Black Bottom Cupcakes

One day at work, there was an office party, and I signed up to bring in cupcakes.  After I did, I became known as the "Cupcake Lady" and was the go-to gal for party pastries.   My cupcakes got to be such a coveted item that one time someone in my office heard about a batch I made and literally pushed things off my desk and gave me the silent treatment for a week because I did not save her any.  


I have many cupcake recipes, but there are two that are most requested, the Banana Cupcake with Peanut Buttercream frosting (which I will share later), and the Black Bottom Cupcake, which is essentially a chocolate cupcake with a chocolate chip cheesecake in the center of it.  I like to make the black bottom cupcake because it is easily transportable since it has no frosting, and definitely a crowd pleaser!

The Ingredients.

This recipe is adapted from a recipe taken from http://www.allrecipes.com, which I use for a lot of my base recipes.  I enjoy all the recipe reviews that have variations to improve or change up the original recipe.  In this case, I doubled the recipe and added a LOT more chocolate!  Here is the step-by-step instructions on how to make these easy but amazingly decadent treats.

3 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp salt

1 cup white sugar

2/3 cup oil
2 tbsp vinegar
2 cups water

2 tsp vanilla

2 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese 

2 eggs

2/3 cup sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1-1/2 cups mini chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Line a muffin tin with liners.  Foil liners work best for this cupcake but I use both paper and foil.

In a medium size bowl, mix flour, baking soda, cocoa powder, and salt.  Set this mixture aside.

In a larger bowl, mix together 1 cup sugar, oil, and water until well blended.  Stir in vinegar and vanilla.   Mix together the wet and dry ingredients. Set aside batter.

In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese, eggs, 2/3 cup sugar, and salt on low speed with an electric mixer.  Do not overmix or your cheesecake will crack on the surface.  Just mix on low until you have a creamy consistency like in the picture below. 

Fold in the mini chocolate chips until well incorporated.  You are only adding a tablespoon to each cupcake and you want to make sure you always get chocolate chips in every bite.

Fill each cup with 1/2 chocolate cake batter and one heaping teaspoon of the cheesecake batter.  These cupcakes do not rise a lot, but they will need a little room at the top.  Wipe up the spills with a damp paper towel.  Take a spoon and vertically push the cheesecake batter down until you touch the bottom of the pan.  This ensures cheesecake will settle into the middle of your cupcake.  be sure not to use up all the cheesecake in the first batches. It can be tempting!  Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Below is the recipe again with photos to show the process!

Start with a medium size bowl, and add in the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, cocoa powder, and salt.  Set this mixture aside.

In a larger bowl, mix together 1 cup sugar, oil, and water until well blended.  Stir in vinegar and vanilla.  I used apple cider vinegar but you can use white vinegar too.  The vinegar acts as a reactant with the baking soda and helps to make the cake rise while also giving it that moistness.  Mix together the wet and dry ingredients.  I think next time I make these, I am going to add some more chocolate chips to the cake batter, just to make it even more chocolatey!  Set aside batter.

 In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese, eggs, 2/3 cup sugar, and salt on low speed with an electric mixer.  Do not overmix or your cheesecake will crack on the surface.  Just mix on low until you have a creamy consistency like in the picture above. 

Fold in the mini chocolate chips until well incorporated.  You are only adding a tablespoon to each cupcake and you want to make sure you always get chocolate chips in every bite.

 Now for the messy part.  Fill each cup with 1/2 chocolate cake batter and one heaping teaspoon of the cheesecake batter.  These cupcakes do not rise a lot, but they will need a little room at the top.  Wipe up the spills with a damp paper towel.  Take a spoon and vertically push the cheesecake batter down until you touch the bottom of the pan.  This ensures cheesecake will settle into the middle of your cupcake.  be sure not to use up all the cheesecake in the first batches. It can be tempting!  Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Before baking.

Finished product.

Do you have any ideas to improve these cupcakes even more?  Or did you try them and enjoy how they were?  Leave me a comment below and let me know how it went.