Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting Recipe

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This Chocolate Cupcakes Recipe with Buttercream Frosting Recipe is a fabulous dessert, special occasion treat, or birthday cupcakes. Made with simple pantry ingredients, you will fall in love with this recipe. Based on my Perfect Chocolate Cake recipe and topped with my Chocolate Frosting.

group of chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting

Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting | They Never Get Old!

I have been testing and testing chocolate cake recipes like there was no tomorrow several weeks ago (much to my chocoholic husband’s delight) and I’m so happy to report that I’ve got a perfect Classic Chocolate Cupcake recipe that is epically delicious that truly will never get old. There really is nothing better than perfectly moist and soft chocolate cake with homemade chocolate buttercream frosting. While I usually prefer a vanilla, red velvet or even an Italian Cream Cake (hello pecans and coconut!), I will never turn down chocolate, especially if it’s this recipe. I hope you love these cupcakes with easy buttercream frosting as much as we have come to love it! Plan to make them for your next birthday party!

Main Ingredients Needed

Just like my chocolate cake recipe, you’re going to see a lot of the same ingredients here. Lots of pantry staples you should have on hand.

For the Best Chocolate Cupcakes:

Flour + Dutch Processed Unsweetened Cocoa Powder – flour fills out the cake and the cocoa gives us that clean chocolate flavor.
Baking Powder + Baking Soda – both are used for the optimal amount of raise.
Salt – to balance out the sweet and bring out that chocolate flavor.
Buttermilk – this helps keep the cake moist. If you don’t have buttermilk use whole milk and white vinegar (1 1/2 cups of milk and 1 1/2 teaspoons of white vinegar).
Vanilla – for flavor.
Instant Coffee Granules – this is an optional ingredient, but a little certainly goes a long way! I recommend adding 1 teaspoon to your batter. You can’t taste coffee in the finished cake, but absolutely helps in getting that rich, chocolate flavor. I used Folgers Instant Coffee Crystals and they worked perfectly. You could also use espresso powder.
Vegetable Oil – used for moist cupcakes
Sugar – to sweeten.
Eggs + Egg Whites – used for structure and texture. The egg white addition helps keep the cake light.

Pro Tip: For best results, use room temperature ingredients!

For the Fluffy Chocolate Buttercream Frosting:

Softened Butter – I like using salted butter, but that’s just my preference. The salt makes such a difference, especially in frosting.
Powdered Sugar (Confectioner’s Sugar) – to make our frosting sweet.
Cocoa Powder – just use dutch processed, just like for the chocolate cupcake batter
Salt – yes, I add a touch more salt to my frosting to really bring out that chocolate flavor
Vanilla Extract – a nice compliment to the cocoa and helps bring out the chocolate flavors.
Heavy Cream – used to bring this frosting together. If substituting milk, be sure to cut this amount in half first before adding all at once.

How to Make Chocolate Cupcakes

This is a super simple method to make these moist chocolate cupcakes! Prep all your ingredients and then stir them together. Pour them into their cupcake liners and bake!

Prep

Preheat oven. Line 32 muffin tins with paper liners and set aside.

Make the Batter

In a large mixing bowl, whisk dry ingredients – all purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt together to combine. Set aside. In a liquid measuring cup, stir buttermilk, vanilla and instant coffee granules (if using) together. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, mix oil and sugar together until combined. Mix in eggs and egg white, one at a time, until mixture becomes lighter in color, about 90 seconds.

Alternate adding in flour mixture with milk mixture, being sure to start and end with flour. Scrape the sides of the bowl and mix again to ensure a smooth batter.

Bake and Cool

Using an ice cream scoop, fill tins 1/2-2/3 of the way full with batter.

Bake in the lower two thirds of the oven. Cupcakes will be done when a toothpick comes out clean or mostly clean with a few moist crumbs. Cool a couple of minutes in pans before trying to remove and transfer to a wire rack. Cool completely before frosting.

Frost Cupcakes

While in the full recipe card I have a simple chocolate buttercream recipe listed, feel free to use a regular vanilla buttercream, cream cheese frosting, or try something different like my Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Frosting (yes, it’s a thing!). Or maybe even my new Whipped Chocolate Ganache Frosting!

Keep in mind that you use less frosting if you just spread it on using a knife and you will use more if you pipe it on. For best results, just do a thin layer per cupcake and added chocolate shavings over top as a garnish. Totally optional, but makes a delicious statement. Of course, sprinkles work, too!

More Amazing Moist Cupcake Recipes to Try!

Check out all of my other cupcake recipes while you’re at it!

So there you have it! A super simple (and delicious!) way to make easy chocolate cupcakes. Try these this week and share with friends and neighbors. You never need a reason to make cupcakes 🙂

Have a great day, friends!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting Recipe

This Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting Recipe is a fabulous dessert, special occasion treat or birthday surprise. Made with simple pantry ingredients, you will fall in love with this recipe.

Ingredients

For the Chocolate Cupcakes:

For the Chocolate Frosting:

Instructions

For the Chocolate Cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 32 muffin tins with paper liners and set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt together to combine. Set aside. In a liquid measuring cup, stir buttermilk, vanilla and instant coffee granules (if using) together. Set aside.
In a separate large bowl, mix oil and sugar together until combined. Mix in eggs and egg white, one at a time, until mixture becomes lighter in color, about 90 seconds.
Alternate adding in flour mixture with milk mixture, being sure to start and end with flour. Scrape the sides and mix again to ensure a smooth batter.
Using an ice cream scoop, fill tins 1/2-2/3rds of the way full with batter. Bake 15-22 minutes in the lower 2/3rds of the oven. Cupcakes will be done when a toothpick comes out clean or mostly clean with a few moist crumbs. Cool 5-10 minutes in pans before trying to remove and transfer to cooling racks. Cool completely before frosting.

For the Chocolate Frosting:

In a large bowl, measure and add butter, powdered sugar, cocoa, salt and vanilla. Stir with beaters on low (or paddle attachment on stand mixer) to mix and break up the butter. It will still be very powdery and dry. Slowly add in the heavy cream. Once you notice the frosting start to come together stop adding the cream. You may need to add more than the amount listed. This is also normal. Increase mixer speed to medium to get rid of any lumps and create a smooth frosting. Scrape the sides and the bottom of the bowl and mix again to ensure a completely smooth frosting.
Chocolate frosting will be done when it can hold its shape, but you can easily move a butter knife through it. If its too thick, add more cream and mix. If you’ve added too much cream and the frosting is too soft, add more powdered sugar. If you notice there are a lot of air bubbles in your frosting, use a large wooden spoon to beat a lot of the air out of the frosting by hand.

Notes

*You can substitute milk for heavy cream in the buttercream recipe. Start with half the amount and slowly add more in as needed until it reaches the desired consistency.

Nutrition

Keyword: chocolate cupcake recipe, chocolate cupcakes

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