This Chocolate Cupcake recipe is my go-to for birthday parties and bake sales, since they are perfectly moist and oh-so chocolatey. Top them with our chocolate frosting, and you have the ultimate chocolate lover’s cupcake!
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Helpful Reader Review
“I made these last weekend for my husband and my wedding anniversary, and oh my goodness, DELICIOUS!!! The cake was so simple and quick to put together, baked beautifully and the icing was delicious and so lovely and thick! Can’t wait to bake it again!!!” – Jazz ★★★★★
Chocolate Cupcake Video Tutorial
This recipe is SO EASY! Simply mix the dry ingredients, then mix the wet ingredients, and whisk them together. They bake up with a beautiful domed top and taste way better than a store-bought box mix.
Best Chocolate Cupcake Recipe
Ever since my daughter was little, we’ve celebrated her birthday with these decadent chocolate cupcakes, so they’ve become a staple on her day. Fast forward to now, and she has begun to make the cupcakes and Chocolate Buttercream herself (and I’m not allowed to help). She loves them so much that we even made Mini Chocolate Cupcakes out of them.
This chocolate cupcake recipe is moist and fluffy at the same time with a tender crumb. Adding coffee is the secret ingredient here, making these intensely chocolatey and giving the cupcakes a deeper color (and yes, you can sub with decaf coffee). You can’t really taste the coffee, and you probably wouldn’t know it’s there if you didn’t read the recipe, but it really makes the chocolate flavor shine.
Ingredients for Homemade Chocolate Cupcakes
After coffee, you’ll notice this recipe for chocolate cupcakes requires all the usual suspects for the perfect chocolately texture and taste.
- All-purpose Flour – Be sure to measure correctly for the best crumb.
- Cocoa powder – Use naturally unsweetened cocoa powder for the best chocolate flavor and light, fluffy texture.
- Sugar, baking soda, and salt – remaining dry ingredients, giving sweetness and rise
- Brewed coffee – warm regular or decaf coffee works perfectly. The acidity of the coffee deepens the chocolate flavor. Swap with room-temperature buttermilk if necessary.
- White distilled vinegar – reacts with the baking soda for a better rise.
- Vegetable oil, egg, and vanilla extract – remaining wet ingredients for moisture, strength, and flavor. P.S. If you are egg-free, try our Eggless Chocolate Cupcakes.
Pro Tip:
I’ve tested chocolate cupcakes with coffee and with buttermilk, and the coffee makes for a better tasting, darker colored, more moist cupcake, but buttermilk works in a pinch. See the difference below.
Pro Tip:
To make a cake instead of cupcakes, double the recipe and cook in two 9″ cake pans. See our Chocolate Cake Recipe for guidance on baking the cake
How to Make Chocolate Cupcakes
This recipe for chocolate cupcakes couldn’t get any easier, but the result tastes like it’s straight from the bakery.
- Quick prep – Preheat the oven with a rack in the center, and line a 12-count cupcake pan with liners (I love parchment paper liners – excellent for being non-stick).
- Mix dry ingredients – In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt, breaking up any big clumps.
- Mix wet ingredients – In a second bowl, whisk together the warm coffee, vinegar, oil, egg, and vanilla.
- Combine cupcake batter – Pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients and whisk just until combined. The batter will be a little loose with small lumps. Overmixing can make the cupcake too dense.
- Fill and bake – Fill each cupcake liner 2/3 full and bake at 350˚F for 18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (do not overbake or your cupcakes will be dry). Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, and then transfer the cupcakes to a rack to cool before frosting.
Pro Tip: Do not overfill the cupcake tin
Use a trigger-release ice cream scoop for even portioning and fill each cup 2/3. If you overfill, it will flow over, get stuck to the tin, and won’t form that perfect dome top. It’s better to have a little batter left over than to overflow the pan.
The Best Frosting for Chocolate Cupcakes
This moist chocolate cupcake recipe only gets better when topped with my 6-minute Chocolate Buttercream Frosting. If you want something different, try any of these popular frosting recipes:
- Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
- Vanilla Cupcake Frosting
- Cream Cheese Frosting
- Swiss Merignue Buttercream Recipe
- Chocolate Ganache
- White Chocolate Frosting
- Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
- Homemade Whipped Cream
Helpful Reader Review
“Made these, and used coffee in the chocolate buttercream recipe instead of cream for a mocha frosting. They were delicious, my sister loved them.” – K Booth ★★★★★
Make-Ahead and Storage Tips
This chocolate cupcake recipe is perfect for party prep because you can make them ahead of time and they refrigerate really well, maintaining their soft and moist texture.
- Make-Ahead: Make the cupcakes a day ahead, cool, cover, and store on the counter overnight, and then frost before serving, or freeze (see below).
- Store Frosted Leftovers: Pack into an airtight container and store on the counter for a day, then move to the refrigerator for 4-5 days. If you don’t have a cupcake carrier, you can flip a storage container upside down to store cupcakes on the lid, snapping the bottom on top.
- Freezing: Cooled unfrosted cupcakes or Cupcakes frosted with buttercream can be covered and frozen up to 2 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight or quick-thaw on the counter for 2 hours.
My Chocolate Cupcake recipe is sure to become a go-to favorite for you! I cranked out 8 batches of cupcakes when I was developing the recipe, and I am confident these are the ultimate chocolate cupcakes. Let us know your favorite way to decorate in the comments!
