Black Bottom Cupcakes

These are chocolate and banana cupcakes with cream cheese and banana topping. OH MY...they are so good! I'll start with a picture by Bakerella because mine simply don't do them justice. If you ever get around to making these, here's a tip: warm them up in the microwave for 15-20 seconds and they're like little molten cakes. These cupcakes are best when warm! It's too bad most of them didn't stay at our house. I made them for a dear lady from our church that just had knee surgery this past week. 

Photo by Bakerella

Here is the recipe:

Black Bottom Cupcakes

Cream Cheese Mixture
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 small banana, pureed
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 oz. semisweet chocolate chips

Chocolate Mixture
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large bananas, pureed
1/3 cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

For the cream cheese mixture:

• Beat cream cheese and sugar until nice and fluffy.
• Add banana, egg and vanilla and mix together until combined.
• Stir in chocolate chips and set aside.

For the chocolate mixture:

• Sift together flour, cocoa, sugar, soda and salt using a wire whisk.
• Add bananas, oil and vanilla and mix together on low until combined.
• Use a large scoop to fill cupcake liners with batter.
• Repeat topping the cupcake batter with the cream cheese mixture.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until done.

Makes about 18 cupcakes.

Lemon-Blackberry Cheesecake

On Valentine's Day our kids were sick. We didn't get a babysitter to have a night out so we decided to dine in. The menu included steak, creamy mashed potatoes, broccoli and to finish it off, some lemon-blackberry cheesecake.

My hubby loves cheesecake and I love anything lemon...so this was the perfect combo. It's a bit time consuming but not complicated. It's very worth the effort! It's from the cookbook "My Family Table: A Passionate Plea for Home Cooking"  by John Besh

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons butter, softened		1 cup sour cream
1 cup graham cracker crumbs		1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 pounds cream cheese		1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups sugar		1 1/2 pints blackberries
3/4 cup milk		Zest and juice of 1 lemon
4 eggs

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350˚. Grease a 9-inch springform pan with 1 tablespoon of the butter. Mix the graham cracker crumbs with the remaining 2 tablespoons butter in a medium bowl. Press onto the bottom and halfway up the sides of the pan.
  
  
• In a large bowl, use a handheld mixer to combine the cream cheese with the sugar until smooth. Blend in the milk, then beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing just enough to incorporate. Mix in the sour cream, flour, and vanilla until smooth. Divide the mixture between two bowls.
  
  
• In a food processor or blender, purée 1 pint of the blackberries with the lemon zest and juice. Pour the purée into one bowl of the cheese mixture along with the remaining 1⁄2 pint of whole blackberries and mix well.
  
  
• Pour the blackberry filling on top of the prepared crust. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and pour the remaining filling over the top. Return to the oven to bake for 1 hour, until the topping is set. Chill in the refrigerator until ready to serve.