Black-Bottom Cupcakes

5 Posted on January 5, 2012 - by Jules Shepard

Categories: All, Cakes, Desserts, Recipes

Tags: , Allergy Friendly, Chocolate Recipes, Cupcakes, Dairy Free, Desserts, Gluten Free, Gluten Free Kids, Vegan

Would you laugh if I told you that I researched whether a hyphen was necessary for the title of this recipe? These cupcakes are indeed black (although my six-year old literalist would argue that they are actually brown), and the black (brown) portion is mostly on the bottom of the cupcake. Thus, the “black” would modify the “bottom,” arguing for a hyphen. But I can’t even say the words “Black-Bottom Cupcakes” without thinking of the Queen song “Fat Bottomed Girls.” Embarrassing, maybe, but regardless of the words, the song is hopelessly catchy. But no hyphen. I checked.

Regardless of whether you care to use a hyphen or not, you need to try these cakes of chocolate-cream-cheese deliciousness. They’ll make your rockin’ world go ’round.

Black-Bottom Cupcakes

Filling:

8 ounces cream cheese, dairy or non-dairy (Tofutti® Better Than Cream Cheese)
1 egg or egg substitute (e.g. 1/4 cup firm silken tofu, blended with 1/2 tsp. gluten-free baking powder)
1/3 cup granulated cane sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips (Enjoy Life® Mini Chips)

Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups Jules Gluten Free™ All Purpose Flour
1/4 cup milk powder, dairy or non-dairy (Vance’s DariFree™), or almond meal
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch processed)
1 tsp. gluten-free baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup milk, dairy or non-dairy (So Delicious® Coconut Milk Beverage)
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable or canola oil
1 Tbs. apple cider vinegar
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350° F (static) or 325° F (convection).

Line 24 muffin tins with cupcake papers or lightly coat with oil.

Beat cream cheese, egg (or egg substitute), sugar and salt in a medium-sized bowl until lighter and well-mixed. Stir in the chocolate chips, cover and refrigerate until finished mixing the cupcake batter.

Whisk together the Jules Gluten Free™ All Purpose Flour, milk powder, brown sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Slowly stir in the milk, water, oil, cider vinegar and vanilla, beating until totally smooth.

Spoon the chocolate batter into each muffin cup, filling only 1/3 full. Top with a spoonful of cold cream cheese mixture — it does not have to cover the top of the muffin cup completely, or cover each cup evenly.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cupcakes comes out clean and the cream cheese topping is beginning to lightly brown. Remove to cool on a wire rack.

Yield: 22-24 cupcakes

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This entry was posted on Thursday, January 5th, 2012 at 11:11 am and is filed under All, Cakes, Desserts, Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

30 Comments

We'd love to hear yours!

Clare O’Malley said: on January 5, 2012

Yes, you do need a hyphen and I love that song by Queen. These look great. I’ll be making them as soon as I make your cinnamon rolls.
Reply
- Jules said: on January 5, 2012
  
  So glad someone agrees with me about the hyphen! LOL! Thanks Clare & enjoy the recipe!
  Reply
Pamela Erickson said: on January 5, 2012

My daughter was just asking for our regular recipe for these cupcakes. I was thinking I will have to convert it and make some soon.
Thank you for doing it for me. And I so appreciate the choices since many in our family have other allergies.

Any ideas on what would work instead of dairy or soy cream cheese?
Reply
- Jules said: on January 5, 2012
  
  Pamela – I’m so glad my recipes have taken some of the work off your shoulders! When I wrote this recipe, I also tried using vanilla coconut yogurt in place of the soy cream cheese. It works, but it doesn’t set up like the cream cheese or soy cream cheese does. Not that the result is bad, it’s just not the same. If you can use eggs, that will help, and maybe using 2 eggs and reducing the coconut yogurt by 1/4 cup would further help it set up. I might also try it again by adding some of my flour to the filling if you’re not using the cream cheese. Let me know how it turns out for you!
  Reply
Shirley @ gfe said: on January 6, 2012

Good girl on researching the hyphen! I try to explain to folks all the time about when gluten free needs a hyphen and when it doesn’t. Sadly, most of the time they don’t get it … or don’t care. Love Queen, but they should have had a hyphen in that title!

Now these cupcakes … they’ve long been one of my faves! Off to share, dear!

xo,
Shirley
Reply
- Jules said: on January 6, 2012
  
  So glad you appreciate my grammatical concerns, Shirley! I hope you get to make this recipe soon!!!
  Reply
Erin said: on January 6, 2012

These look delicious! Thanks for sharing! Thanks too for giving some non-dairy substitutes. Trying a dairy free diet in addition to my already GF diet, and that is very helpful!
Reply
Barb said: on January 6, 2012

Pamela, we can tolerate goat’s milk cream cheese, but not cow’s milk & not sheep’s milk – I have heard that someone fermented rice milk, but that sounds too complicated for me…good luck! We also use duck eggs instead of chicken (different protein)
Reply
Diana G. said: on January 6, 2012

I am excite to try these cupcakes tomorrow! As you know one of the biggest complaints about GF baking is dry baked goods, and these look very moist and promising! I can’t wait to taste them
Reply
Susan said: on January 6, 2012

HAHA! Jules, I too have been singing that song since you posted on FB about eating these cupcakes. I had better whip up a batch this weekend.
Reply
- Jules said: on January 6, 2012
  
  Yay! So I’m not alone in getting that song stuck in my head?
  Reply
Jacqueline said: on January 6, 2012

Hi Jules,

Is there a difference between milk powder and instant nonfat dry milk?

