What to bake when there is NOTHING in the pantry

Blackbottom (chocolate and cream cheese) cupcakes

I wanted to bake something and I was out of everything -- even milk! The only "exotic" ingredient I had was an almost full brick of cream cheese. That and a magazine article with a really enticing picture made me think of blackbottom cupcakes. I searched through my cookbooks. Then I got on the internet. I found a lot of recipes - many of which called for a teaspoon of vinegar in the chocolate layer. (Didn't have that either!) I finally found this recipe which called for common ingredients and not many of them. I will definately make these again. Not only were they easy, they were moist and delicious. The recipe made 12 cupcakes but I did run a little short of the cream cheese mixture, so instead of making two layers as the recipe suggested, I used less cream cheese on some cakes and swirled it a little with a kitchen knife. Both versions were good. Even with this recipe I didn't have vanilla or chocolate chips, but it was still good. P.S. If you are really low on ingredients, the chocolate part alone was very good and it didn't need milk, egg or butter!

I found this recipe on www.everydaycook.com.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Cupcakes

Ingredients
1/4 cup cocoa
1 1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup water
1 cup sugar

Filling
1 8-ounce package of cream cheese
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 8-ounce package of chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, vanilla, oil and water until smooth.

In a smaller bowl, combine softened cream cheese, sugar and egg until smooth. Stir in chocolate chips.

Line a 12 cupcake pan with paper liners (or butter cupcake pans). Pour equal amounts of chocolate mixture in each cup. Top with cream cheese mixture. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes.