My easy chocolate cupcake recipe yields two-dozen light, fluffy, and chocolatey cupcakes that are better than a box-mix (and just as easy!). Made quickly and easily in one bowl, they can be baked and frosted in less than an hour. Recipe includes a how-to video!
The Perfect Chocolate Cupcakes
You’re going to be so happy you found this recipe. After all, who doesn’t love a perfectly balanced chocolate cupcake (preferably topped with a generous swirl of chocolate buttercream). My recipe is incredibly moist, so soft, and so perfectly fluffy. Taste wise, they’re sweet without being too sweet and have a pronounced chocolate flavor (I’ll share a few tricks to pull this off). Plus, they’re incredibly quick and easy to make in just one bowl!
I first published this recipe six years ago and it’s been a huge hit with my readers and my own faithful go-to chocolate cupcake recipe (I prefer my slightly heavier chocolate cake recipe for cakes). However, the original recipe made a large, awkward number of cupcakes, so I’ve scaled down the recipe to now make a neat 24 cupcakes with subtly domed tops.
What You Need
Making chocolate cupcakes from scratch is just as easy as using a box mix, but they taste so much better. Here are a few of the ingredients you’ll be using today:
- Cocoa powder. I recommend using natural, regular cocoa powder in your chocolate cupcakes. Dutch process will change the flavor and could impact the texture (if the baking soda isn’t fully neutralized), so I’d recommend sticking with the recipe as written.
- Hot water/coffee. It is very important that you use a hot liquid (the hotter the better, but be careful not to splash yourself with it while mixing) as this reacts with the cocoa powder, causing it to “bloom” and fully develop the rich flavor of the cocoa.
- Oil. Don’t be tempted to replace the oil with melted butter, please! Using oil makes these chocolate cupcakes super moist without weighing them down. The cocoa powder (when bloomed by the hot liquid) provides plenty of flavor, so butter is unnecessary (never would have thought I would type those words!) and actually yields a less-desirable cupcake.
- Cornstarch. I’ve updated this recipe to include a tablespoon of cornstarch. One of my favorite secret ingredients (you may recognize it from my best chocolate chip cookies), this simple addition keeps them tender, soft, and fluffy and it also gives these formerly completely flat cupcakes a slight rounded dome.
SAM’S TIP: If you choose to use coffee, your chocolate cupcakes will not taste mocha-esque; rather the coffee helps to enhance the rich chocolate flavors of the cocoa powder. I recommend you use it!
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make My Favorite Chocolate Cupcake Recipe
Make the Batter
- Whisk all of the dry ingredients and sugar together.
- Add the oil, egg, and vanilla and mix to combine. It’ll seem a bit stiff, dry and crumbly, but just keep mixing and go until all of the dry ingredients are moistened. Feel free to use your electric mixer for this step, but I usually just use a spatula.
- Slowly drizzle in the milk and continue stirring until the batter looks uniform.
- Gradually and carefully add the hot liquid and mix until everything is completely combined.
SAM’S TIP: While you might be able to get away with using buttermilk straight from the fridge, room temp eggs are key here! If your eggs are cold, straight from the fridge, they will not incorporate well into your dry ingredients, leaving you with a batter that’s clumpy, clunky, and not uniform. This can lead to sunken or otherwise wonky cupcakes.
Divide the Batter & Bake
It’s very important to not fill your cupcake liners higher than ⅔ full. If you do, the batter will spread out over the tops and the resulting cupcakes will have flat tops that are likely to sink in on themselves. Opt for under-filling rather than over-filling, and if you do happen to have leftover batter, make extra cupcakes or discard it.
- Evenly divide the batter among a lined cupcake pan and bake for 17-19 minutes.
- Let cupcakes cool completely before frosting.
SAM’S TIP: I recommend baking one pan of chocolate cupcakes at a time, just in case your oven bakes unevenly or does something funky while baking, or even just in case you accidentally leave the first batch in too long. The batter will be fine to wait on the counter while the first batch bakes!
