Black-Bottom Cupcakes

This recipe comes courtesy of David Lebovitz and at a glance, looks like most recipes for this chocolate cupcake/cheesecake treat. However, the chocolate quotient has been upped considerably by adding extra cocoa powder to the cake base and bittersweet chocolate pieces to the cheesecake portion.

The cake is an oil-based, egg free batter that’s moist and chocolate-y and makes a great vegan cupcake; the cheesecake topping is tangy and not overly sweet and if made with fat-reduced cream cheese, the cupcake is relatively low in fat. I had a partial package of cream cheese so added the mixture to only 8 of the cupcakes and baked the others plain.

The recipe made12 generous cupcakes but the batter could have easily stretched to make 3-4 more.