Cheesecake and chocolate surprise cupcakes
Cooking notes
Chocolate and cheesecake is a sinful duo, but one that is decadently pleasing. Bite into one of these cupcakes and you savour the baked cheesecake layer on top. Before you know it, you’ve discovered the chocolate surprise below that gives this recipe its name!
I’ve adapted Hummingbird Bakery’s recipe for black bottom cupcakes, but I didn’t have much success in making mine look as good. As usual, I’ve cut down on the amount of sugar used.
Makes 16 cupcakes.
Ingredients
For the chocolatey base:
270 gm plain flour
235 gm caster sugar
55 gm cocoa powder
1¼ tsp baking soda
100 ml cooking oil
1½ tsp white vinegar
1½ tsp vanilla extract
200 ml water
For the cheesecake layer:
185 gm cream cheese
100 gm caster sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
A pinch of salt
100 gm milk chocolate chips
Method
For the chocolatey base:
Preheat the oven to 175°C. Line the muffin pans with paper cases.
Mix the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, and baking soda in the food processor or using a handheld whisk until well mixed.
Put the oil, vinegar, vanilla extract, and water in a job and whisk to combine.
Slowly pour the contents of the jug into the flour bowl and keep whisk, as the mixture thickens. Continue to beat until all the ingredients are nicely incorporated.
Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until one-third full, and set aside.
For the cheesecake layer:
Beat together the cream cheese, sugar, egg, vanilla extract and salt in a mixer (with paddle attachment) until it is smooth.
Stir in the chocolate chips by hand until evenly dispersed. At this point, the mixture is supposed to be thick enough to scoop out, but admittedly, mine was quite runny.
Spoon out this topping over the cupcake mixture in the cases – about 1-2 tbsp for each cupcake.
Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes or until you see an even golden colour on the cheesecake topping.
Leave the cupcakes to cool for about 15 minutes in the tray before taking out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy!