Black Forest Cream Cheese Cake

Still eager to experiment from that Taste of Home magazine, I was very happy to try this recipe out for my friend's son's class and fortunately they came out decent enough. Of course I like how this dessert puts a spin on the classic black forest cake by adding cream cheese. After baking these up into swirled cupcakes they came out so pretty that I didn't want to hide them with cherry pie filling. I even made a cream cheese icing thinking that cupcakes just aren't complete without icing but couldn't bring myself to cover these up.

The only suggestion I would make for this recipe is to use melted chocolate chips instead of cocoa powder because that will add more flavor and let's face it- more fat. The chocolate cake lacked a deep chocolate flavor and an indulgent moist texture. If it wasn't for the cream cheese, these would have been just plain dry. Even if you just add chocolate chips, that would add much needed richness. I hope the kids liked them!