Black Bottom Cupcakes

Recipe

1. Preheat the oven to 170 C.
2. For the chocolate sponge base: put the flour, sugar, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda in a large bowl and mix with a handheld electric whisk on slow speed until all the dry ingredients are well incorporated.
3. Put the oil, vinegar, vanilla extract and 125 ml water in a jug and whisk to combine. While the electric whisk is running in the flour bowl, slowly add the contents of the jug, increasing the speed of the blender a the mixture thickens. Continue to beat until all the ingredients are incorporated.
4. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until two thirds full.
5. For the Cheesecake filling: beat together the cream cheese, sugar, egg, vanilla extract and salt in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment until smooth and fluffy.
6. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand until evenly dispersed. Don't over mix, otherwise the cream cheese will start to split.
7. Scoop about 1 tablespoon of the cheesecake filling on top of the cupcake mixture in the cases and bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes. Don't over cook as the cheesecake will become very dry and crumbly.
8. Leave the cupcakes to cool slightly in the tray before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Below is a picture of me at every step in the recipe.

Below is the review for the Black Bottom Cupcakes. I asked an impartial person to give me their opinions on certain aspects and an overall rating at the end.

Black Bottom Cupcake
Aesthetics:
To be completely honest it looks as if something has gone wrong during the baking process. I’m not sure if it has or this actually is how the final cakes are supposed to look. The cream cheese topping looks as though it is spilling out of the sides whilst the lack of icing is intriguing. It is the first cupcake without icing and therefore begs the question are there so many flavours that it doesn’t need the topping as well? Once you remove the paper case the chocolate smell becomes obvious.

Taste:
The cream cheese mix is really tasty, but there is only a thin layer in top of the cake. This makes the rest of the cake seem somewhat dry and more muffin like. The chocolate chips in the cream cheese mix are really nice and add another texture, maybe the cake would be better if they were also mixed into the chocolate mixture. I think that a layer of plain vanilla icing on top would not ruin the rest of the cake, but in fact enhance the other flavours.

Additional Comments:
Considering the potential these cakes had, the end results seem a bit of a disappointment. The chocolate mix, which made up the majority of the cake was stodgy and not that flavoursome. If there were no problems in the baking process then the recipe is not one of the best.

Rating:
5/10

Below is a picture of the final cake.