While you can always stick with chocolate buttercream (shown here), my chocolate cupcake recipe tastes lovely with just about any topping. Some of my top recommendations are brown butter frosting (my husband’s favorite pairing), marshmallow frosting, cream cheese frosting, peanut butter frosting (perfect for peanut butter & chocolate lovers!), Swiss meringue buttercream, or vanilla frosting.
Frequently Asked Questions
This chocolate cupcake batter will be very, very thin–much different from the thick batter of my vanilla cake. It’ll seem almost watery/soupy. This is normal and means you’ve done everything right!
While I do have a great chocolate cake recipe, you can use this recipe to make a two layer 8″ or 9″ cake. I provide instructions on how to do this in the recipe notes.
I don’t recommend it. This batter was carefully developed and the inclusion of the cocoa is critical for the proper texture. Even if you swapped an equal amount of flour, it’s not likely to turn out nearly as well as a recipe that was actually designed to be a vanilla cupcake. I suggest you make my easy vanilla cupcake recipe instead!
With only 15 minutes to prep and only one bowl to dirty, what are you waiting for!?
Enjoy!
Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
Truly the Best Chocolate Cupcake Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ⅔ cups (333 g) granulated sugar
- 1 ½ cups (188 g) all-purpose flour
- ⅔ cup (65 g) natural cocoa powder see note 1
- 1 Tablespoon cornstarch see note 2
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon table salt
- ½ cup (118 ml) avocado, canola or vegetable oil
- 1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk room temperature preferred
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ⅔ cup (157 ml) whole milk room temperature preferred
- 1 cup (236 ml) hot coffee see note 3, may substitute hot water
- 1 batch chocolate buttercream or preferred frosting
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Arrange rack to center of oven and preheat oven to 350F (175C). Line two 12-count muffin tins with paper liners.
- In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt (I make this recipe with an electric mixer but it can be done by hand using a whisk and spatula instead).1 ⅔ cups (333 g) granulated sugar, 1 ½ cups (188 g) all-purpose flour, ⅔ cup (65 g) natural cocoa powder, 1 Tablespoon cornstarch, 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder, 1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda, 1 teaspoon table salt
- Add canola oil, egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract and stir until batter is combined (it will be a bit dry and crumbly but all of the flour mixture should be moistened before proceeding).½ cup (118 ml) avocado, canola or vegetable oil, 1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- Drizzle in milk while stirring and stir until batter is uniform and completely combined.⅔ cup (157 ml) whole milk
- Gradually add hot coffee or hot water (take care not to burn yourself!) and stir until liquid is completely incorporated into the batter and you have a smooth chocolate batter. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure everything is well-combined. The batter will be very thin, this is normal!1 cup (236 ml) hot coffee
- Evenly divide batter into prepared muffin tin, but take care to fill liners between ½ and not more than ⅔ of the way full, this is typically about 3 Tablespoons of batter or less per cupcake liner. Over-filled liners will result in cupcakes with flat tops and they may cave in on themselves. If you have excess batter, discard it (or make extra cupcakes!).
