Black Bottom Cupcakes

Black Bottom Cupcakes
Source:  My Mom

Cheesecake center:
1 c. cream cheese
1/3 c. sugar
1 unbeaten egg
1/8 tsp. salt
1 c. mini chocolate chips

Chocolate bottom:
1 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. cocoa
1 c. water
1/3 c. oil
1 T. white vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla


Cheesecake center:  Combine cream cheese, 1/3 cup sugar, egg, and 1/8 teaspoon salt in a small bowl.  Beat well.  Stir in mini chocolate chips.  Set aside.

Chocolate bottom:  In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and cocoa.  Add water, vinegar, oil, and vanilla; stir to combine.

Line a muffin pan with paper cupcake liners.  Fill each cup 1/3 full of chocolate batter.  Top each with a heaping teaspoon of cream cheese mixture.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 - 35 minutes.  Makes 18'ish.

I always seem to have extra cheesecake batter.  I drop a 'Nilla Wafer, an Oreo, a crushed up graham cracker ... or whatever I have on hand ... into the bottom of a couple of cupcake liners as a crust, top them with the leftover cheesecake batter, and bake these up as mini cheesecakes right along with the cupcakes.  I've even used a couple of animal crackers as the crust!  These make-shift mini cheesecakes are quite tasty, too.