Binnie Bracken's Black bottom cupcakes

Black Bottom Cupcakes

Filling:
12 oz cream cheese, not softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cake:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (7.9 oz)
3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder – Hershey’s Dark
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line 18 muffin tins with paper cups.
In a stand mixer, beat the cold cream cheese until fairly smooth. Add the sugar and beat until smooth. Add the egg and beat until incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips and set aside.
Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; mix well set aside.
In a mixing bowl, beat together the vegetable oil and sugar – I did this with a hand-held electric mixer, but a whisk would probably be fine. The mixture was kind of thick and grainy and didn’t hold a lot of air.
Mix the buttermilk and vanilla together in a cup, then add the flour mixture and the buttermilk mixture to the oil mixture alternately, stirring rather than beating, until flour is incorporated.
Divide the chocolate batter evenly among the muffins tins and top with a dollop of the cream cheese mixture.
Bake in preheated oven on center for 28-30 minutes. Cool at room temperature for about half an hour and then chill until very cold.