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These Eggless Chocolate Cupcakes are moist, decadent, ultra-flavorful and easy. I baked a batch for a family dinner this past Sunday and they were a big hit with my sisters and all the kiddos. I recreated them today with some chocolate decorating ideas to impress your sweetheart :).
The frosting recipe makes enough to cover 24 cupcakes or 1 cake. It’s a good idea to go ahead and double the cupcakes recipe and just make 24 (you won’t regret making extra).
Since these are egg-free chocolate cupcakes, they also happen to be vegan. You won’t miss the eggs!
The cupcakes were adapted from Simply Recipes. The frosting is from the prague chocolate cake.
Ingredients for Eggless Chocolate Cupcakes:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour *measured correctly
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup warm coffee (freshly brewed, instant coffee in 1 cup water or 3 espresso shots in enough water to equal 1 cup)
1 Tbsp white vinegar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup olive oil (not extra virgin
Prague Chocolate frosting (frosts 24 Chocolate Cupcakes or 1 cake):
2 sticks of Butter or 1 cup (must be at room temperature)
1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
3 Egg yolks
¼ cup Water
1/3 cup chocolate chips
Making the Chocolate Cupcakes:
1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners. Brew your coffee.
2. In a large bowl whisk together 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/4 cup cocoa powder, 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp salt until there are no more cocoa lumps (a few tiny lumps are ok; it also helps to sift the cocoa before using it).
3. In a separate bowl, mix together 1 cup coffee, 1 Tbsp vinegar, 2 tsp vanilla extract and 1/3 cup olive oil
4. Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients just until they come together. Your batter will still be lumpy.
5. Use an ice cream scoop to pour batter into your lined cupcake pan; They should be about 2/3 full. Bake 18-20 minutes on the center rack or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in the pan 5 minutes and remove to cool on a rack. You can even sprinkle these with powdered sugar once they cool or use the decadent Prague frosting (my favorite).
Making the Chocolate Prague Frosting:
1. In a small sauce pan, whisk together 3 reserved egg yolks, ¼ cup water, and 1/3 cup condensed milk.
2. Start heating the pan over low heat and gradually increase the heat until it’s just letting off steam but not boiling. Whisk constantly until your mixture is the consistency of raw condensed milk. Remove the mixture form heat and immediately stir in 2oz chocolate, whisking until smooth. Let your mixture cool off to room temperature (I transferred it to another bowl to cool faster).
3. In a separate bowl, using electric hand mixer, beat butter on high speed for 5 minutes. Once chocolate is cooled to room temp, add it to the butter and beat together for an extra 3 minutes.
4. Pipe the frosting onto your cupcakes with whatever frosting tip your heart desires. I used a large star tip working in a circular motion; starting at the center and staying close to the cupcake.
Decorating the top with Chocolate: Click here for the updated tutorial .
If using decorative chocolate, refrigerate cupcakes until ready to serve or this frosting gets a little soft to hold chocolate upright.
Eggless Chocolate Cupcakes with Prague Frosting
Ingredients
Ingredients for 12 cupcakes:
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup warm coffee
- 1 Tbsp white distilled vinegar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup olive oil, not extra virgin
Prague Chocolate frosting (frosts 24 cupcakes or 1 cake):
- 2 sticks of Butter or 1 cup, must be at room temperature
- 1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
- 3 Egg yolks
- ¼ cup Water
- 1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners. Brew your coffee.
- In a large bowl whisk together 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/4 cup cocoa powder, 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp salt.
- In a separate bowl, mix together 1 cup coffee, 1 Tbsp vinegar, 2 tsp vanilla extract and 1/3 cup olive oil.
- Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients just until they come together.
- Use an ice cream scoop to pour batter into your lined cupcake pan; They should be about 2/3 full. Bake 18-20 minutes on the center rack or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in the pan 5 minutes and remove to cool on a rack.
Making the Chocolate Prague Frosting:
- In a small sauce pan, whisk together 3 reserved egg yolks, ¼ cup water, and 1/3 cup condensed milk.
- Start heating the pan over low heat and gradually increase the heat until it’s just letting off steam but not boiling. Whisk constantly until your mixture is the consistency of raw condensed milk. Remove the mixture form heat and immediately stir in 2 oz chocolate, whisking until smooth. Let your mixture cool off to room temperature.
- In a separate bowl, beat butter on high speed for 5 minutes. Once chocolate is cooled to room temp, add it to the butter and beat together for an extra 3 minutes.
- Pipe the frosting onto your cupcakes with whatever frosting tip your heart desires.
THE BEST CUPCAKES !!!!!! THEY ARE SO MOIST AND YUMMY!!! THE CREAM IS SO DELICIOUS! ! THANK YOU FOR THE RECIPE NATASHA 🙂 🙂
I’m so happy you loved the cupcakes! Thanks Lina 🙂
Thanks for the great recipes! The vanilla cupcake and frosting is a big hit. Also love the salmon mustard recipe. My question is can you canola oil in this recipe instead of olive oil? Thanks.
Erika, canola oil should work just fine 🙂 .
The cupcakes were delicious! The only problem was that they really sticked to the cupcake liners. Do you have any suggestions what should I be doing to avoid that? Thank you for your time!
I didn’t really have an issue with them sticking too much the papers so I’m not sure. Did you use the same amount of oil? Did you substitute anything else in the recipe?
I used the recommend amount of pure olive oil and did not substitute anything. Although I did not sift the cocoa or flour. Am I suppose to sift it? I’ll definitely try this recipe again since I loved the taste of the cupcakes.
You shouldn’t have to sift ingredients for this recipe unless cocoa is really lumpy. Maybe just try baking them longer next time.
What is the difference between using all purpose flour in this chocolate cupcake recipe and cake flour in the vanilla cupcake recipe?
