These Chocolate Cupcakes are perfectly moist, fluffy and full of rich chocolate flavour! Topped with a silky and dreamy Chocolate Buttercream Frosting - these cupcakes are the perfect treat for chocoholics.
Are you a fan of chocolate? Would you eat absolutely anything as long as it had chocolate in it? Is chocolate the only thing that can cheer you up when you're in a bad mood? If so, these are the perfect cupcakes for you! Moist and fluffy chocolate cupcakes, topped with silky chocolate buttercream and chocolate sprinkles - are you tempted yet?
This has been my go-to chocolate cupcake recipe for a while now. They're so easy to make and require no skill at all! You only require 1 bowl, 1 measuring cup and 1 whisk. To make the cupcakes, simply mix the dry ingredients together, then the wet ingredients, mix 'em all together, then add some boiling water. As easy as 1-2-3!
The dry ingredients are just your basic flour, granulated sugar, cocoa etc. The wet ingredients are what give these cupcakes that amazing fluffy texture.
First, I used vegetable oil. The oil is the key to making these cupcakes extra moist. Then we add some buttermilk to give the cupcake that soft and tender crumb. I don't recommend substituting the buttermilk for 2% milk or any other milk. If you don't have buttermilk, you can just sour whole milk using vinegar- I'll give more details in the notes below the recipe.
After you mix the wet and dry ingredients together, you'll need to add either boiling water or hot coffee. This is an important addition to the cupcake, as it enhances the chocolate flavour for a more rich and chocolatey cupcake. You normally shouldn't taste the coffee in the cupcakes, but if you're worried about the taste, either use boiling water or instant coffee.
Before adding the hot water or coffee, the batter will be very thick. As sexy and fudgy as it looks, that's not what we want. A thick batter would create a dense cupcake that resembled brownies. Now that may sound delicious, but we're making soft, moist, light and fluffy cupcakes here, not brownies.
Once we had the hot liquid, the batter will be very, very thin. This is what we want. Thin batter = moist cupcakes! I recommend using a 2 tablespoon ice cream or cookie scoop when dividing the batter between each liner. Simply pouring the batter into the liners is just too messy. Using a scoop will ensure that you have the same amount of batter per cupcake and that they all bake evenly.
The cupcake liners only need to be filled about ⅔ way full. You may feel tempted to fill the batter to the top, but please don't! If you overfill the liners, the cupcakes will overflow and create a muffin top. Filling the liners about ½-2/3 way full will create a perfect and even cupcake dome.
Now that the cupcakes are baked and beautiful, let's move on to the frosting. I topped these fluffy beauties with my Dreamy Chocolate Buttercream Frosting. It's incredibly creamy and has an amazing rich chocolatey flavour that'll send shivers down your spine. I'm not ashamed to admit that I licked the beater, and rubber spatula, clean after whipping this yummy frosting up.
The frosting gets its decadent chocolate flavour from real melted chocolate! The melted chocolate makes this frosting so smooth and silky and delicious! This frosting also requires A LOT of whipping in a stand or hand mixer. Whipping is the key to making your frosting extra light and fluffy!
I then sprinkled these cupcakes with a generous amount of chocolate sprinkles. Or at least, I tried to. Here's the thing about sprinkles in Canada - they're much longer and thinner than they are in America. So instead of having cute and tiny little chocolate sprinkles covering my lovely frosting - I got long and sharp sprinkles clinging for dear life in the creases of my frosting swirls.
Despite their failure, the chocolate sprinkles added a little extra chocolatey flavour to these cupcakes - which is a win in my eyes.
These cupcakes are soft, tender, moist and taste better than a box mix. They're even 10x better when paired with my perfectly fudgy chocolate buttercream that melts in your mouth!
1 bowl, 1 whisk, 24 cupcakes, 1 happy tummy (or more, if you're willing to share). Once you try these cupcakes, I promise it'll be your favourite go-to chocolate cupcake recipe from now on!
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Let's get baking!
Perfectly Moist Chocolate Cupcakes
These Chocolate Cupcakes are perfectly moist, fluffy and full of rich chocolate flavour! Topped with a silky and dreamy Chocolate Buttercream Frosting - these cupcakes are the perfect treat for chocoholics.
