Classic Chocolate Cupcake Recipe from Scratch
Today I'm sharing the BEST Chocolate Cupcake recipe with you from scratch!
We're talking ultra moist, fluffy, and perfectly chocolatey cupcakes! SO good. Make these once, and you'll come back to this recipe again and again.
Don't let the title of this post fool you, this decadent chocolate cupcake recipe can be used for chocolate layer cakes too!
If you've explored our Cakes and Cupcakes Section, you may be familiar with our favorite classic Chocolate Cake recipe. This homemade chocolate cake has been one of our most popular cake recipes over the years, and is our go-to when we need a rich, decadent chocolate cake.
Today's featured classic chocolate cupcake recipe is based on our popular chocolate cake recipe, but the mixing method is different.
Instead of using the reverse creaming method of mixing as we do when making layers of classic chocolate cake, we use the conventional method of mixing for our cupcakes. This small change makes for fluffier cupcakes!
Table of Contents
Frequently Asked Questions
- Can these cupcakes be frozen? Yes they can! Our method of choice is to line them up onto a sheet cake board, lay a piece of plastic wrap on top, and then wrap in aluminum foil for up to three months. To thaw, leave the foil on the cupcakes but loosen each end so that it isn't so tightly sealed. Condensation will form on the foil rather than the cupcakes. You can remove the wrapping once they are nearly thawed.
- Why is there coffee in this chocolate cake recipe? Can I leave it out? Coffee enhances the flavor of the chocolate in the recipe- but there is no coffee flavor. Yes, the coffee can be left out, and replaced with water instead.
Our homemade chocolate cupcakes above were frosted with our classic Vanilla Buttercream recipe. Our Fluffy Vanilla Buttercream would work well too! (Fluffy Vanilla Buttercream contains shortening and butter while Classic Vanilla only contains butter)
We used our trusty 2D (large star) piping tip to create a rose swirls of frosting. (To make a rose swirl, simply start in the center of the cupcake, holding the bag vertically, and spiral out.)
**If you are looking for a great Doctored Cake Mix recipe for Chocolate Cupcakes, we love this one!: Chocolate Cake (Doctored Cake Mix) Recipe .
What Frostings and Fillings taste great with chocolate cupcakes?
Chocolate cakes and cupcakes are great with so many flavors! In fact, we've used today's recipe to make Mint Chocolate Cupcakes as well as Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcakes. Here are a few more favorites;
Classic Chocolate Buttercream,
Mint Chocolate Chip Buttercream Frosting
More Cupcakes!
We have many more cupcake recipes to share with you!
Some of our favorites are Boston Cream Cupcakes, Banana Pudding Cupcakes (both are cake mix), homemade Strawberry Cupcakes, and Lemon Cupcakes!
Have you made this? We would LOVE for you to leave a ⭐️ rating as well as a comment and photo below! We really appreciate your feedback!
Classic Chocolate Cupcake Recipe from Scratch
Ingredients
- 1 cup 2 sticks (226g) unsalted butter, softened
- 2 cups 400g sugar
- 4 large eggs
- ¼ cup 54g vegetable oil
- 2 ¾ cups 322g all purpose flour
- 1 cup 82g unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted (don't skip the sifting)
- 2 teaspoons 10g baking soda
- ½ teaspoon 2g baking powder
- ½ teaspoon 2g salt
- 1 cup 220g milk
- 1 teaspoon 4g vanilla extract
- 1 cup 220g hot coffee, it can be instant or brewed
- cupcake liners
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. (If making a cake rather than cupcakes, grease and flour three 8 inch cake pans).
- In a separate bowl, add the flour, sifted cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Whisk to blend and set aside.
- In the bowl of your mixer, beat the softened butter on medium speed until light and creamy. Add the vegetable oil and vanilla extract.
- Gradually add the sugar and mix until light and fluffy, approximately 4 to 5 minutes.
- Add the eggs 1 at a time, mixing after each egg just until the yellow of the yolk has blended. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
- Mixing on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk to the sugar mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. (3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 additions of milk) Mix just until combined.
- Add the cup of hot coffee at this time on low speed, mixing just until combined. The batter will be very thin. Don't worry this is how it should be.
- If making cupcakes, scoop the batter (about ¼ cup per cupcake) into the cupcake liners and bake at 350 for about 16-18 minutes, or until the tops spring back when lightly touched or a toothpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. (Makes about 3 dozen cupcakes).
- If making cake layers, divide the batter between three prepared 8 inch cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes. Check for doneness at 30 min. by putting a toothpick in the center of the cake. If it comes out clean or with only a few crumbs attached, it is done.
- Makes 9 cups of batter.
Hello, can I substitute the all purpose flour with cake flour? Thank you.
Audrey
Hi Audrey, Yes, you can substitute all purpose flour with cake flour. For each cup of all purpose flour in the recipe, use 1 cup cake flour plus 2 Tablespoons cake flour. This recipe has 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour so you will use 2 3/4 cup cake flour plus 5 Tablespoons and 1 1/2 teaspoons additional cake flour.
Hi! I tried this recipe for the first time last night, I'd been wanting to try it for a while but just got to it last night. I got exactly 9 cups of batter which I separated in 3-8" pans and the cake baked beautifully. They rose wonderfully and seemed very light however as I took them out and let them cool, they started to loose height. They were about 1.75" high and I ended up with about 1.25" total height on my completely cooled cakes. Do you know why this might have happened? What could I change to make sure this doesn't happen again?
Great, thank you Melissa for your response.
Audrey
My batch came out with 30 cupcakes. Just wondering if anyone else had this happen. Cupcakes are good but recipe said 24 cupcakes.
What tip did you use for the chocolate cupcakes please?
Greatly appreciated
Charmaine
I want to make these with the beautiful pink flower looking frosting. What is the recipe for that and what piping tip did you use?
Hello we used our Classic Vanilla Buttercream & a 2D tip, but a 1M tip would give a very similar result (as would our Fluffy Vanilla Buttercream Recipe)
To Shannon C from December 2017 post. I just made this recipe today and I got 35!!! Great cupcakes!
Hello there,
Ive read the recepie..you have mentioned that the oven needs to be pre heated to 350 degrees, however the OTG (called as oven toaster n grill) the temprerature which shows only till 250
So hiw wud i go abt baking the cupcake in this situation. Any help is appreciated.
Thank You.
Regards,
Pallavi
Hi Pallavi, I think that your oven is temperature is in celsius and my temperature is measured in fahrenheit. So you would set your oven to 177. Here is a link to a chart you will find helpful,
http://www.goodcooking.com/conversions/temp.htm
This recipe make a lot of batter for cupcakes so if you need to hold extra batter until the oven if free, keep it refrigerated. This is not ideal but it should work for you. Hope all goes well.
Thank you so much for your help. Will surely try to bake the cupcake now. Also, thank you for the conversion chart it is so useful.
Have a gr8 day.
Regards