Marbled (Penguin) Cupcakes

These cupcakes have been fun.

Before I get to that though, I should start with: these cupcakes are delicious. They are sponge-y chocolate cupcakes with cheesecake centers. And the cheesecake centers have added chocolate chips. So really it’s the best of both worlds.

The actual chocolate sponge is insanely moist from the oil, no doubt. And yet, they are not at all oily. They’re springy and don’t weigh you down as much as cupcakes with butter would…so you can get away with eating two instead of one. You’re welcome 😉 The cheesecake centers are just the right amount of sweet and have a lovely rich texture with an occasional crunchy chocolate chip. Heavenly.

I struggled with naming these though, and that’s where the fun part, mentioned above, comes in. The original recipe called them black-bottomed-cupcakes. I’m assuming because the bottom remains chocolate-y while the centers are cheesecake-y. Sorry I didn’t think at the time to take a picture of them cut open. I’ll leave that as a delightful surprise for you when you make them.

I wasn’t thrilled with their given name so I brought in my BFF, for naming help. We came up with zebra, penguin, or marbled. She voted penguin because they’re chocolate all over with soft white bellies. Plus, it’s original and cute–both great qualities for marketing this recipe. I voted marbled because it’s consistent with other marbled recipes I have on the blog: Marbled Carrot Cake Cream Cheese Bars and Marbled Banana Bread. I’ve learned that consistency is important in blogging. So we settled on Marbled (Penguin) Cupcakes.

I’m curious to hear what you think. Or if there are other names? Is “chocolate cupcakes with cheesecake filling” too boring? Or is it perfectly descriptive? Let me know. 🙂 Enjoy!