- Transfer one pan of cupcakes to 350F (175C) preheated oven and bake for 17-19 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs (or clean). Allow to cool for 10-15 minutes in baking pan before carefully removing to cooling rack to cool completely before frosting (I like to use a knife to gently pry up the cupcake from the bottom and then carefully lift it out to a cooling rack). Repeat with second pan of cupcakes
- Once cupcakes have cooled, frost with my chocolate frosting or your favorite frosting recipe.1 batch chocolate buttercream
Notes
Cocoa powder
I recommend using natural unsweetened cocoa powder for best results. However, in a pinch Dutch process cocoa powder can be used instead, but note that the flavor will be slightly different and the cupcakes will be darker.Cornstarch
Cornstarch is my secret ingredient, it makes the cupcakes tender and fluffy and gives them the perfect, slight domed tops. However, if you do not have it on hand you may omit it, note that your cupcakes will likely be flatter though.Hot coffee/hot water
A hot liquid is essential to properly blooming the cocoa powder (which gives the cake a pronounced, rich chocolate flavor). I like to use hot coffee because the coffee flavor enhances the chocolate, making the flavor even richer and deeper. However, you can just use hot water instead. The hotter the liquid the better; boiling is fine, just be careful! Please note I don’t recommend using other hot liquids such as hot chocolate which often have other additives and sugar added and could adversely affect the final outcome.Frosting
I used my Ateco 848 tip to pipe the frosting on the cupcakes in the photos above and in the video. If you wish to frost all of your cupcakes this generously you will want to double the frosting called for in the recipe that I linked to, but honestly you don’t need to and a more modest amount (half the amount shown) works great and allows the cupcake flavor to really shine, it just didn’t look quite as nice in the pictures!Baking chocolate cupcake batter in different sized pans
You may bake these cupcakes in two 8” pans for 35-37 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean with a few moist crumbs. In two 9” pans the cakes will take a bit less time, start checking at 30-32 minutes. This recipe should also work just fine in a 13×9” pan, but I would keep an eye on it as I haven’t tested it in this size pan yet.Original recipe
I’ve received a lot of requests for the original recipe. As I mentioned in my post, this current recipe is the one I recommend, it’s simply scaled down from that one to make an even 24 cupcakes, to prevent the overflowing issue many people were having, and a bit of cornstarch has been added to improve structure. It’s a slightly better cupcake recipe for the changes and I recommend using the recipe as seen here. However, since so many of you have asked, here is the original recipe. Please note that I am not accepting comments or questions on the original and recommend you use the recipe I have published here currently.Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Related Recipes
My chocolate cupcake recipe was originally published in March of 2016. A few small modifications were made to scale the recipe down to 24 even cupcakes without changing the texture, and the post has been updated to be more informative and a how-to video has been added.
Orli Rabinowitz
I’ve made these once before, and they turned out amazing!!!!! With all that is going on, I only have heavy cream in my fridge, no milk. Is there a way to substitute that?
Sam
Hi Orli! I honestly have not tried, I am wondering if you could thin the cream with some water to make it work properly but am not certain and am hesitant to advise without having tried it myself… if you try it would you let me know how it works out for you?
Charlie
We love these cupcakes and have baked them several times at home. We’ve recently moved to a higher altitude. Do you know any tips for adjusting the recipe to work at around 6000 feet? They all fell in the centre, which I never had at home. Many thanks. Best chocolate cupcake ever.
Sam
Hi Charlie! I’m so sorry they sunk! I’m not familiar with high altitude baking, but that may be the issue here, or the cupcake liners may have been slightly over-filled. Hopefully they turn out better next time. 🙂
Victoria
This recipe made the best chocolate cupcakes I’ve ever tasted. Thank you for sharing! I only had Dutch-processed cocoa so because I was afraid the cupcakes wouldn’t rise properly I substituted half a cup of home-made buttermilk to add some acidity and half a cup of milk for the whole cup of milk. Not sure if it made a difference but the cupcakes rose with no problems. My 8 yo has never been a big cake or cupcake fan but she loved these!
Sam
I am so happy to hear this, Victoria!!! Thank you so much for commenting and letting me know how they turned out for you, I really appreciate it! 🙂
Brandy Tolar
Made these this morning for my Moms birthday and she absolutely loved them! I’m so grateful for this fantastic recipe.
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that your mom enjoyed her birthday cupcakes and I hope that she had a wonderful celebration. Thanks for trying my recipe. 🙂
Momof3
Very good! We added chocolate chips to the second batch but they sunk because the batter is thin. You definitely don’t need it it’s very delicious without it we were just trying to use those up. 😋🥰
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed the cupcakes, Steph! A trick when adding chocolate chips to cake batter is to toss them in a little flour before adding them. This will help suspend them in your batter. I hope that helps for next time. 🙂
Momof3
Oh ok! Thanks so much! How does the flour stick?
