Black Bottom Cupcakes

This week it's been National Cupcake Week.

Therefore the obvious thing for me to do would be to bake cupcakes - after all, I'm practically morally obligated to given the nature of the week.

I can't remember when I bought this book, but it's fabulous. The Hummingbird Bakery has the best cupcakes around, and their books are filled with American-style cupcakes with inventive flavours, and their recipes are guaranteed to be a success no matter what your level of baking. This one, Cupcakes and Muffins, has a small selection of the best Hummingbird recipes, and as I hadn't tried Black Bottom Cupcakes before I knew this was the perfect opportunity to see what they're like.

Ingredients:

For the chocolate base:
190g plain flour
120g plus 1 tbsp caster sugar
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
40g coca powder
40ml sunflower oil
1 1/2 tsp white vinegar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

For the cheesecake filling:
140g cream cheese
60g caster sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
100g chocolate chips

Method:

Preheat the oven to 170C / 325F / Gas 3.

Firstly, make the chocolate base. Place the flour, sugar, bicarbonate of soda and coca in the large bowl of a freestanding electric mixer and mix until well combined.

Put the oil, vinegar, vanilla extract and 125ml water in a bowl and whisk to combine. While the electric whisk is running in the flour bowl slowly add the liquid ingredients, increasing the speed of the blender as the mixture thickens. Continue to beat until all the ingredients are incorporated.

Spoon the mixture into cupcake cases until two-thirds full.

Now turn to the cheesecake filling. Beat the cream cheese, sugar, egg, vanilla extract and salt in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment on medium speed until smooth and fluffy.

Stir in the chocolate chips by hand but don't over mix otherwise the cream cheese with start to split.

Scoop about 1 tablespoon of the cheesecake filling on top if the cupcake mixture in the cases and bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes, or until the cupcakes are firm to the touch and they have an even golden colour on the cheesecake filling.

Make sure you don't overcook them or the cheesecake will become very dry and crumbly. Leave the cupcakes to cool slightly in the tray before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

The original recipe now calls to cover the cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting and dust with cocoa powder, but I left mine as they were. This was my third batch of cupcakes of the day and to be honest I was sick of making frosting. Also, I really didn't want to cover the cheesecake topping when it looked so interesting already!

If you want to cover them with cream cheese frosting, then beat 300g icing sugar with 50g unsalted butter (at room temperature), and once well mixed beat in 125g full fat cream cheese. This should take about 5 minutes, and if you over-mix the frosting - so it becomes runny - then simply put it in the fridge to firm up.

The chocolate sponge and cheesecake topping complement each other wonderfully. As with all Hummingbird recipes, the sponge isn't dry at all, and luckily I took them out of the oven at the right time as the cheesecake didn't crumble as I worried it would! The only criticism I received was that they really needed the frosting: it was almost as if they didn't taste finished, if that makes sense? Describing the taste would be a lot easier if I could actually try them myself, but never mind!

Did you bake anything for National Cupcake Week? Let me know what you think of these Black Bottom Cupcakes in the comments below and if there are any particular recipes you think I should try!