Ingredients
- 1 and ½ cups All purpose flour
- 1 and ½ cups granulated Sugar
- ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 and ½ teaspoons Baking powder
- ½ teaspoon Baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 large Eggs, room temperature
- ½ cup Vegetable oil
- ¾ cup buttermilk, room temperature
- 2 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
- ½ cup hot coffee or boiling water
- 1 recipe of my Dreamy Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
- Chocolate sprinkles for decorating (optional)
Instructions
Notes
- Store cupcakes in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
-If you don't have buttermilk, you can substitute by adding 1 tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice to 1 cup of milk. Allow it to sit for 10 minutes, then measure out ¾ cup for the recipe.
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Bon Appétit!
Love, Dedra ❤️
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Sharon Maxwell-Yamamoto
I just found your recipes for vanilla cupcakes and these chocolate ones and I'm trying to decide which to try first. I wonder if it's possible to bake this recipe in a loaf pan and have it be done in the middle? I know that's always a challenge, without having the edges dry out. I will do the cupcakes as written, but I hope to hear back from you, if you can advise about making a loaf cake. Your photos are stunning. I'm so glad I found you on my search!
Dedra | QueensleeAppetit
Hi Sharon, thank you so much! You can most definitely bake these in a loaf pan! Just keep an eye on it in the oven. I'd say start checking it after 25-30 minutes and if it's still jiggly, continue to bake for another 10 minutes, then once it sets up, start testing for doneness with a toothpick in the centre. if theres still wet batter on it, bake and check again every 3-5 minutes until your toothpick comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. The batter may or may not be too much for a loaf pan, so fill the pan 2/3 way full and if there's batter left, use it for cupcakes. Hope this helps!
Teresa
Hi Dedra!
Do you have a red velvet cake recipe?
Thanks!
Dedra | QueensleeAppetit
Coming soon! If you can’t wait, though, you can check out the red velvet cake recipe in my Fire and B.lood Layer Cake.
Sophia
These cupcakes where super easy to make. I have Celiac so I didn't get to try them but my family said they were AMAZING!!!😁😃💖 Love them!
Lynn
Hi. Can these be made into mini cupcakes? If so, about how long baking?
Thanks
Lynn
Dedra | QueensleeAppetit
Yes they can. I haven’t tried making mini versions yet so I’d say cut the original baking time in half and check to see if they’re done by inserting a toothpick inside. If not, continue checking every 2 minutes.
Teresa
Hi Dedra,
I’m thinking of making this recipe into 8” cakes. What would the timing be?
Thanks in advance,
Teresa
Dedra | QueensleeAppetit
Hi Teresa,
I would start with 20-25 minutes. After then, insert a toothpick into the center and if it comes out clean, it’s ready. If there’s still a small amount of wet batter, keep testing every 2 minutes and if the cake is still jiggly, check every 5 minutes.
Teresa
These cupcakes were delicious! My go to recipe, thank you for sharing.
What would be the measurements for a dozen?
Thanks, again!
Dedra | QueensleeAppetit
Just half the recipe
* 3/4 cups All purpose flour
* 3/4 cups granulated Sugar
* 6 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
* 3/4 tsp Baking powder
* 1/4 teaspoon Baking soda
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 1 large Egg, room temperature
* 1/4 cup Vegetable oil
* 6 Tbsp buttermilk, room temperature
* 1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
* 1/4 cup hot coffee or boiling water
Katherine
Ok. These are AMAZING!!! I was SHOCKED how easy to make they are because they taste incredible. My sister made them for me a month or so ago and I told her they were the best chocolate cupcakes I had EVER eaten. The chocolate is rich, the cupcake is moist, and the crumb is perfect. So today we made them together and I cannot believe they are so easy! I have made homemade cupcakes in the past that were fluffy when they were hot out of the oven, but got denser as they cooled. Interestingly, I like these warm, but I think the crumb gets better and the chocolate flavor gets richer as they cool down so I actually prefer eating them at room temperature, which is great because room temperature cupcakes can be beautifully frosted. THANK YOU SO MUCH for sharing this rockstar recipe! It is seriously so good. 😍 Also your photos are beautiful! I didn’t even think about your long, thin sprinkles as odd until you said something! They look great!
Dedra | QueensleeAppetit
You’re so sweet, thank you very much! I’m happy you enjoyed them <3
Luciana
Hi,
Can I use powdered buttermilk? How much of it?
Thank you!
Dedra | QueensleeAppétit
Yes, I think it should be fine. Look at your package directions to see how much powder and water you need to make 1 cup of buttermilk, then measure out 3/4 cup of the buttermilk to use in the recipe.