Mini cupcakes... Black bottom and Strawberry lemonade

So I'm behind on my baking blogging. Turns out working full time can be pretty time-consuming! A couple of weeks ago I made this cute little cupcakes for a treat at work. 

My favorite (due to my addiction to chocolate and cream cheese) are the black bottom cupcakes on which I alternated regular and chocolate cream cheese frosting.

The other mini was a strawberry lemonade cupcake which had a great flavor, but the filling texture was a bit below par, likely because the cupcake lacked moisture to lock in the filling.

So here are the recipes!

Black Bottom Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

 Cupcake recipe via Baking Bites

Cream cheese filling

16-oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 large egg whites, room temperature
2 tbsp sour cream, room temperature
1/3 cup miniature chocolate chips

Beat together cream cheese, sugar and salt until smooth. Beat in egg whites and sour cream. Stir in mini chocolate chips, taste a spoonful or two, and set aside.

Cake

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup sour cream
1 1/3 cups water
1/2 cup butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 tsp vanilla extract

Whisk together sugar, salt, flour, cocoa powder and baking soda. Mix in sour cream, water, butter and vanilla. Stir together until just combined, but don't over-mix.

So there are a few judgement calls in this recipe... this recipe makes about 24 regular size cupcakes or about 48 minis. I opted for minis and also chose to bake the cupcakes without liners. The cupcakes easily came out of my sprayed tins when they were done baking; I then placed each cupcake in a small paper liner, mostly for aesthetics. Size/liner/no liner is totally your choice! 

Be very careful not to overfill your cupcake tins! Normally, you should fill your cupcake tins about two-thirds full. These cupcakes won't rise quite as much as a regular cupcake, but since you still have to add cream cheese filling, two-thirds (or a tad less) is a good rule. Drop a tablespoon of cream cheese filling (or a teaspoon for the minis) on top of each batter-filled cup. Don't worry about getting the cream cheese into the cupcake-- it will sink as it bakes. Bake for about 20 minutes for regular cupcakes (about 14 for minis) at 350F. You should be able to stick a toothpick into the cake-only sides of the cupcakes and pull out cake crumbs. 

Cream cheese frosting from Glorious Treats

(The frosting is completely optional. Black bottom cupcakes are great without! I do love the extra cream cheese that the frosting adds.)

Cream Cheese Frosting

½ cup butter, room temp
8 oz. cream cheese½ cup unsweetened cocoa (for chocolate cream cheese frosting)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups powdered confectioners sugar

2-4 Tablespoons strawberry preserves or puree (for strawberry frosting)

1 to 4 Tablespoons heavy cream, heavy whipping cream

Place butter in a large mixing bowl and blend slightly. Add cream cheese and blend until combined, about 30 seconds. If you are making chocolate frosting, add the cocoa now and mix so that it gets fully incorporated into the cream cheese. Add vanilla extract and powdered sugar and blend on low speed until combined. Increase to medium speed and beat until it begins to get fluffy. If you're making strawberry frosting, add your strawberry flavor here. I prefer the fresh strawberry puree flavor, but preserves work as well. Mix well. You may not even need cream for the strawberry frosting, as the strawberry puree thins out the frosting a lot. If necessary, slowly add the heavy cream, a little bit at a time until desired consistency is met. (Don't add too much if you want the frosting to stay in place when piped on cupcakes.) Beat until fluffy, about 1 minute. After your cupcakes have cooled, have fun decorating with the frosting!

And the Strawberry lemonade cupcakes...

Use a box of Duncan Hines Lemon Supreme cake mix and mix as instructed on the box. Now, if I make these again, I will try adding a couple of Tablespoons of sour cream to the cake mix in lieu of one egg. I think that would help moisten the cake enough to lock in the strawberry filling that baked into my cake in the oven, leaving a semi-empty middle.

For the filling:

16-oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg white, room temperature
2 Tablespoons sour cream, room temperature

4-6 Tablespoons of strawberry preserves or puree 

Beat together cream cheese, sugar and salt until smooth. Beat in egg white, sour cream and strawberry puree. 

Fill your cupcake tins about half full with the lemon cake batter. Then top with a Tablespoon or teaspoon of filling, depending on whether you're making full-size or mini cupcakes. Do not try to get the filling into the unbaked cupcake as it will sink when you bake it. Bake at 350F for about 14 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the cake-only side of the cupcake comes out with only crumbs. 

Top with the strawberry cream cheese recipe above. I added a bit of pink gel food coloring to get a pretty bright pink frosting. It looked so cute on the yellow cupcakes!

Enjoy!