Moist cake with a surprise filling and a drizzle of rich ganache makes these cupcakes truly out of this world! Don’t enjoy them just for dessert. They are perfect with a cup of coffee in the morning or with a nice cup of hot tea in the afternoon. They also freeze beautifully, so you can make them ahead and put them on the table for guests over a holiday weekend. You’ll need two cupcake pans if you want to bake the full recipe—if you have only one 12-cup pan, then the recipe can be reduced by half.
Ingredients
FILLING
- 18 -ounce package cream cheese, at room temperature
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips or finely chopped, toasted pecans
- 1 recipe Banana Cake batter (this page)
- ¼ recipe Chocolate Ganache (this page), made with semisweet chocolate
How to Make It
- Make the filling: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese and sugar on medium speed until well blended, 2 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla, and beat on high speed for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and around the bottom of the bowl. With the mixer on the lowest speed, pour in the chocolate chips and beat until incorporated, 30 seconds.
- Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line two cupcake pans with 24 liners. Divide half the Banana Cake batter evenly among the liners (I like to scrape the batter into a large liquid measuring cup and then scoop out half of the batter, adding it to a medium bowl—I’ll use this batter in the bowl to divide among the liners). Drop 1 heaping teaspoon of the cream cheese filling into each of the cupcakes. Cover the filling with the remaining batter.
- Bake until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out with a few crumbs on it, 22 to 24 minutes. Remove the cupcakes from the pan and let cool completely before drizzling with the ganache.
