Cheesecake-filled Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

I love to bake.  Love, love, love it.  I don't do it much because we don't eat sweets much, but when a birthday or special occasion comes around, I never turn down the opportunity to make a cake myself.  Lucia's birthday party this year was Mickey Mouse themed and I decided to do cupcakes because the price of a Mickey Mouse cake pan was more than a half sheet of cake at the grocery store, so no.  I found this pin of easy looking Mickey Mouse cupcakes and decided to go that route.

But that is not what this post is about.  This post is about the recipe, not about the little decoration on top (which I'm sure you could figure out on your own).  Anyway, like I was saying, I love to bake and I can follow a recipe pretty well, but this time, I could not find the recipe I wanted so I made it up and it came out great - the best thing I've ever made in my opinion.  So here it is:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin pan with liners. Make the the chocolate cake batter and cheesecake filling using the following instructions.

Chocolate Cake (slightly altered from this recipe)

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa and salt. Set aside. 

3. In a large bowl, stir together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, then stir in the vanilla. 

4. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk; beat well.

Cheesecake Filling (taken from this recipe)

8 oz cream cheese 

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

1 egg white

1/2 tsp vanilla

5. Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and confectioners' sugar for 3 minutes. Beat in egg white and vanilla.

6. Once you have mixed both the batter and filling, scoop a spoonful of chocolate batter in the bottom of the muffin liners, then a small spoonful of the cheesecake filling, then cover that will more of the chocolate batter.  Aim to have the muffin liners 3/4 full when all ingredients are included.  It is ok if a bit of the filling isn't covered, it will still cook just fine. 

7. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean (it may not be completely clean if put into the cheesecake part, but it should still look "set"). Frost with cream cheese frosting when cool.

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz. cream cheese, softened
4 oz. butter
3 cups confectioners' sugar
2 tsp vanilla

Make sure the cream cheese has been sitting out to room temperature.  Beat the cream cheese and butter together with an electric mixer. Slowly add the confectioners' sugar half cup at a time.  Add the vanilla and beat until creamy.


Other notes:

• made 28 cupcakes (a few of them were perhaps too full, so it could have made a few more)
• took about 30 minutes prep, 15 minutes baking
• I didn't use a stand mixer for any of it.  Thought I would mention that since I despise recipes that say you must use a stand mixer.  I have one and love it, but sometimes it's not worth it to lug it out of the closet.
• After you frost the cupcakes, it's best that you keep them refrigerated since cream cheese frosting can melt.
• If you feel like doing the Mickey decoration, you might want to try to find cookies smaller than sandwich cookies; they were a bit on the large side.  I got them to stay in the cupcakes by cutting slits in the top of the cupcake with a knife (after I frosted them and inserting them - then refrigerating them so the frosting hardened around them.