School holiday fun with the girls

It's the school holiday here in Sydney and the girls - my 13yo sister and 7yo SIL came to stay with us for a few days. We watched the Disney Pixar animation 'Up' and I absolutely loved it! I esp. love Dug the talking dog "I hid under your porch because I love you" awww. We also baked sickeningly sweet black bottom cupcakes which I will post the recipe soon but here's a pic:

Black-bottom cupcakes

1 1/2 cups (225g) plain flour
1 cup (220g) castor sugar
1 tsp bicarb of soda
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup (35g) Dutch-processed cocoa
1 cup (250mL) warm water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup (80mL) light olive oil
1 tsp white vinegar

Topping
250g cream cheese, at room temperature
1/3 cup (75g) castor sugar
1 egg
1 cup (200g) good-quality dark chocolate chopped into small chunks

1. Preheat your oven to 180 degree C. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cupcake cases.

2. For the topping, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat together the cream cheese and sugar for 2 min or until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat until it's thoroughly mixed in, then stir in the chocolate and set the bowl aside.

3. Tip the flour, sugar, bicarb of soda and salt into a bowl, then sift in the cocoa and whisk everything together with a balloon whisk for 1 min. In another bowl, whisk together the warm water, vanilla extract, oil and vinegar. Make a well in the dry ingredients, pour in the wet ones and stir them thoroughly together (don't overdo this as the supcakes will be a bit chewy).

4. Spoon this batter into the cupcake cases, so they're about 2/3 full. Top with cream cheese mixture.

5. Bake the cupcakes for 30-35 min on until the darl chocolate part springs back when pressed (or a skewer inserted into this part comes out clean). Cool the cupcakes in the tin on a wire rack for a couple of min, then lift them out and leave them on the rack to cool completely.