Chocoholics unite! These chocolate cupcakes are moist, rich, and ridiculously easy!
These are the BEST easy chocolate cupcakes. Minimal prep time, minimal clean up, and no electric mixer required for the batter!
You can top these cupcakes with my rich chocolate buttercream frosting for the ultimate double chocolate hit. They are also perfectly delicious on their own 🙂
Moist Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Yield:
12 Cupcakes with Frosting
Prep Time:
30 minutes
Cook Time:
20 minutes
Total Time:
50 minutes
These chocolate cupcakes are ultra-moist and incredibly easy to make! No electric mixer and minimal clean-up. Try my rich chocolate buttercream frosting for the ultimate double chocolate hit.
Ingredients
For the Chocolate Cupcakes
- 1 cup plain flour / all purpose flour
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 cup caster sugar / superfine sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ cup whole dairy milk
- 1 tbsp vinegar (any kind) OR lemon juice
- ½ cup canola oil (or any vegetable oil)
- 2 eggs
- ¼ cup boiling coffee OR boiling water
For the Chocolate Buttercream Frosting (large quantity, see notes)
- 250 g (9 oz / 1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
- 2 cups icing sugar / powdered sugar, sifted
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
- ¼ cup whole dairy milk
Instructions
For the Chocolate Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 160°C / 320°F (fan-forced/convection) or 180°C / 355°F (standard). Line a 12-hole standard muffin tin with paper cases.
- Sift flour, cocoa powder and baking powder into a large mixing bowl. Whisk in caster sugar and salt until well combined.
- In a separate medium mixing bowl, whisk together milk and vinegar. Stand for 5-10 minutes or until thick and curdled. Whisk in canola oil and eggs until well combined.
- Pour the egg mixture into the dry ingredients and whisk together until well combined. Whisk in hot coffee/water. The batter will thin out.
- Distribute the batter evenly among the paper cases. Do not fill more than half-full. Overfilling the cases will cause the batter to spill over when baking. Depending on how you measured your ingredients, you may have enough batter for an extra 1-2 cupcakes.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of one of the cupcakes comes out clean. Allow the cupcakes to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
For the Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
- In the large bowl of an electric mixer (or using a hand mixer), cream together the butter and sugar on high speed until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add the cocoa powder and milk. Beat on a very low speed for 1 minute, then increase speed to high and beat for another 2 minutes until pale, fluffy and well combined.
- For swirls: ensure cupcakes are completely cooled before frosting. Fit a piping tip with a star-tip nozzle. Fill the piping bag ¾ full with frosting and twist the top to secure. Pipe a small mound of icing in the centre of a cupcake. In one fluid motion, pipe a ring around the mound then continue to pipe in a circular motion towards the centre of the cupcake to create a hi-top swirl.
Notes
Storage
- You can store the frosted cupcakes unrefrigerated for up to 3 days (they will stay moist). They will last 4 days without frosting.
Substitutions & Tips
- Half quantity of chocolate buttercream frosting: the frosting recipe makes enough for large swirls on each cupcake. If you just want to spread a bit of frosting on the top of each cupcake instead of swirls, halve the frosting recipe as follows: Beat together 125 g (4.5 oz / ½ cup) of softened butter with 1 cup of sifted icing sugar until fluffy. Add ¼ cup of sifted unsweetened cocoa powder and 2 tbsp of whole dairy milk. Beat until pale and fluffy.
- Coffee: coffee helps bring out the chocolate flavour in the cupcakes. You won't be able to taste the coffee flavour. I use combine ½ teaspoon of instant coffee granules with ¼ cup of boiling water. You can also brew strong coffee in a French press and use that.
- Measuring the cupcake batter: I use a ¼ cup measurement to scoop the batter. This will fill a standard paper case half full (take care as sizes differ).
Nutrition Information:
Serving Size: 1 Cupcake with FrostingAmount Per Serving: Calories: 454Total Fat: 28.4gSaturated Fat: 12.2gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 5.9gCholesterol: 75.6mgSodium: 331.6mgCarbohydrates: 51.4gFiber: 2.9gSugar: 38.8gProtein: 4.2g
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