Easy Chocolate Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, measured correctly
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup warm coffee, or substitute with room temperature buttermilk*
- 1 Tbsp white distilled vinegar
- 1/3 cup light olive oil, or vegetable oil
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Quick prep – Preheat oven to 350˚F with the rack in the center of the oven. Fill a 12-count muffin tin with cupcake liners.
- Mix dry ingredients – In a large mixing bowl, thoroughly whisk together dry ingredients: flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Break up any larger cocoa clumps with your whisk.
- Mix wet ingredients – In a second mixing bowl, add the wet ingredients: coffee, vinegar, oil, egg, and vanilla, and whisk until well blended.
- Combine batter – Pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients and whisk just until the ingredients come together and no dry streaks remain. The batter will be a little loose and lumpy.
- Fill and bake – Use an ice cream scoop to portion batter, filling each cup 2/3 full (do not over-fill). Bake 18-22 min (20 minutes was perfect), until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Don't overbake. Cool 5 minutes in the pan, then transfer to a rack to cool completely to room temperature before frosting.
Notes
Nutrition Per Serving
Filed Under
Cupcake Recipes to Try Next
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- Vanilla Cupcakes
- Pumpkin Cupcakes
- Dark Chocolate Cupcakes
- Greek Yogurt Cupcakes
- Cherry Stuffed Honey Cupcakes
Can I double the recipe or will that mess with the measurements?
Hi yes you can double the recipe in one batch. Enjoy!
Sorry but I am baking these for now 25 minutes and they are not even cooking really. What happened? I did it step by step
Hi Saundra! If you measured everything correctly, and you did not make any substitutions in the recipe, I would wonder if your oven was fully preheated. Make sure to fully preheat your oven, if it’s not preheated, it will take significantly longer for these to bake through.
Can I make this recipe in silicon cups ? I have successfully made your eggless chocolate cake as well as these cupcakes before .. just wondering bout the silicon moulds
Hi Renee! I think that would be fine.
I have been following you since 4 years ago. Start from the banana cake. It’s wonderful. Yesterday I made this cup cake . I don’t know what made colour of my cup cake so dark. But it taste amazing yummy and very moist texture. The children call it black cup cake instead of chocolate cup cake . 😀
Thank you for sticking around all these years, Vita! I’m so happy it was still delicious!
Hi! We don’t have liquid coffee on hand because we don’t drink it. Can I use espresso/coffee powder? If so, what would the equivalent amount be?
Hi Trish, we used espresso shots for this recipe. I haven’t tried it with powder, but you will likely need to hydrate it first.
Amazing recipe thank you and thank you for replying
Hello, if I use buttermilk instead of coffee, do I still use vinegar? Thanks
Hi there! Yes, I would still add vinegar just to ensure there’s enough acid to activate the baking soda.
The cupcakes are delicious! I used decaf coffee and they were so good! Moist and chocolaty!
Brilliant recipe! Didn’t realise I had run out of eggs so used 60g of Greek yoghurt instead. Used 125g of sugar (instead of 200g) as I added dark and white chocolate chips. The kids loved them!
I’m glad that substitution worked well too! Thank you for sharing that with us.
This is THE BEST cupcake recipe ever. They are so light and fluffy. The batter is very wet but trust the process. These always turn out perfectly for me. I make them often. I don’t need to buy anything special except for the frosting. I do a raspberry cream cheese frosting with freeze dried raspberries. Everyone loves these cupcakes!!
I’m so glad you loved this recipe, Kristina! That’s so great to hear!
These cupcakes came out perfect!!! So light, fluffy with delicate crumb texture. I was a little worried because batter was thinner, but they baked up perfectly!! I opted to use vegetable oil instead of olive oil. I would definitely make these again! Thank you for great recipes!!!
Yay that’s wonderful to hear! Thanks for sharing, I’m glad that you enjoyed the Chocolate Cupcakes!
I love these, so easy and quick too! I used a piping bag to fill 2 dozen and it was smooth & fast and no mess!!! Thank you for sharing
Can the white distilled vinegar be subsituted?
You can use lemon juice in the same amount.
Just made these chocolate cupcakes. They were the absolute best I’ve ever made! Absolutely delicious! I used coffee instead of the buttermilk. Thank you for sharing this recipe Natasha!
You’re welcome, Ria! I’m glad you enjoyed the cupcakes.
Hi Natasha! Can I replace coffee with espresso in this recipe? If yes, can you tell me I need to change the amount in either milliliters (preferably) or US metric? Thank you.
Hi Jenn, we used espresso for this recipe.
I made this recipe for my family this weekend! AMAZING 🤩 Never going to use any other recipe ever! Thank you so much 😊
I’m so glad you loved it, Jenn!
Plz tell warm coffee should cool down or add warm in the batter
HI Seema, I add it warm to the batter. It works better if it’s warm.
Hi love ur recipes plz tell can i use lemon juice instead of vinegar plz reply
Hi Seema! Yes, lemon juice will work just as well. You can use it as a 1:1 substitute.
Omg, these cupcakes 🧁 cannot be easier or better than all the others
Natasha, you are the best!!!!
I’ve always loved your videos, but these are over the top
Thank you so much, Kelly! They really are so simple and delicious!