Black and White Cupcakes

What to say about these? I've seen the recipe popping up lately on all kinds of baking blogs so decided I wanted to jump on that bandwagon too.


The recipe is from Bake or Break. In case you can't tell I've been looking at that blog a lot lately. She claims her version came from the cookbook Buttercup Bakes at Home by Jennifer Appel. This may very well be true, but I have also seen a variety of unattributed and differently attributed recipes out there that are identical to this one.

Ingredients
* 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
* 1 large egg, at room temperature
* 1 1/3 cup granulated sugar, divided
* 1 cup miniature chocolate chips
* 1 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup warm water
* 1/3 cup vegetable oil
* 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°. Line 2 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake liners.

Beat cream cheese, egg, and 1/3 cup sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy.
Stir in the chocolate chips. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine flour, 1 cup sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
Make a well in the center, and add water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla.
Mix just until blended.

Fill each muffin cup one-third full with the chocolate batter.
Top with a spoonful of cream cheese mixture, until cups are about two-thirds full. Bake 22 to 28 minutes, until the tops spring back lightly when touched.
Cool in pans for 10 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool completely.
Makes about 24 cupcakes.

I did end up with 24 of these, just as the recipe predicted. I would recommend using a small scoop or melon baller or something of the same ilk to place the cream cheese in/on the chocolate mix. I think you could manage a much prettier cake with a little judicious shaping and care when placing the cream cheese mixture. I also baked mine exactly 22 minutes at 350 (according to my oven therm.) and they were well and truly done by then.