Thank you.
Reply
- Jules said: on January 6, 2012
  
  Jacqueline – the milk powder referenced in the recipe could be the DairiFree product I use or instant dry milk, but don’t reconstitute it. The key here is to add the powdered milk (dairy or non-dairy) to the recipe. Enjoy!
  Reply
Sandy Sharma said: on January 6, 2012

Pamela you could use Goat Cream Cheese by Trader Joes OR by Chevre. I haven’t tried it yet but thot you might look at these as well. I use the TJ Goat cream cheese everyday on my GF toast.Not only it tastes great but also reasonably priced as everything else there..Hope it works out.Let us know through your post.
Reply
AbsoluteMommy said: on January 6, 2012

As soon as I saw the title of this I immediately started singing it to the tune of “Fat Bottomed Girls”! Hilarious!
Can’t wait to make these…Looks like I need more flour!
Megan
aka: AbsoluteMommy
Reply
- Jules said: on January 7, 2012
  
  Megan – I’m so glad that I’m not the only one with this song stuck in my head! Enjoy the recipe & the tunes!
  Reply
Susan W. said: on January 8, 2012

Jules, I just made these. Yum! I only have 3 of the 6 muffin tins BUT I do have mini muffin tins. Yep, I made mini versions of these muffins. That may have been a bad thing. It’s way to easy to just walk by and pop one in your mouth! LOL!!!
Reply
- Jules said: on January 9, 2012
  
  Susan that’s so funny about the mini-muffin tins! That’s what my daughter got for Christmas, and what she wanted to bake, so our first attempt at creating a black-bottom cupcake recipe we also used the mini-muffin tins. You are so right that they are too easy to just pop in your mouth! Ours are LONG gone!!!
  Reply
  - Susan W. said: on January 9, 2012
    
    I shared some of the regular size cupcakes with a friend (minis were all mine!) and he cussed me when me met today. All he ate for supper the day I gave them to him were the cupcakes. Nothing else! He want’s more! What better compliment then a gluten eating friend wanting gluten free baked goods!
    Reply
    - Jules said: on January 9, 2012
      
      I love it, Susan!!! So true! What a huge compliment! Congrats on being cussed! LOL!
      Reply
Rachel said: on January 8, 2012

Jules, I have never used non dairy powder and it seems you use it a lot. What are some brands to look for and why use that type of cooking ingredient? Does non dairy creamer powder substitute in a pinch? I sometimes buy non dairy protein powder but that’s not what you are talking about is it?
Thanks. I am not a cook and need as few ingredients and ease as possible. This whole gluten/dairy free thing is new to me.
Reply
- Jules said: on January 9, 2012
  
  Rachel, it’s an excellent question and I’m happy to clarify. Milk powder (not reconstituted) can provide structure for gluten-free recipes, particularly in cakes and even yeast breads. Where a bread or cake might collapse because the flour is not heavy enough to hold the liquid, for example, the milk powder can help to hold it up. My favorite brand of non-dairy milk powder is Vance’s DariFree. If you cannot find it, you could also use Almond Meal or even GF Oat flour, which are easy to make at home. Without these ingredients, or another more structured gluten-free flour, the recipes will work, but they will not hold their shape as well.
  Reply
  - Rachel said: on January 11, 2012
    
    Thanks! That was very helpful. So would non dairy powdered creamer work or does it not have enough oomph?
    Reply
    - Jules said: on January 11, 2012
      
      Rachel, not sure about that powdered creamer. I haven’t tried it – it probably has enough oomph, but maybe too much. It’s worth trying though, if you have it on hand (I love experiments!) – proportionately, it’s not a huge ingredient here. The other option, of course, is just to sub the amount of powdered milk in the recipe with the same amount of my all purpose flour. It is a lighter flour, so the results will still differ, but the taste will still be great. Let me know the results of your playing!!!
      Reply
      - Rachel said: on January 11, 2012
        
        Thanks again. I really, really appreciate how much you check your blogs!!! I’ll try it and also look into buying some other ingredients.
Tiffany Youngren said: on January 9, 2012

I haven’t tried Tofutti in place of cream cheese – great idea!!

~ Tiffany

Transfer of Health
Healthy Living and Recipesore.com”>Health Food and Supplements
Reply
Angie Halten said: on January 10, 2012

Cream cheese and chocolate, the other two loves of my life! Can’t wait to try these out.
Reply
Jen said: on August 12, 2012

I made these the other night and they were delicious! I did not have baking powder or the substitute for it, but it still turned out well. I use Blue Diamond Almond milk vanilla flavor and the brands listed in the recipe for the other ingredients. My 2 year old dairy free son loved them also! This made one batch of mini muffins plus I have another batch of regular sized dozen in the oven now- they may be on the small side. I froze the mini ones then pulled them out when I wanted one- uinfortunately, I did not make them last.
Thanks Jules, for another great recipe!
Reply
- Jules said: on August 13, 2012
  
  That sounds great, Jen! So glad they worked, even without the leavening – that’s fantastic!
  Reply

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