Black Bottom Cupcakes

I have a second batch of these in the oven as we speak, and yes it is 12.30am. I do all my best baking at night and we have 'Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte' on (we're on a bit of a Bette Davis kick at the moment) Last Saturday night Richard and I were craving something sweet, and all I could think about were cupcakes. Seriously, obsessing over the idea. There was a bit of a debate over chocolate versus vanilla (chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting? with vanilla frosting? vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting?) and then I stumbled upon these while browsing Joy of Baking. I'd never even heard of Black Bottom cupcakes, but the thought of Devils Food Cake and cheesecake in a cup was just about the end of me. The best part was that we actually had all the ingredients, and we never have cream cheese (I'd been intending to make carrot cake, still hasn't happened).

They were pretty simple to whip up, and not surprisingly we couldn't wait for them to cool before testing them. They were out of control. Seriously, still warm dark chocolate cake with a melty cheesecake filling. Why had I never heard of these before??

I didn't think it could possibly get any better than that, but the next day after having a pancake brunch we had some left over blackberry and strawberry sauce so that afternoon Richard and I decided to pour some over our cupcakes. Absolute heaven! There was even enough sauce left to be used as an impromptu jam on my toast the next morning. Yum! It was a good food weekend. I'm not sure how normal it is to get quite as excited (read: hand clapping in delight) about good food as I do, but there you go.