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These soft and rich chocolate cupcakes pack an intense chocolate flavor in each bite. Topped with creamy chocolate buttercream, these are really the best chocolate cupcakes.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a huge chocolate cake fan. Give me buttery pastry twists with luscious custard or tart lime pie any day,. However, I have to say these chocolate cupcakes will knock your socks off. They are just the right balance of sweet and intense chocolate flavor. These chocolate cupcakes get their flavor from good quality cocoa powder and a hint of espresso. I used my vanilla buttercream recipe to create this creamy chocolate buttercream to top them off.

How to Make Chocolate Cupcakes

Forget the cake mix! Just like my simple vanilla cupcakes, these chocolate cupcakes use simple ingredients and are really easy to make. Plus we’re not creaming butter and sugar so you can mix these by hand or with a hand mixer. All you need is two bowls to get started!

Mix together the wet ingredients (sugar, eggs, oil, vanilla)
Mix together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cocoa powder and espresso)
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients
Add the buttermilk
Bake!

Don’t have buttermilk on hand? No problem! Just add 1 tablespoon of vinegar to 1 cup of milk. Let it sit for 5 minutes and ta-da, you have buttermilk.

Why Espresso?

By adding just a tad bit of espresso, it enhances the flavor of the chocolate. Some people use hot coffee which essentially both blooms the cocoa powder and adds the coffee to bring out the flavor.

But, wait! Does it taste like coffee? No. The espresso is so subtle that you don’t get a coffee flavor.

How to Avoid “Sunken” Cupcakes

Picture it. You have cupcakes rising perfectly in the oven. You pull them out of the oven getting excited to eat some cupcakes. You come back to check on them, but oh no! What’s that? The cupcakes have sunken in the middle. Sad day! [insert crying sounds]

To help you avoid sunken cupcakes, you must do these two things:

Pull the cupcakes out of the pan immediately and place on a cooling rack. You can use a spoon to help pop the cupcakes out of the tin.
Do not overfill your batter! This cupcake recipe makes exactly 12 cupcakes. If you overfill them they will overflow and sink in the middle.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Did you just lick the screen? I know right? I’m having trouble resisting too. This chocolate buttercream is creamy and delicious!

I used my vanilla buttercream and just added a bit of cocoa powder to make the chocolate buttercream. If you want a more rich chocolate buttercream, you can add melted chocolate to the buttercream. Just be careful adding too much or it will change the consistency of the buttercream.

I used a 1M piping tip to create the swirl on the top. The 1M piping tip Is my favorite tip. It can be used to create these perfect swirls on top of a cupcake, rosettes on the sides of a cake, or a pipped border on the bottom of a cake.

Chocolate Cupcakes

Makes 12 cupcakes

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword cupcakes

Servings 12

Ingredients

For the cupcakes:

3/4 cup sugar (175 g)
2 eggs
1/3 cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour (150 g)
1.5 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cocoa powder (50 g)
1/2 teaspoon espresso
1 cup buttermilk

For the frosting

4 cups sifted powered sugar (450 g)
6 tablespoons room temperature butter (85 g)
1/4 cup shortening (50 g)
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup cocoa powder (50 g)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line a 12-cup muffin pan with cupcake liners.
In one mixing bowl stir together the wet ingredients (sugar, eggs, oil and vanilla).
In another mixing bowl stir together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cocoa and espresso).
Add dry ingredients to the wet and stir together.
Slowly add the buttermilk.
Pour batter into the cupcake liners.
Bake for 18-22 minutes. Immediately remove cupcakes to cool on cooling rack.
Frost cooled cupcakes with frosting.

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