David Lebovitz’s black bottom cupcakes are the ultimate kid-friendly, adult-minded dessert. Devil’s food cupcakes are filled with a creamy cheesecake-y surprise and then topped any way you like, whether naked, with ganache, or maybe slathered with buttercream. Up to you.
Adapted from David Lebovitz | The Great Book of Chocolate | Ten Speed Press, 2004
These yummy classics deserve a revival. Who doesn’t like individual, moist, and deep-red devil’s food cakes with a creamy cheesecake filling? Children like them in lunch boxes. And adults (like me) enjoy them for breakfast.
HOW DO I MAKE MOIST CUPCAKES?
Instead of butter, David Lebovitz uses oil in this recipe, which does actually make your cupcakes moister. A mild-flavored oil will keep those mini cakes soft and uber delish for a few days longer.
Black Bottom Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the filling
- 8 ounces regular or reduced-fat cream cheese at room temperature
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg at room temperature
- 2 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate coarsely chopped
For the cupcakes
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
- 5 tablespoons natural unsweetened cocoa powder not Dutch-process
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup water
- 1/3 cup mild vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon white or cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
Make the filling
- In a large bowl with a stand or electric mixer, beat together the cream cheese, granulated sugar, and egg until smooth. Stir in the chopped chocolate.
Make the cupcakes
- Preheat to 350°F (175°C) and adjust the rack to the center of the oven. Butter a 12-cup muffin tin or line the tin with paper muffin cups.
- In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together the water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla.
- Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and stir in the wet ingredients, stirring just until smooth. Don't overmix or you'll end up with less-than-tender and actually quite tough cupcakes.
- Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups. Spoon a few tablespoons of the cream-cheese filling into the center of each cupcake. The cups will be almost completely filled.
- Bake the cupcakes for 25 minutes, or until the tops are lightly golden brown and the cupcakes feel springy when gently pressed. These will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 to 3 days.
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Recipe Testers' Reviews
The decadent addition of chopped dark chocolate to the sweetened cream cheese filling is a brilliant one. The filling is creamy and dense, the cake surrounding it is deep dark chocolate. What’s not to love about these black-bottom cupcakes?
The ingredients are easy to find. These little gems have something for everyone. They are sophisticated enough for grown ups, gooey enough for kids, they travel well to picnics or potlucks as they are meant to be beautiful on their own. There’s no need to frost these. Go make some right now! These will make you very happy.
I came across this recipe while searching for cheesecake on the site. We had perishable homemade Neufchatel cheese in large quantity and cheesecake seemed the perfect solution to use it up, until I spotted this option. They were quick and easy to put together. Lebovitz calls for no hard-to-find ingredients. He even benevolently offers the option of regular or reduced-fat cream cheese, and our homemade Neufchatel fell perfectly into the latter category, as well as either bittersweet or semisweet chocolate.
Black-bottom cupcakes were perfect for dessert on a cold January night—rich, delicious chocolate and cream-cheesy filling melding happily together. They were surprisingly not at all too much—the chocolate and cream cheese balanced each other, and the result was rich, but not cloyingly so. For those not generally interested in cake for dessert, consider these. They held interest through to the last bite, in part because of the variety of textures—the chocolate cake followed by the cream cheese filling and then the chocolate chunks mixed into the filling, happily better than the current cake plus too much frosting cupcake trend.
As a final note, I’d add that these are ideal for anyone feeling a little cupcake-fatigued. They take standard chocolate cake and chocolate chunk cheesecake flavors, bring them together for a classic combination that will stand the test of time. They weren't the prettiest cupcakes ever—mine looked much like the accompanying photograph and, to me, part of their charm was this homemade look coupled with their undeniably yummy taste.
Originally published March 1, 2004
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Hi – can I used melted butter instead of oil? Or – if use oil could i use grapeseed oil?
Laura, yes, grapeseed oil would be fine here. And I don’t see any reason to not use melted butter—it should work fine, too.
Thanks! I’m going to make them tonight for my boss’s birthday tomorrow. I am not sure yet if I will use butter or oil. But I have high expectations. I bought Hershey’s cocoa because it’s supposed to be the un-dutched cocoa (I hope I have that right!). Otherwise I would have preferred to use my cocoa from Dean and Deluca but it’s dutched…
Nods. The cocoa thing is complicated. I always have to double-check to make sure which is dutched and which not, so you’re not alone. Anyways, fingers crossed that you love these as much as everyone we know does! Let us know how it goes!
I haven’t had these since I was young, although my mom always made them mini. How long should I bake them using a mini muffin tin? Can’t wait to have them 🙂
Hi Kristen, I would check them at around 15 minutes. They should spring back when gently pressed and look “set”.
The black bottom cupcakes look good but I was wondering if I can use white whole wheat flour and if so, should there be something else I need to add? This is the kind of flour I have on hand. Please reply as I want to make them today. Thanks
Hi Anna, white whole wheat flour should be fine in this recipe. I would substitute it 1:1 for the all purpose flour.
Hi, thank you so much for posting this recipe, I a question.. Can I make it with olive oil? Thanks.
Hi Samantha, you should be able to substitute olive oil in equal parts for vegetable oil in most baking recipes. That being said, we didn’t test these cupcakes using olive oil so can’t tell you for sure how the olive oil might affect the flavor or texture. Please let us know!
My grandmother use to make these…they are delish! So glad I found the recipie again, as I lost mine. She use to make them in the mini cupcake size though….Thanks David for sharing!
Both David Lebovitz and I are thrilled you found the recipe. I hope they come close to your grandmother’s. Happy holidays!