black-bottom cupcakes (vanilla garlic)

Black Bottom Cupcakes

Black bottom cupcakes are total classic Americana. Like chocolate and peanut butter cupcakes or tomato soup cake, many of us grew up with this classic dessert that came out of mom's oven. It's surprising you don't see these classics more often, but over time they've been pushed over by hipper, more contemporary flavor combinations.

I admit I'm guilty of this myself, new flavors can be so much fun to play with and the creation process is more entertaining than a clown car on fire, but there is something to be said for the classics.

Their elegant simplicity.

You can usually depend on your pantry for the ingredients as none of them are ever exotic or expensive. They're often simple recipes, and easy to put together. The perfect recipes for parents to teach their children.

However, the black bottom cupcake's taste is unique and unrivaled. Dark chocolaty cake, with sweetened cream cheese and chunks of chocolate? Common, throw this into an old tin lunch pail with a PB&J, an apple, and a box of juice and you are so set. It's the kind of dessert that brings out the child in you, and makes your children all the happier. You can guarantee they won't be trading lunches with any of their classmates.

I admit, I did put a bit of a modern tweak to this, I split the cream cheese mixture in half and while one half got chocolate, in the other I mixed in blackberry preserves. Fruit and cream cheese just go so well together and with chocolate cake, what's not to love? Both versions are great and should help please everyone you feed them too. They're perfect served with a big glass of milk.

If you're new to baking, looking for culinary trip down memory lane, or teaching a young baker in the kitchen this is the richest and tastiest way to go!

Black Bottom Cupcakes
Makes 21 cupcakes / 350 F oven

What You'll Need...
1 8oz package of cream cheese, softened
1 egg, room temperature
1/3 cup of sugar, plus 1 additional cup
1/2 cup of chocolate chips, roughly chopped
2 teaspoons of blackberry jam
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
1/3 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of water
1/3 cup of vegetable oil
1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar or white vinegar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

What You'll Do...
1) Preheat oven to 350 F.
2) In a bowl, combine the cream cheese, egg, and 1/3 cup of sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Split the batter in half, add the chocolate chips to one and the blackberry jam to the other.
3) In a large bowl sift the dry ingredients together. Make a well in the center and pour in the wet ingredients. Mix until just blended.
4) Fill the cupcake papers (or you can lightly grease with cooking spray a cupcake/muffin tray) 1/3 full with the chocolate mixture. Drop in a good dollop of the one of the cream cheese mixtures. Bake for 20-25 minutes. The cheese may depress into the cupcake a bit but don't worry about it.