Mini Black Bottom Cupcakes & A Winner!

{First, an announcement: wegarden is the winner of Small Sweet Treats! Email me at writtenbyaz@gmail.com with your name and address and I'll send you the book!}

I can remember making these tiny black-bottom cupcakes as a child to wrap up and distribute to teachers and neighbors at Christmastime. Our yield was pretty carefully allocated, but if I was lucky, I got a cupcake or two to eat and use as a snack for a tiny doll tea party. I especially liked biting the top half of the cupcake off. This perfect bite, stuffed with mini chocolate chips and creamy cake, was exceptionally decadent.

Decades later, not much has changed. This time it was my kitchen and my cooking project.  I was baking late at night and packing up the just-cooled cakes into a pretty package. And just like before, I was biting the top off the cupcakes. This time it was a wacky attempt at portion control {you see, I'm only eating the part I want} and sending the rest to work with Sean.

That's what I love about cooking: the way it bridges the old and the new. The way that it allows you to both remember and experience at the same time.

Black Bottom Cupcakes
From: More from Magnolia by Allysa Torey
cream cheese filling:
3/4 pound (one-and-a-half 8 oz. package) cream cheese -- not softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1/3 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips or chunks

cupcakes:
1 and 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened dutch process cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
1 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Line mini-muffin tins with small cupcake papers.
Make cream cheese filling: In a medium sized bowl beat cream cheese until smooth. Add the egg and beat well. Stir in the chocolate chips. Set aside.
Make cupcakes: In a small bowl combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat together the oil and sugar. Add the dry ingredients in two parts, alternating with the buttermilk and the vanilla, making sure all ingredients are well blended.
Carefully spoon cupcake batter into liners, filling about 2/3 full. Drop a small scoop of the cream cheese filling on top of each cupcake. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean. Cool in the tins for a few minutes before removing to cooling racks.
Yield: 3 dozen mini-cupcakes