Mexican Chocolate Black Bottom Cupcakes are moist chocolate cupcakes flavored with Mexican spices and filled with a coconut cheesecake. These are the perfect end to any Mexican meal!
In December I won a giveaway on Nicole's blog Baking Bites. I was so excited to get my package in the mail - 2 bars of Scharffen Berger chocolate and an autographed copy of her Baking Bites cookbook! I immediately wanted to make just about every recipe in the book!
One recipe that caught my eye in particular was these Mexican Chocolate Black Bottom Cupcakes. The chocolate batter is mixed with Mexican spices and then a cheesecake/coconut layer is dolloped on top!
The recipe makes 24 cupcakes, so I chose to make them for 2 events - lab birthdays and the visit of my two great friends Kathleen and Melissa (see our Salsa Recipe Showdown we did that weekend as well!)
I was really bummed when I finished making these and discovered I had left out the coconut by mistake! In my defense, the recipe instructions in the cookbook said to combine salt with the cream cheese mixture, and there was no mention of coconut. Salt was not listed in the filling ingredients, so I just added a pinch and moved forward. It was too late by the time I realized that the coconut was not listed in the directions, just the ingredient list, and I had left it out.
Regardless, these cupcakes were fantastic and I can only imagine that they'd be even better with the coconut. I've added the coconut to the directions below.
Twenty four cupcakes is a lot, so I had leftovers after both events and my mom and aunt tried them. My mom said they were the best thing I've ever baked! Wow - did she forget about the Bridal Shower Dessert Table? Just kidding!
It's funny how people can have such different tastes because these were not at the top of Bob's list (his all time favorite is the Tres Leches Coconut Cupcakes with Dulce de Leche Buttercream!)
I wasn't entirely surprised by Bob's preference though because he's not big on cheesecake (I know - what?!). I thought these cupcakes were super moist and flavorful, and I'm excited to try them again with coconut!
Recipe Details
These cupcakes consist of a batter very similar to the Hershey's Black Magic Cake. This is a very thin batter but makes the BEST cake.
The coconut cheesecake filling is dropped by the spoonful in each cupcake well before baking.
Gluten Free Option
I have not tried this myself yet for this recipe, but I often substitute Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free 1 to 1 Baking Flour for all purpose flour and have identical results.
📖 Recipe
Mexican Chocolate Black Bottom Cupcakes
Equipment
- two 12-cup muffin pans
Ingredients
For the cream cheese filling:
- 16 ounces cream cheese, room temperature (two 8-ounce packages)
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 large egg whites (room temperature)
- 2 tablespoons milk
- ⅔ cup sweetened, shredded coconut (finely chopped)
For the cake:
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour or gluten free flour
- ½ cup cocoa powder
- 1 ¼ cups sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
- ¾ cup buttermilk
- 1 ⅓ cups water
- ½ cup butter (melted and cooled)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two 12-cup muffin pans with paper liners.
- To make the filling: in a medium bowl, beat together cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Blend in egg whites and milk, mixing until filling is well-blended. Stir in coconut. Set aside.
- To make the cake: in a large bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, sugar, salt, baking soda, and spices.
- Make a well in the center and add the buttermilk, water, melted butter, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Stir together until just combined and no streaks of flour remain.
- Divide cake batter evenly among 24 cupcakes. Top each portion of batter with 1 rounded tablespoon cream cheese mixture (there may be some left over).
- Bake for 20 - 25 minutes. If using two racks, rotate pans halfway through baking. A toothpick inserted into cake only portion should come out with a few moist crumbs on it.
- Cool in pans for 5 minutes. Filling will sink slightly as the cake cools (I assume this is if you have the coconut in there, as mine did not). Remove cupcakes to wire racks to cool completely.
camie says
I was just thinking I'd make some black bottom cupcakes for my friend's birthday this weekend. I might try these instead!
Wendy says
These look and sound realllyyyy good! Just might try and bake a batch this weekend.
Melissa Chaffee says
I was lucky enough to be one of the friends to taste these delicious cupcakes! I would definitely recommend them if you're looking for a unique dessert or looking for a dessert that is not too sweet. It still has the great chocolate taste but the spices in the cupcakes keep them from being over-indulgent.
Kerstin says
Mmm, these sound great. It' too bad the recipe wasn't edited though, I can see how the coconut would make these even better!