Healthier Black Bottom Cupcakes

Growing up, I have always enjoyed this classic cupcake recipe. It combines a moist chocolate cake with a cream cheese and chocolate chip filling. As you will notice, this recipe has a considerable amount of sugar in the cake batter, so I modified the cream cheese filling to contain less sugar.

Cupcake batter - makes 36

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sugar

• 1/2 cup cocoa

• 2/3 cup olive oil

• 2 tsp. baking soda

• 2 cups water

• 2 Tbsp. white vinegar

• 3 cups all-purpose flour

Filling

• 8oz reduced fat cream cheese

• 1 egg

• 3/4 (12 oz.) package chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line muffin cups with cupcake liners.

2. In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients for the cupcake batter.

3. In a medium bowl, combine all the ingredients for the filling.

4. Evenly distribute the cupcake batter into each lined cup.

5. Using a spoon, drop about 1 Tbsp of filling into the middle of each cup.

6. Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick come out clean when inserted into the middle of the cupcake. Carefully remove cupcakes and place on a cooling rack. Allow to cool slightly before serving.

Photo credit: Valley Nutrition & Wellness, LLC/Jessica Clark, RD, LDN