Black Bottom Cupcakes

It's my personal philosophy that anything with cream cheese in it has to be delicious. By default.

This recipe is adapted from williamssonoma.com. (And no worries, you can't taste the vinegar after the batter is baked.)

Ingredients:

For the filling:
1 egg, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
8 ounces whipped cream cheese, at room
temperature

2 1/4 cups cold water
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
5 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Position the oven racks in the lower and upper thirds of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two 12-cup muffin pans with paper liners.

Make the filling
In a bowl, using an electric mixer, beat together the egg, sugar and cream cheese on medium speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Using a rubber spatula, scrape the filling mixture into the pastry bag using a glass to prop it open. Set the filled pastry bag aside.

Mix the liquids
In a large liquid measuring cup, combine the water, oil, vanilla and balsamic vinegar. (There's no need to stir these. Just put them together in the cup.) Set aside.

Make the batter
In a large bowl, using a whisk, stir together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, sugar and salt until evenly blended. Slowly pour the water mixture into the flour mixture, stirring with a wooden spoon until the batter is smooth.

Pour in the batter
The cupcake batter will be quite runny. If your bowl has a spout, you can pour the batter directly into the muffin cups. Otherwise, it will be easiest to pour the batter into the liquid measuring cup and use it to fill the cups. Fill each lined muffin cup three-fourths full. Do not fill them any fuller than that or there will not be anywhere for the filling to go when the batter rises.

Add the filling
Pick up the pastry bag. Plugging the tip with one hand, twist the top of the bag to close it. Using one hand to guide the tip and the other to squeeze the top of the bag, insert the tip into the center of one of the cupcakes. Gently squeeze a small amount of the cream cheese filling into the batter. You will see the chocolate batter rise as the filling fills the middle. Keeping in mind that you need to fill 24 cupcakes, squeeze a small amount into each one.

Bake the cupcakes
Sprinkle the top of each cupcake with the chocolate chips. Put the muffin pans in the oven and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean, 26 to 28 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and put them on the cooling racks. Let the cupcakes cool in the pans for 20 minutes, then lift out the cupcakes and put them directly on the racks. Let cool completely, about 30 minutes. Makes 24 cupcakes.

-Jensa