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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.
These cupcakes 🤔🤔no man! I think they should only work for you Natasha, I tried them , they rose but are not fully cooked inside , the skewer came back dry but not fully cooked . Not impressed at all because now I have to throw them all away
Hi Gugu, I wonder if maybe you used a different bake setting or does your oven usually require a longer bake time? Some ovens run hotter than others. Usually, if the toothpick comes back moist, you want to continue baking until it comes out clean.
I made just the cupcakes,but after putting this frosting on The cupcakes do I need to fridg them? Looks good .
Hi Olga, if they are not being served the same day, I would refrigerate then let them come to room temperature before serving so they soften up 🙂
Hey Natasha!
Hope you’re well. I had a query regarding the oil, can I replace olive with some other vegetable oil, say canola?
I haven’t tested that in this particular recipe but I do think that would work as a substitution.
Hi Natasha I have tried a couple of your recipes before and they were great.
Have one question, how much coffee do you use to the cup of water? going to try this now but not clear of the coffee
Thank you
Hi Michelle, I’m so glad you’re enjoying our recipes. If you’re asking about Instant Coffee you definitely can use that, otherwise, we use 1 Tbsp for 1 cup water if you are using ground coffee in a coffee maker.
Hi Natasha,
My name is Ria. I just love your recipes. I had a question, can this recipe be used for making Vanilla cup cakes by substituting the cocoa powder to all purpose flour. Please suggest, as I am looking for eggless vanilla cup cake recipe
Hi Ria, I haven’t tested that in this recipe so I can’t say for sure. My go-to vanilla cupcakes are either my Greek yogurt ones or classic vanilla.
This might seem like the most miscellaneous praise but I love that you also put the ingredient measurements in your recipe instructions. Not having to scroll up on my phone every two seconds (because I’m too lazy to prep everything ahead of time) is one of those small things in life that I sometimes forget to appreciate, haha. thank you!
Thank you for noticing Kierce 😀. I know exactly what you are talking about, that’s why we put them in in every step, not just in the ingredients.
Hi Natasha,
I want to make mini cupcakes with this recipe. Do you know how many mini ones this would make?
Hi Vika, in general, you will get 3x as many mini cupcakes as you would regular ones. You’ll probably have to cut the baking time down. I haven’t tried these as minis but I’m guessing it will take 12-15 minutes to bake. They are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let me know how you like them! 🙂
Thank you for the reciepe it turned out awesome I ended up baking them 9-10 minutes for the mini versions!! I also used your cream cheese cupcake frosting for them to make them perfect!!
Great! I’m glad to hear that!! 🙂
Hi Natasha, Is it okay if I substitute olive oil for grapeseed oil or it won’t turn out the same?
Hi Viktoriya, I think grapeseed oil would work fine since it is pretty flavorless. I hope you love the cupcakes!
Hi, do Ineed to adjust the temperature and time on this recipe if I’m making a cake? Can i divided the batter in half for 2 cake layets?
Hi Karen, I haven’t tried it as a cake, so I can’t give you exact timings. You may have to double the ingredients to get a nice and tall 2-layer cake. If you do make it into a cake, let me know how you like it!
Hi Natasha,
My name is Dina.You are gorgeous. I love all your recipes. I have a question. Is unsweetened cocoa the same as cacao? I am going to make muffins. Please advise. Thank you in advance.
Hi Dina, first of all thank you for your sweet compliment! Yes unsweetened cocoa is nearly identical to cacao. Here is a more detailed answer to that question.
Loved your vanilla cupcake and cream cheese frosting recipes. Would the cream cheese frosting go with these chocolate cupcakes?
Yes, absolutely!! I love pairing vanilla frosting with chocolate. The color and flavor contrast is really nice! 🙂
Hi, I loved your vanilla cupcakes recipe. It’s the best and I’ve been requesting to repeat making it. I have one question for the chocolate cupcakes. Can I replace 1 cup of coffee with anything? Thank you!!
Beau
Hi Beau, you can use water but it won’t have the same depth of flavor since coffee enhances chocolate flavor.
I tried these cupcakes at a friend’s house and when I made my own they where a fail. The cupcakes came out thick and hard inside. I baked them for 17 minutes and I thought they are not done but when I put a toothpick into one, it came out clean. I don’t know what happend, but it was bad luck.😦
Hi Liza, it’s really difficult to say what could have gone wrong without being there but I am always happy to help troubleshoot :). Did you change or modify anything in the recipe? Was your coffee warm (not hot)? Did you bake in a conventional oven (not convection)?
I did double the recipe.
Coffee that was too high in temp has made my cupcakes dense. So I make sure to cool it. Also siftting the cacao and baking soda has helped me
Hi natasha, i love your vanilla cupcake recipe, i want to try this choco moist cupcake recipe, cant you substitute measure cup into gram ? Cause here in indonesia, we dont use cups for measurements. Cant i skip the coffee ? Or cant I substitute into other like choco milk ? Thanks natasha for sharing your vanilla cupcake recipe, all my family and friend surely love it.
Hi Yanne, I didn’t weigh everything out for this recipe so I don’t have the gram measurements. You might use an online chart to determine the gram measurements, such as this one from allrecipes. Also, I haven’t tried substituting with chocolate milk so I’m not sure how that would affect the recipe to have the extra milk in it. It could work but I haven’t tried it that way to say for sure. You can substitute coffee with water if you don’t consume coffee but the coffee does really bring out the flavor of the chocolate in the cupcakes.
Hi Natasha, so far I have loved every recipe of yours I’ve tried! I want to try these cupcakes, but I don’t typically like the flavor of coffee. Do these cupcakes taste at all like coffee?
The coffee just enhances the flavor of the chocolate, but you don’t actually taste coffee in the cupcakes 🙂
Love the chocolate Prague cupcakes. Do they need to be refrigerated?
Anytime there is dairy in baked goods, I like to refrigerate them. Yes, I would refrigerate and let them sit at room temp 30 minutes before serving.
Hi Natasha,
I made venilla cup cake exactly as per your recipe. It’s superb! My son loves it. In chocolate cup cake I have a query. Can I replace white vinegar with Apple cider vinegar. If so what is the measurement. Plzhelp.
Thank u
Hi, to be honest, I haven’t tested that substitution so I can’t say for sure without experimenting. If you try it, let me know how it goes :). Thank you for the great review! 🙂
Hi Natasha, just made these fabulous cupcakes for Valentine’s day tomorrow…DELICIOUS & SUPER MOIST!!!! The only thing different I did a chocolate pudding icing (2 c heavy whipped cream & 1 box chocolate instant pudding)Perfect match..Thank you for all your wonderful recipes 🙂
You are welcome Mariana and thank you for such a great review 😁.
Just made these a second time. This is an amazing recipe – the cupcakes are delicious and I don’t even have to pull out the mixer. they are a real hit with my grandkids!!!
That is so sweet! Thank you for sharing your awesome review! 🙂
The cupcakes were okay. Maybe i did something wrong but they tasted pretty good.The ones i made weren’t fluffy or moist it was kinda clumped up and just a little bitter.
HI Josephine, It’s difficult to say without being there but I’m always happy to help troubleshoot. Did you change anything about the recipe? Also is your baking soda fresh?
I noticed that this recipe has no eggs. Is that correct?
No eggs in the recipe .😀
Hi Natasha, can I use cake flour instead of all purpose flour?
I haven’t tried with cake flour, but I imagine they would be even softer with cake flour. If you test it out, let me know how it goes.