Absolutely delicious, rich and chocolatey. I definitely think these are the best ever chocolate cupcakes with a delicious smooth buttercream
This is a combination of two of my favourite recipes, my Best Ever Chocolate Cake and an old classic chocolate buttercream recipe I have been using for years. Neither of them involved tricky techniques or are at all difficult but both combine beautifully to make these cupcakes something special.
To make a vanilla buttercream is very similar, you can read about that over on my Best Ever Vanilla Cupcakes post.
The key for both recipes is to follow them closely, but you can taste as you go with the buttercream. For me I like the cocoa and vanilla flavour to shine through so I will use extra vanilla to cover the butter flavour, and extra cocoa to get a darker colour, but others prefer it less sweet. So add the vanilla and cocoa as I list below, taste then add a little extra at a time as you need.
The recipe for the cupcake makes a beautiful cake and equally delicious cupcakes. It is a lovely moist recipe and gets better and better by the day. And before you mention it, yes it has lots of sugar and cocoa. That is why it tastes so very very good!
This recipe makes two dozen cupcakes from this recipe so it goes a long way. The batter is very thin so you may wish to pour it into a jug to fill the cupcake cases. The key to creating the right size cupcakes is to only fill the cases 1/2 to 2/3rds full at most. This way the cupcake rises but does not go over the edge of the cases and allows room to ice.
Then bake it and to test if it is cooked simply gently tap with your finger, if it bounces back to your gentle touch it is ready to go. These do take a little longer than my vanilla cupcakes, so expect them to take at least 20 minutes.
The key to a good buttercream is to whip the butter for a long time in a food mixer. You will want to beat the butter for at least 5 minutes until it is very pale and creamy. You do not want to beat it too much once you begin to add the icing sugar.
Finally add the icing sugar and cocoa a little at a time with the milk and add the vanilla at the end. Taste as you go.
To cook the perfect cupcake you will need cupcake cases. There are so many now, you can get card ones, cafe style paper ones or the regular patty cases. Use whatever suits your theme. If you prefer to use vanilla buttercream and colour it check out my recipe here.
You will need to take care to store the buttercream well. If it is hot weather you will need to store these in the fridge until you are ready to serve as they are butter based! You don’t want these to go off before you get a chance to enjoy them.
So onto the recipe!
Best Ever Chocolate Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1¾ Cups Plain White Flour
- 1¾ Cups Sugar
- ¾ Cup Cocoa Powder
- 1½ teaspoons Baking Powder
- 1½ teaspoons Baking Soda
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 2 Eggs
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence
- ½ Cup Oil (I use Canola)
- 1 Cup Milk
- 1 Cup Boiling Water
Buttercream Icing - you may wish to double this recipe for this amount of cupcakes
- 125g Softened Butter
- 1 1/2 Cups Icing Sugar (you are supposed to sift I never do!)
- 1/4 Cup Cocoa Powder
- 3 TBSP Milk
- 1 tsp Vanilla Essence
Instructions
Buttercream Icing
- In a food mixer bowl add the butter and cream for 4-5 minutes until pale and creamy.
- Add half the icing sugar, cocoa and half the milk and mix gently, add the other half of the icing sugar, cocoa and milk and blend gently until fully combined.
- Add the vanilla essence and mix until fully combined, taste and add more cocoa or vanilla as you need.
- Prepare your piping bag with the appropriate sized tip and half fill the piping bag. (1M tip for roses). Tip is to fold down the top 3rd of the piping bag over your hand to add the buttercream. Then fold back and twist top of the bag.
- Pipe a swirl from the middle of the cupcake to the outside if creating roses
- Set aside and repeat.
- Taste test one or two for quality control purposes before serving.
I am delighted to share this recipe with you. I hope you get to use it lots over the years!
You can find my vanilla cupcake recipe here – try them both and let me know what you prefer the most!
Thank you so much for stopping by to check out this recipe. Please also follow me on Facebook or Instagram and you can be one of the first to receive my new recipes by subscribing via email in the link below. Your comments are always warmly welcomed and recipe suggestions too!
Happy Baking!
Anna
Sharon says
Hi Anna, I’m wondering if your measuring cups and spoons in NZ are the same as here in Australia ? 250 mls – 1cup and 20 ml – 1 tabs.
justamumnz says
Our cups are 250mls and tablespoons are 15mls
Sha-ronn says
Just wondering if White Sugar is a good substitute for castor sugar?
justamumnz says
Yes it should be fine ☺️
Sis l says
Love this recipe also baked as a cake to taste good no different from the cupcake .. Kids love it more
Alex says
I have used this recipe twice now and it is easy and delicious! On the weekend my brother in law told me it was the best cupcake he had ever eaten. Needless to say they were all gone in a flash. This is now written up in the cookbook!
Sara says
Hi, if using a fan force oven, is the temp converted to 140? Thanx
justamumnz says
It is often recommended if using fan forced then you reduce the original temperature by 20C
S says
Can you use vegetable oil?
justamumnz says
Yes
Al says
These are amazing I have made them many times and always get a lot of complements. Thanks for a great receipt and gaining me a great reputation among friends and colleagues
Dott says
How much cream are you suppose to use?
justamumnz says
Hi, there is no cream in this recipe?
Brittany Webling says
The first instruction for the icing is mix cream and butter.
How much cream?
justamumnz says
Sorry what that means is to “cream” the butter, so mix it until pale and creamy. I’ll change the wording so it’s not confusing.
Robyn says
The best chocolate cupcake recipe I have made! So light and fluffy and delicious.
Kat says
Beautiful and fluffy cupcakes, so easy to make and the buttercream was delish!
Claire says
looks awesome!
Vanessq says
Absolutely delicious and the frosting makes it. My buttercream looked terrible and i could chucks of butter so i need to practice more but will absolutely make again
justamumnz says
Practice makes perfect! ☺️ glad you liked the recipe
Tammy says
Yup must try these..
Carole says
Thanks. I use the conversion page in the good old Edmonds cookbook 🙂
Carole says
Would be great (and really helpful) if you could also include weights in the measures of ingredients. Love your work 🙂
justamumnz says
Hi Carole, sorry I haven’t had the time to go back through and convert the recipes, I just tend to share what I use. I am hoping in the future I will have a recipe card that will automatically do this for people. In the meantime if I need weights I just google it – ie 1 cup of flour to grams or ounces.