This is a tried and true recipe. It has been around since at least 1982. And how do I know that? I know that because my parents had a small restaurant and I used to bake these cupcakes every morning. Yup, just me and the crickets that found there way under our refrigerator from the pet store next to our restaurant…oh yeah, those were the days. Who wouldn’t wanna eat at a restaurant with crickets and cupcakes? We did serve Starbucks though, one of the first restaurants to carry it south of Seattle, and I’m sure the first to serve it with crickets.
My little sister Kelli and I cooked and ran the restaurant. We were famous…famous for arguing all day and stealing beer all night. I’m happy to say, we sold the restaurant after few years, we started buying are own beer and my sister and I are pretty good pals.
The good thing about running my folks restaurant is that it culminated my love of cooking…the second thing is it taught me to never, ever, ever consider opening up a restaurant of my own! It is back breaking work and unless you have a trust fund with an endless supply of cash, I suggest you get a real job and feed your foodie needs with a food blog!
Back to the recipe. Super easy and no frosting required!
Ingredients
For Batter:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup vegetable oil
For Filling:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup chocolate chips
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Combine flour, baking soda, salt, sugar and cocoa.
Add water, vanilla and vegetable oil.
Mix until well blended, about 3 minutes.
In separate bowl, beat together cream cheese, sugar and egg.
Stir in chocolate chips.
Line 12 cup muffin tin with paper liners.
Fill with batter about 1/2 full.
Drop a spoonful of cream cheese mixture into each muffin cup of batter.
Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
I’ve been making this recipe since the 80’s also, and never had a problem with the results. The only difference in our two recipes is yours has no vinegar, while mine uses1 tsp of white vinegar. Hmmm, I wonder if that makes a difference.
Now that you mention it, seems to me when I made them years ago it did include vinegar. Not sure how or why it was omitted. I got the recipe from my mom. Didn’t seem to make a difference in the result..maybe it brightens the chocolate flavor?
how many cupcakes does this make? excited to try the recipe!