Belated Birthday Black Bottom Cupcakes

I took this photo last week, when the cupcakes were fresh and the weather was mild. I mentioned before that it was Alex’s birthday, and I took requests for what he wanted. In some ways, he’s very predictable, and I knew he wanted black bottom cupcakes. I still asked him, mind you, maybe just to prove that I was right.

I’d never heard of black bottom cupcakes until a few years ago, when my boss would bring them in for food days. These are chocolate cupcakes with a cream cheese center. I actually never had any that she made because I started telecommuting before I had the chance, but I’d hear how popular they were. She shared her recipe with me, and these are delicious and the cake is already vegan. The first time I made this, I called my mom to ask if there should really be vinegar in the recipe. I’ve come a long way.

After my success with the cream cheese frosting on the hummingbird cake, I decided to try using Tofutti for the filling. It came out well, again, even thought I didn’t really do anything except whip up the Tofutti with some sugar.

Cake:

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup cocoa
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon vinegar

Filling:

• I experimented and just took half a tub of Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese, softened, and whipped it up with some sugar. I put chocolate chips in half and left half plain.

Mix the cake batter and fill each cupcake cup halfway. The most recent time I made these, I ran out of cup liners (they’re frog princesses) and so I overfilled the cups. Put a spoonful of filling in each.

My boss’s recipe doesn’t say how long to bake them, but I typically put them in at 350F for 12-15 minutes. Yum!