The Best Chocolate Cupcakes
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Soft, fluffy, and light, this Chocolate Cupcake Recipe is truly the best. It’s loaded with chocolate flavor and has a soft crumb that practically melts in your mouth.

I’ve made these cupcakes before. They’re featured in my chocolate raspberry cupcakes post. But I then I thought, as much as I love raspberry… if we’re going to go for it, let’s really go for it. Chocolate cupcakes with a decadent, moist crumb topped with chocolate swiss meringue frosting. It is a choc-a-holics dream come true!
This homemade chocolate cupcake recipe is one of my favorites – no wonder, since it’s adapted from my favorite chocolate cake recipe. I halved the cake recipe and added a touch of oil along with the butter and the results are amazing.
These cupcakes taste decadent and are so soft in the centers. To get enough of that rich chocolate flavor I added both melted chocolate and cocoa powder. This is something I do often when making chocolate cakes.
You’ll also see buttermilk and coffee in the ingredient list. Have I lost my mind? No. Buttermilk adds moisture and tang to the cupcake. The coffee is just a touch – not enough to give you the jitters, but just enough to really bring out the deep chocolate flavor of these cupcakes.
When I was little, if I could scrounge up enough change around the house during the week – I’d splurge on a Hostess Chocolate Cupcake on Fridays at the school cafeteria. I haven’t had one in years, but the nostalgia I have for them is immense. I remember a moist delicious chocolate cupcake surrounding a cream-filled center and topped with a chocolate ganache frosting.
I don’t want to ruin the memory, so I am not going to have one anytime soon. They can continue to live on in my mind as cupcake perfection. But I know in my heart that these homemade chocolate cupcakes are better. The rich and moist cake, the creamy chocolatey frosting… it’s a chocolate lovers dream come true.
For all my chocolate fanatics out there – try this chocolate creme brulee, or get ambitious and make this triple chocolate mousse cake. It’s perfection.
Recipe Snapshot
TASTE: Chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate
TEXTURE: Moist, soft crumb with a smooth frosting.
EASE: Intermediate – a little melting, chopping and folding is involved. But it is well worth it.
TIME: A little over an hour for baking, cooling and frosting.
What You’ll Need
Ingredients
These cupcakes might require a trip to the market, but everything you need should be easily and quickly found. You’re basically going to run through the store and grab as much chocolate as you can.

How to Make Chocolate Cupcakes
This chocolate cupcake with chocolate swiss meringue frosting recipe requires you to melt a little chocolate, make a meringue, and multi-task a little bit, but it is all worth it. These cupcakes are so good they deserve to be on a podium with a medal around their necks.
Be sure to check out the full recipe and ingredient list below
- Combine the dry ingredients. Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt to a medium bowl and stir with a whisk to combine.
- Mix the wet ingredients. Beat the butter, oil, and sugar until well combined. Beat in the eggs and vanilla until fully incorporated.
- Add melted chocolate. Whisk in melted chocolate that has been cooled.




- Combine the wet and dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the chocolate mixture, alternating with the buttermilk and coffee. Stir until everything is well combined. The batter will be thick.
- Bake. Fill paper-lined muffin cups ⅔ of the way full with batter. Bake in a 350°F oven for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool until room temperature and frost.



Make the Frosting
- Prepare the egg whites. Combine the sugar, egg whites, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Set the bowl over a saucepan filled with 1 inch of barely simmering water. Whisk gently and continuously while dissolving the sugar and heating the frosting to 150 degrees.
- Beat the meringue. Beat the egg white mixture on medium speed until it is the consistency of shaving cream and the outside of the bowl is no longer warm to the touch, 1-2 minutes. (if the meringue is warm it will melt the butter.)
- Add the butter. Gradually add the butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, fully mixing in before adding the next, until smooth and creamy and all the butter has been added. Then beat on medium-high until light and fluffy.
- Add the cooled, melted chocolate and vanilla. Mix on medium speed until combined. Turn the speed up to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy, about 30 seconds. Frost as desired.
Handy tip:
Buttermilk: If you can’t find buttermilk, make your own by adding a tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice to a one-cup measuring cup. Then add 2% or whole milk to the one-cup line. Give it a stir and let it sit for 5 minutes before using


Tips For Success
- There’s no need for a mixer with this recipe! All you need are a couple of mixing bowls and a whisk. A rubber spatula will be handy too!
- Use a cookie scoop to portion the batter among the prepared cups. I have a 1.5 tablespoon scoop and fill each cup of the muffin tins with 2 scoops. This is the perfect amount of batter.
- If you are sensitive to caffeine, you can use decaf coffee or simply replace it with ¼ cup more buttermilk.
- Pair with your favorite frosting recipe. Don’t have one? Try my chocolate buttercream frosting or cookie butter frosting instead of this chocolate Swiss meringue.


