Monday, January 21, 2008

Cute and tasty
--Black and White Cupcakes



Black and White Cupcakes
Mrs. Fields I Love Chocolate Cookbook Copyright 1994

Cream Cheese Layer
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
¼ cup sugar
1 large egg

Cake Layer
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (1/2 cup)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 12 muffin cups with foil or paper muffin cup liners.

Prepare the Cream Cheese Layer: In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Beat in the sugar and egg until well blended.

Make the Cake Layer: In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. In a small bowl, beat the water, oil, egg and vanilla. Add to the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Stir in half of the chocolate chips.

Fill the muffin cups about half full with the chocolate cake batter. Using the remaining cake batter and all of the cream cheese batter, spoon equal amounts on top of the cake batter, creating a top that is half chocolate and half cream cheese. (They don't rise very much so don't worry about going to the top of the muffic cups.) Sprinkle the tops of the cupcakes with the remaining chocolate chips.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Set the muffin tin on a wire rack to cook for 10 minutes. Turn the cupcakes out of the pan to cool completely.

Yield: 12 cupcakes.
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I've owned this cookbook for quite a few years. I think this is the first recipe I've blogged from it, although there's a great peanut butter pie recipe in it that I made years and years ago and forgot about.

The recipes aren't complicated (well maybe years ago I thought they were?) and they all sound delicious so I have no idea why I haven't cooked from it much except that there really aren't enough opportunities to make sweets in life.

These came out well. I wasn't sure how the half-and-half topping would work out but the chocolate batter was very thick so they actually did turn out as pretty as the picture (except I would have used more chocolate chips on top). The chocolate portion has the consistency of a sort of chewy cake brownie and there was just enough cream cheese to balance the chocolate.

I'm off work today and I have a more ambitious dinner planned but I'm not feeling very ambitious. I hope it works out!

Blast From The Past: Wayne’s Beef Macaroni and Cheese from September 2007. This was one of the 100 most dowloaded recipes at Food TV last year. Paula Deen made it. I didn't see the episode but I'll assume she gave credit where credit was due (to Wayne).

Question of the Day: Have you ever eaten a Mrs. Field's cookie? I might have had one from one of her shops, I can't say for sure. I've had the packaged ones. They're okay for a packaged cookie, similar to a Keebler soft batch.

8 comments:

Randi said...

Omg, I just typed up a very similar recipe from TOH in my personal diary so I wouldnt lose it. Its called a cream cheese filled cupcake. The cake is a tad different, but like yours it uses no eggs but 1tbls of vinegar. They're great cupcakes. I love the frosting that goes along with them. Very easy!!

I used to buy a mrs. fields cookie a lot when I'd go to a Mall.

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

Extremely cute! Those coopcakes look amazing!

Cheers,

Rosa

Hilary said...

I worked at a Mrs. Fields bakery throughout high school, so I definitely ate my fair share of cookies!

Annie said...

Those are so cute.

I've tried Mrs.Field's cookies, they're ok but nothing like homemade.

ThursdayNext said...

The cupcakes look delicious - I wanted to chew my monitor when I saw the photo!

I have and like Mrs. Fields, but dont love like I love homemade cookies!

. . . said...

they look delicious!

yes, i've had a mrs. fields cookie. not TOO many, though, since i always thought they cost too much. =)

Brilynn said...

Those cupcakes are definitely cute! I love the cream cheese addition.

Anonymous said...

I like Mrs Fields very much since I studied at Uni in Oz but I went home to live in Indonesia. The Mrs Fields shop in Indonesia has been shut down, so I cant eat the nibbler again. Would u mind to e-mail the whole recipes from the Mrs Fields Cookbook to me? I will e-mail u with the result and the photos after I tried the recipes one by one.
We can exchange recipes if u want. I just want the Mrs Fields ones.