Sugar Spun Run
It lightly dusts the outside of the chocolate chips and gives it a light coating. You can use this method for dried fruits as well. 🙂
Momof3
Perfect! Thanks so much!!
Aniqa
I made them and they turned out gigantic:/ any idea why?
Sam
Hi Aniqa! Did you happen to overfill the cupcake liners?
Cadence
Mine did too. I have no Idea why or how!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so sorry that this happened to you both. Most likely it is a result of overfilling your liners. You want to be sure to only fill them 2/3 of the way full. If you overfill the liners, there’s too much batter and not enough space to climb. The batter can spill over the sides and you’ll be left with flat cupcakes. Regardless, I hope that they still tasted delicious.
Bhav
Thankuu for the lovely recipe
For the first time i made something that tasted good
It looked also really pretty
Thanku❤️
Sugar Spun Run
That is wonderful, Bhav! I am happy that you enjoyed the cupcakes. 🙂
Sofie
Hi could this be used as cake batter too? I have extra batter and dont know what to do with it. Also great recipe!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed the recipe, Sofie! Yes, this batter can be used to make a cake too. The bake time will just be different so I would reccomend keeping an eye on it. 🙂
Shauna
The Cupcakes were so moist and yummy. The cupcakes were a cake texture and were very light and fluffy! I would recommend the cupcakes and we can not forget about the frosting so delicious and thick witch made a nice paring with the moist cupcake. That is why I give this 5 stars!!!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you loved them, Shauna! Thank you for the 5-star review and for trying my recipe. 🙂
Destiny Steil-Tran
These turned out great! I’m hoping to make them for a friend that can’t eat dairy. Do you think I could use almond or oat milk instead?
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed the muffins, Destiny! Almond milk may alter the taste and texture of the cake, however, I have not tried it myself. If you do, I’d love to know how it turns out for you. 🙂
John
Ok
My first ever attempt at baking cupcakes…
These were ridiculously delicious!!
I didn’t do the frosting because I didn’t really have everything I needed. So easy. Why do people ever use a mix?
Sam
I am so happy to hear this, John! Thank you so much for letting me know how they turned out for you! And yes, they really are so easy! 🙂
Mabel
Hey Sam! I only have Dutch Process cocoa powder in my cabinet. Can I use it to make the cupcakes? I’d luv to try to make the cupcakes today for Mom’s Day. Lemme know. Thx!
Sam
Hi Mabel! I generally don’t recommend because the Dutch Processed cocoa will react differently with the leaveners, however I have had someone comment that this substitution worked for them. If you do try it, would you let me know how it works out for you?
Mabel
Hi Sam. Sry for late reply. I used the Dutch Processed cocoa to make the cupcakes. My fam told me they tasted pretty good or ok, but a little off or different tasting. I can’t describe the taste. It tasted not sweet enough or something. Not sure if it was the Dutch Processed cocoa that made the difference. Or I adding too much baking soda or whatever. Sigh. Lol.
Sam
It was probably the dutch processed cocoa powder giving you that different taste. It reacts differently and causes a little bit of a different flavor. 🙂
Jennifer
I love all your recipes and this chocolate cupcake did not disappoint! Thanks for another great recipe, Sam!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them, Jennifer! 🙂
nina
hi sam thanks for this tasty cupcake recipe.this cupcake is easy to make and so moist.i made mine with coffee as your recipe suggests.couldnt wait for mothers day to try it and wow hit the spot!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed the cupcakes so much, Nina! 🙂
nina
omg pam love this cupcake recipe! so tasty used coffee for mine cme out so moist. illl try to save a few for mothers day.thanks
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Nina! 😊
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed, Nina! Thank you for commenting!
Heather
Can you make these with vegetable oil instead of canola oil?
Sam
Yup, that’s not a problem! Enjoy!