- Prepare 24 muffin tins by lining them with paper liners. Spray insides of liners with cooking spray. 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.
- Fill cupcake liners about 1/3 full with cake batter. Using a large soup spoon, distribute the cream cheese filling (recipe below) evenly over the cake batter in each cupcake liner.
- Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until the cake is done and the cream cheese has sunk into the cupcakes. Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting. Frosting recipe is below.
- Using a pastry bag with a #824 open star tip and the complementary coupler, pipe the frosting into a beautiful swirl on the top of each cupcake. If you don’t have the pastry bag and tip, simply spread the frosting on top of each cupcake with a cake spatula or butter knife.
- Refrigerate cupcakes in an airtight container until ready to serve. Allow to come to room temp for about 15 mintues before serving.
Cream Cheese Filling
- Put cream cheese and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat with electric beaters just until smooth. Don’t over-beat. Add egg and beat just until integrated. Again, don’t over-beat. Stir in vanilla and chocolate chips. Set aside.
Cocoa Buttercream Frosting
- Beat butter in a large mixing bowl or the bowl of your standing mixer until creamy and fluffy. Stir cocoa powder into butter mixture using a fork. (If you use the beater, the cocoa powder will fly everywhere and cause a big mess.) Once the cocoa powder is blended in, you can go back to using the beaters.
- 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 a little bit of milk at a time, until you arrive at a good spreading consistency. Different brands of butter have different moisture content, so you may have to make those adjustments.