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
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- Dark Chocolate Cupcakes
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Bless you for sharing. I have neighbors moving and the sweet grandchildren come by to see me most days. They requested cupcakes, do these will bless them. Thank you
A friend suggested I follow you on Instagram.
Aww, that’s the best! Thank you so much for sharing that with me, Diane. I’m all smiles
Hi! These cupcakes are so good especially with the cream cheese frosting. Do I have to add the coffee in it?
You can use warm water in its place.
These truly are the best cupcakes ever. I makes these all the time, so easy to make, especially for a beginner baker like myself.
That’s wonderful, Tina! Thank you for the feedback.
This has become my chocolate cupcake recipe!! I’ve used this for YEARS! If you have not tried this recipe yet, your life will never be complete! THANK you so much Natasha.
Hi Rose! Thank you for the wonderful feedback. I’m so glad you love it!
Tried for the first time today, surprisingly quick and very simple! Only change – I replaced the coffee with buttermilk – came out perfect.
Wish I could share the pic here!!
I’m so glad to hear that, Sarah! Thank you for sharing. You can tag me on Instagram or Facebook. #natashaskitchen
These are truly the best chocolate cupcakes. They are so light and fluffy. This is my second time making them. This time I made them into mini cupcakes. I followed the exact recipe and baked the mini cupcakes for 9 minutes (I test-baked two, checked at 8 minutes and they were basically done but I gave them another minute to be safe.) This recipe made 62 mini cupcakes for me, filling them a little less than 2/3 – closer to half way.
Thank you for sharing, Lorette!
This is my go to with a few tweaks, I add a tbsp of instant coffee too and it adds alot of flavor. Easy, don’t have to pull out my kitchen aid, and easy clean up.
Great to hear that this is your go-tor ecipe! Thank you so much for your comments and feedback.
Great recipe! Easy, quick and tastes soooo good. I have made 2 batches in 3 days it was so well received!
This is my go-to chocolate cupcake recipe from now on.
I’m so happy you loved it, Julie! It sound like you found a new favorite!
Can you use nespresso pods for the coffee? Can I just run a pod in the machine and add water to it to make it a full cup?
Yes, you sure can!
Hi Natasha, this recipe is a hit. These are very moist and delicious. Can you tell me approximately how many mini cupcakes I would get with this recipe? I have been asked for a donation of 100 mini cupcakes. Thanks in advance
Hi Gillian, happy to know that it was a huge hit! Serving size for this recipe: 12 cupcakes.
Baked cupcakes my first time ever following this recipe. It was easy to follow and the cupcakes turned out soft and fluffy.
That’s wonderful, Shweta! Thank you for the great feedback. So glad you loved the recipe.
Did cupcakes for my grand Daughter’s 7th birthday party. It was a hit. I used decaffeinated coffee instead of the regular one though. Easy to make and delicious.
Hi Huda! I’m so glad the cupcakes were a hit. Thank you for sharing.
A complete hit at a birthday party! Thank you!!! Easy, quick and tasty!!!
Hi Connie! That’s wonderful. These sure are simple to make and always a hit at our gatherings. Thank you for sharing.
hi there i started making this recipe without reading the vinegar part im not sure if i have distilled vinegar. i have normal white vinegar but will that work? this might be an idiot question
Hi N! Yes, that will work they are essentially the same thing. I hope you love the recipe!
I just made some cupcakes using this recipe. Cupcakes were done in 15mins at 350F. I used an oven thermometer too. Tops were very dry and firm so hopefully when they cool down and settle, it wouldn’t end up being dry.
Hi Joe! You may need to make some adjustments since every oven bakes differently. It could also be due to climate/elevation. I have had great success with this recipe as written. Also, watch my tutorial on how to measure ingredients. If you used too much flour, it can also cause them to be hard and dry. I hope that helps.
These cupcakes were so delicious! I used two Vanilla Nespresso (Virtuo line) pods for the coffee. They were perfect. Thank you for the recipe!
Thank you for the lovely review!
Do you have a chocolate recipe without coffee?
Thanks,
Kate
Hi Kate! You can’t taste the coffee, but the coffee elevates the flavor of the chocolate. You can use warm water in its place. Many of my readers have done this.
After reading comments I realized I should have used light olive oil not extra virgin olive oil. The cupcake tastes only of oil. Dang it! I would suggest writing that in the recipe for those of us who are beginners.
Hi Linds, You would definitely want to use a light olive oil and not extra virgin for cupcakes. That should have been hyperlinked in the recipe card and I apologize that it wasn’t. I’m not sure what happened there but I went ahead and updated the recipe card to clarify.
Natasha. I actually used extra virgin olive oil and my cake tasted good. I made an orange olive oil cake and maybe I am use to the flavor. I feel the chocolate and coffee flavor are stronger flavor than the oil
Thank you so much for sharing that with me!
I saw that you used a scoop or a disher . Could you tell me what size it was or how many tablespoons . Please Thank you
Hi Karen! If you scroll up to step 5 in the recipe card, you’ll see “ice cream scoop” in red font. It’s a link and you can click on it which will take you directly to the tool that I used.
I love Natasha but when I tried this recipe they came out VERY dense and like brownies. I had to remake them with a new recipe.
I’m sorry to hear that. Dense cupcakes usually result from over-mixing the batter or using too much flour. Did you make any substitutions? I would make sure to measure your ingredients correctly.
Haven’t tried the recipe yet, but I was wondering if I could sub in butter instead of the vegetable oil?
Hi Chelsi! I have not tested it with butter to know how it would affect the overall texture. If you experiment, let us know how it turns out.
Hello!
Did anyone else find that the cupcakes needed to be sweeter, even with the frosting?
Hi Noelle, I don’t recall anyone having this issue. Did you possibly use coarse sugar or mismeasure (it happens!). Especially with the chocolate buttercream, these are a normal dessert cupcake sweetness.
I just made these cupcakes. I agree it could be a tad sweeter. Also, I used olive oil instead of vegetable oil. I can distinctively taste the olive oil.
I think it has to do with the type of oil used. If you use extra light olive oil, it should be flavorless. I would not recommend using extra virgin olive oil for desserts since it has a lot of natural flavor that you don’t necessarily want in a cake. I’m wondering if that taste overpowered it and made it seem like it needed more sweetness.
I was looking for an easy recipe to whip up. This recipe was great on the first try!
I have convection oven and decreased it to 325F (using a digital oven thermometer for accuracy) and baked for 18 minutes.
I also did not have any distilled white vinegar but the apple cider one worked great.
I also used Dutch-processed cocoa powder and extra virgin olive oil (no after-taste of it).
I used hot water and 1.5t Nescafe instant granules but felt it wasn’t much so i added a teaspoon of espresso powder for baking to make sure the choc flavor is properly boosted.
Also, I used coconut sugar (only 180g, still think i could still decrease it down to 150g next time) but still they fluffed up nicely and was super moist!
Since my coffee was hot, i added it first and mixed for a little bit before adding the vinegar, oil, egg, and vanilla extract. I was careful not to overmix but still ended up with a fairly smooth batter.
I don’t understand how anyone ends up with dense and hard cupcakes with this recipe. Maybe they overmixed the batter?
I also agree with not being scared to fill it up more as i filled up 2/3 but ended up with 16 cupcakes and could have made bigger ones without it overflowing. They domed up pretty nicely though.
Thank you for this recipe, Natasha! Will be browsing your site for more to try ♥️ Oh, and the metric measurements are well-appreciated! Bless you! ♥️♥️♥️
That is wonderful feedback, Gemma! Thank you so much for sharing. I hope you find many more recipes to enjoy here! 🙂