Storage & Freezing
- The cupcakes can be made 1 day in advance before frosting. Cover and refrigerate each overnight. Frost the cupcakes the next day.
- Or the cupcakes can be frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and frost as desired.
The Best Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients
For the cupcakes
- 1 cup (130 g) all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup (28 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 3 ounces (85 g) unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
- ⅓ cup (75 g) unsalted butter, melted
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup (120 ml) buttermilk, at room temperature
- ¼ cup (60 ml) strong brewed coffee, cooled to room temperature
For the frosting
- ⅓ cup (67 g) granulated sugar
- 2 (70 g) large egg whites
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup (170 g) unsalted butter, softened and cut into pieces
- 5 ounces (142 g) semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled to room temperature
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Make the cupcakes
- Heat the oven to 350°F. Line 14 muffin cups with paper liners. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir with a whisk and set aside.
- Add the chocolate to a small heatproof bowl and set it over a pot of barely simmering water. Stir continuously until melted and smooth. Remove from heat. Set aside to cool.
- Using a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or a handheld electric mixer beat the butter, oil, and sugar together on medium-low speed until light and fluffy.
- Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the vanilla. Add the melted chocolate and mix until well incorporated.
- With the mixer set to low speed, gradually add half the flour mixture, followed by the buttermilk and coffee, and then the remaining flour mixture. Beat just until combined. The batter will be thick.
- Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups. Bake until the cupcakes are set and just firm to the touch, about 15-20 minutes.
- Cool the cupcakes in the pan for about 10 minutes. Transfer cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.
Make the frosting
- Combine the sugar, egg whites, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Set the bowl over a saucepan filled with 1 inch of barely simmering water. Whisk gently and continuously while heating the frosting. It should register 150°F on an instant-read thermometer. The sugar should be fully dissolved.
- Transfer the bowl to the stand mixer and fit it with the whisk attachment. Beat on medium speed until the mixture is the consistency of shaving cream and the outside of the bowl is no longer warm to the touch, 1-2 minutes. (if the meringue is warm it will melt the butter.)
- Gradually add the butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, until smooth and creamy. (Only add the next tablespoon of butter once the previous one has been fully mixed in.)
- Once all the butter is added, scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 30 seconds.
- Add the cooled, melted chocolate and vanilla. Mix on medium speed until combined. Turn the speed up to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy, about 30 seconds.
Notes
- Coffee: If you are sensitive to caffeine, you can use decaf coffee or simply replace it with ¼ cup more buttermilk.
- Frosting: Instead of the chocolate swill meringue, you can pair the cupcakes with this chocolate frosting or cookie butter frosting.
- The cupcakes can be made 1 day in advance before frosting. Cover and refrigerate each overnight. Frost the cupcakes the next day.
- Or the cupcakes can be frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and frost as desired.
Nutrition
The nutrition information provided is for convenience and as a courtesy only. It is not guaranteed to be accurate because nutrition information can vary for a variety of reasons. For precise nutritional data use your preferred nutrition calculator and input the exact ingredients and brands you used in the recipe.
Hi
I baked you or vanilla cupcakes and they turned out great. Can’t wait to try these out. Can I use cake flour instead of all purpose flour ?
The recipe was developed using the right amount of liquid for the all-purpose flour. Because cake flour is a softer flour, it’s going to give you a different texture.
Hi,
You are right these are the best ever cupcakes. They have such a comforting flavour. Reminds me of my childhood birthday cakes.
I just have one piece of feedback. I only use the metric system since I’m not based in USA. The first time I used your gram weights but the batter came runny. It tasted good but did not look like yours.
I checked with a few converters online and found a few discrepancies. For example, 1 cup of flour is 140g. I recalculated all the measurements and next time my batter came out correctly.
Hope this helps!
Thanks!
Hi Neha! I’m glad you enjoyed the cupcakes. I too use only weight measurements and my cups come out to be 130 grams. I actually have an entire blog post on how to measure flour for my recipes. An American cup of flour is actually only 120 grams if you want to be precise. I’m not sure why your batter was runny unless there was a mismeasurement somewhere else in the recipe. But using the exact measurements listed will give you a thick mousse-like batter just as pictured above and in the video.
Excellent! Thank you for the recipe.
Excellent! Thank you for the recipe.
Jen, the name of your blog sold me! These sound amazing. I also love the way they look. Did you use a mocha buttercream? Thanks for sharing your expertise.
Thanks, Julia! I used cookie butter frosting on these.
Wonderful! Thank you so much. I will have to bake these right away! ❤️
Enjoy!
Hey, Jen. First, thank you for sharing your recipes! For this one, can I modify these cupcakes to have a soft filing by adding a piece of chocolate to the batter before putting it in the oven? Thank you 🙂
I haven’t tried this myself but I’m sure it would be fine.
I made these last night and they were amazing. My family all agreed that this recipe will be my new go to recipefor chocolate cupcakes. I finished them with a dark chocolate Italian meringue buttercream. Thankyou for sharing
I’m so happy you enjoyed the cupcakes! Dark chocolate frosting sounds like the perfect topping.
These cupcakes look gorgeous! Pinning!
Thank you so much, Karly!
I made these cupcakes and they truly were some of the best chocolate cupcakes I’ve had! Thank you!
I made these cupcakes and they truly were some of the best chocolate cupcakes I’ve had! Thank you!