Dreamy Chocolate Cupcakes

So here’s the thing friends, I love chocolate. Like, love it. Quite honestly, anything else that is sweet I can basically take it or leave it.

But, I am obsessed with chocolate cake. It is a problem. I have in depth conversations with my friends (well certain friends) about chocolate cake. I think about ways that I can make it better, what would “add” to this chocolate cake, what KINDS of chocolate cake is better for different events…yeah, I am truly a deep thinker here, I know.

Whatever. You will thank me for my “deep thoughts” when you are enjoying different styles of chocolate cake. Anyways, I actually had mastered several chocolate cake recipes that I could pull out for different occasions or you know cravings.

But chocolate cupcakes? No. When I would make my chocolate cupcakes, they weren’t reflecting my decadent and moist chocolate cake slices I had come to appreciate. And I just couldn’t let this stand. I wanted my cupcakes to be just as good as my cake. Happiness in a bite. It has taken me months and dozens of cupcakes to finally get what I think is a good cupcake. And it wasn’t that they weren’t edible or that they were even bad. People still ate them and actually, most people said they were perfectly delicious. But I just wasn’t happy with them.

Anyways, I think I finally found the perfect recipe and since I get asked quite often for a good cupcake recipe, I thought I would share it. Let me know what you think when you try it out or shoot me questions! I am happy to help!

Dreamy Chocolate Cupcakes

Tools you will need:

Cupcake pan (2 if you can)

Cupcake liners

Piping bag-optional

Decorating tip-optional

Hand or stand mixer

For the cake you will need:

1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour-I like Wheat Montana. Sifted.

1/2 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

3 tbsp. chocolate pudding mix.

3/4 cup of cocoa powder. Use a good quality Dutch-processed cacoa powder if you can. This is where the dark and rich flavor of the cupcake comes out. Guittard and Ghirardelli are good options. I have been using this one by Eat Well for several months and have found it to be great quality AND a great price! You could also use Hersheys Special Dark if none of these are an option.

1 egg, room temperature

1 cup buttermilk, room temperature. You can make your own by adding a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to your cup of milk. Let it sit for about 30 minutes. You need your milk to be room temperature anyways. It will start to look a little curdled when it is ready. Give it a quick whisk and you are good to go!

1/2 cup vegetable oil.

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup of hot coffee.

Before you start mixing, turn your oven to 350 degrees and line your cupcake pan with cupcake liners. Do this first, so that as soon as you are done mixing the ingredients together you can distribute the batter evenly and not let the batter sit. Tip for you: You don’t want cake or cupcake batter sitting because your batter will begin to deflate. So have everything ready to go and give the batter a good whip in between batches if you only have one cupcake pan.

Sift together your flour and cocoa powder into a large mixing bowl. Do NOT skip this step. I am telling you, if you want to reward yourself with a scrumptious cupcake, then now is not the time to be lazy and take shortcuts. Don’t do it, friends. Sift the ingredients. I tell you this firmly with love because chocolate cupcakes are life and we need life. Sift, sift, sift.

Okay, now that we got that little Ted talk out of the way we can move on.

So once you are done not being lazy and sifting together your flour and cocoa powder, add your baking powder and baking soda. Add your granulated sugar. Mix everything together well and then add your brown sugar. I often just use my spatula for this part because I find it works better. Up to you though, just mix well.

In a separate bowl or large measuring cup with a spout (I like to use a 4 cup measuring cup with a spout), mix together your milk, hot coffee, vanilla and oil. Then add your egg. Reminder, have your egg and buttermilk at room temperature. If you forget, put them in warm (not hot) water for 5 to 10 minutes. As I said, if you don’t have buttermilk (I very, very rarely do), add a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to your milk. Another tip here: using pure vanilla extract instead of imitation vanilla is a game changer for all of your baked goods. It may seem like a small thing, but friends..it’s not. If you can splurge on it..then do. It is worth it!

Okay so whisk all these ingredients together well.

Then slowly begin adding your milk mixture to the dry ingredients that you have sifted so nicely together and mix it all well on low speed for about one minute. If you are using a KitchenAid I find that the whisk attachment works best for this job.

Stop the mixer and use your spatula to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl. This is also very important. Again, don’t be lazy girlfriend. After scraping, mix again for another 30 seconds to a minute.

Fill your cupcake liners half way. Only half way. If you can’t distribute the batter all at once, just be sure to give your batter a good mix with your spatula before distributing it.

Bake for 16-18 minutes or until the center comes out with a couple of crumbs. Remove from the pan within a minute and let them cool on a wire rack or cutting board works fine too.

While your cupcakes are baking and cooling you can make your frosting. There are actually a lot of different frostings you can use with these cupcakes, depending on what you want. I will share the simple recipe I often use.

This recipe is basically from Rosie Alyea’s Sweetapolita Bakebook.She is incredible you all. Getting her bakebook for my birthday a couple of years ago changed my baking world by hundreds of margins. I used one of her recipes and added cocoa powder, so I am not going to take credit at all for this recipe. I will just share it with you!

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)

1/4 cup shortening. If you don’t want to use shortening, you can just replace it with butter.

2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1/4 tsp. almond extract

3 1/2 cups of confectioners sugar. Sifted.

1 cup of cocoa powder. Here I often just use natural cocoa powder or Hersheys Special Dark. I buy one from Costco that I really like. If you want an even more intense flavor, then use the same dutch processed cocoa powder that you used in the cupcake recipe.

1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream

Pinch of salt

Optional: 2 tbsp. light corn syrup for a shiny finish.

Begin creaming your unsalted butter, shortening and salt together on medium speed. Use UNSALTED butter. You don’t want salted butter here, it will alter the flavor of you frosting and NOT in a good way. Yuck. Hard no on the salted butter.

You don’t have to use shortening if you don’t want to. However, shortening does help with stabilizing your frosting and making it a little creamier. If your cupcakes are going to be in temperatures over 70 degrees for a little while, you may want consider the shortening.

You want to beat the butter mixture for about 8 or 9 minutes, until it is very pale and creamy. Like silky. No clumps. And this is why it is important to use butter at room temperature because it will not mix up very well otherwise. You also don’t want to have to zap it in the microwave. So try to remember to set it out.

Sift your powdered sugar. Sift your cocoa powder. We already had the talk about sifting. It is absolutely imperative here. Don’t get lazy on me. You will be so sad if you don’t. And I don’t want you to be sad. Remember Dreamy Chocolate Cupcakes are supposed to be happiness in a bite. Your hard work will pay off and you will be rewarded with moist, decadent cupcakes. So sift them separately and then whisk them together.

Mixing on low, begin slowly adding your confectioners sugar and cocoa powder to the butter, alternating with the heavy whipping cream. Add in your almond extract and vanilla. Once everything is in, beat on slow for about another minute. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat for about another 6-8 minutes. It should be very light and fluffy.

You can use it right away! Or you can store this in the fridge for 2-3 days or in the freezer for 2 months if you need.

Assemble:

Make sure your cupcakes are completely cooled before frosting. Now you can spread the frosting on with a knife if you want or you can use a piping bag and a star tip to pile it on like I did in the picture. They will taste the same either way!

My girls and I like to throw on some chocolate or colorful sprinkles. 4th of July? Throw on some red, blue and white sprinkles and you have yourself some Independence Day cupcakes!

Enjoy! Please reach out to me if you have questions, I am happy to help!