Cake flour creates a finer crumb and the texture is softer and more airy. These are a little bit denser with all-purpose flour.
Hey Natasha, Would regular vegi oil work just fine instead of the olive oil?
Hi Jessie, I haven’t tested it with vegetable oil, but I think that should work fine.
I absolutely love these cupcakes/frosting! I made them for my cousin’s wedding and he said they were really good and he loved them. Since then, I have made them a few more time (each time I got many compliments) and am making them again for my older sister’s birthday. Thanks so much Natasha, your recipes are amazing!
Ira, thank you for such a wonderful review and you are welcome :).
I tried this recipe last night. I was a but hesitant on the moist part, because every recipe i’ve tried promises this, yet the end result is a dry,crumbly cupcake. But yours is really,trully a very moist cupcake. And i love the coffee flavor. It enhances the chocolatey taste. I adjusted the recipe to make 18. And it was all gone in less than 13 hours. My whole family love it. I’m sure to keep cooking this recipe. Thanks! ☺
Thank you for such a great review and very happy that everyone loved them :).
Iv tried your recipes before and they turn out as amazing as they seem 🙂 just wanted to ask how many teaspoons of instant coffee do you use per cup for this recipe? thanks alot
It was the amount shown on the package: 1 rounded teaspoon except I put that into 1 cup. I just made it regular strength. I always feel like the instructions are for too strong of coffee.
Natasha, I only have extra virgin olive oil? What is the reason not to use virgin hope they still turn out :/ Thanks for the recipe!!
The extra-virgin olive oil has a very strong flavor so it is not recommended for baking. It will change the flavor of the cupcakes. You can use extra light olive oil or Grapeseed oil, or maybe even avocado oil.
Why not extra virgin oil.
It has a strong smell and flavor that you might sense in the cupcakes.
is the coffee neccacery
coffee enhances the flavor of the chocolate. You can use water, but it won’t have the same depth of flavor.
Hey love your work but I have a question I did some really pretty chocolate piping of hearts and love as you displayed however after having thechocolates in the freezer for a 20 min they started melting as I was placing them on the cupcakes what am u missing.
What kind of chocolate were you using? What brand? It’s best not to handle them too much or your hands will warm up the chocolate.
Hi. Natasha. Do you have recipe for chocolate mousse? I looking for good chocolate mousses for this cakes.
Chigu, I don’t have chocolate mousse, but thanks for the suggestion. I will definitely share it if I come up with something great :).
Hi,just made the vanilla cupcakes. We only buy extra virgin olive oil…subsititues?
What kind of pil do you cook with? Evoo isnt really good for cooking because of its low oke point and it would produce a stronger flavor in these cupcakes. I havent tried with coconut oil but that or vegetable oil would probably work well.
I been making this cupcakes and my family is love it. Thank you so much! I want to make this cake for Valentine’s day and I want to make cake instead cupcakes. If I making two 9 inch cakes double recipe?
Hi Chigu, I haven’t tried making a chocolate cake out of these cupcakes, but you would probably want to double the recipe, divide into two 9-inch cake pans and I’d estimate baking time to be about 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Easily got through 2 batches of these in a week! Made them with your perfect vanilla frosting and good god – irresistible Natasha! Also followed your tutorial on how to make beautiful roses using frosting and I was ecstatic with the outcome!I’m making these for a choc-obsessed friend of mine & planning on sneaking ferrero rochers into the cupcakes – will let you know how they turn out! Thanks again for the amazingly-guided recipes!
I’m so happy you loved the cupcakes. I bet the ferrero rochers will be amazing! Do let me know how that works out. Mmmm!!
Yes! These cupcakes are amazing! ! I absolutely love them, I try alot of your recipes Natasha, and so far i have to say that i loved every one of them. . you do a fantastic job!!
Awww thank you! That means so much to me 🙂
Hey Natasha!
So I’ve tried making these cupcakes with the prague chocolate frosting recipe 2 times now, and both times the frosting ends up being extremely runny…nothing like in the pictures you have posted. I beat the butter for 5 minutes & the butter with chocolate mixture for 3+ minutes & still get the same effect…any ideas on what I could possibly be doing wrong? Feel free to criticize, I’m open to learning what I’m doing wrong 🙂
– Darya
It sounds like you might be adding the chocolate portion before it has had a chance to cool to room temperature. If it is still warm when you add it to the butter, it will melt or over-soften the butter and will end up buttery and more liquid rather than creamy. The other issue may be that you aren’t letting the mixture turn creamy enough in step 2 (the consistency of condensed milk) before adding the chocolate to it. If the chocolate portion is too loose, it may cause the frosting to be loose. I sure hope that helps! Next time I make this, I’ll try to remember to time that part of the recipe (although different heat settings could cause it to cook at different speeds).
Thank you so much, Natasha! 🙂 I shall try it again with the extremely helpful tips 😉
hi natasha!
i’ve made them yesterday and it was a bang! Totally in love with this recipe! But since the frosting is for 24 cupcakes and i only made 12 of them, how long would the leftover frosting lasts? Because i kind of busy later in this week and i don’t know when i’d be able to make another batch of cupcakes. btw, thanks for sharing this great recipe! 😉
I’ve never stored the frosting longer than a week. I’d say 5-7 days is a safe bet then let it soften slightly for easier spreadability.
Okay! Half of the first batch has already gone so maybe I could bake the 2nd batch sooner than I thought! 😉
My friends enjoyed it, thanks again!
I’m so happy to hear that! Thanks for the great review Nadia 🙂
Do cupcakes need to be stored in the fridge if served the next day? Or is it not necessary?
If they are frosted, you will want to store them in the fridge, but if they are unfrosted, they can sit on the counter overnight, covered with a plastic bag once they are at room temp.