Chocolate Cupcakes
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Rich, moist, and deeply chocolatey, these classic chocolate cupcakes are easy to make and perfect for birthdays, bake sales, and everyday treats.
Many years ago, before Once Upon a Chef existed, I started a small baking business specializing in cakes and cupcakes. That experience sparked my love of recipe development and ultimately inspired me to create this website. This chocolate cupcake recipe is a delicious holdover from those early days—the cupcake version of my favorite chocolate cake—and I’ve been making them ever since.
The recipe is wonderfully simple: it’s made in one bowl, and the cupcakes bake up ultra-moist with a rich chocolate flavor and tender crumb. I love to frost them with rich chocolate buttercream, but vanilla buttercream frosting or cream cheese frosting are delicious too.
“Delicious!!! So perfect for the chocolate lover in me!”
What You’ll Need For this Chocolate Cupcake Recipe
For the cupcakes, you’ll need all-purpose flour, granulated sugar, unsweetened cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, eggs, vegetable oil, sour cream, and vanilla extract.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1: Mix the dry ingredients. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Mix on low for 30 seconds.
Pro Tip: Make sure to stick with natural cocoa powder—natural cocoa powder isn’t interchangeable with Dutch-process cocoa powder due to differences in acidity.
Step 2: Add the wet ingredients. Add the eggs, oil, and sour cream, and mix on low speed until combined.
Step 2: Beat the batter. Increase the speed to medium and beat the batter for 2 minutes.
Step 3: Add the hot water. Reduce the speed to low and gradually pour in the hot water—go slowly so it doesn’t splash. Stop the mixer, scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, and mix until evenly combined.
Pro tip: The hot water blooms the cocoa powder, which deepens the chocolate flavor significantly. The soupy batter is completely normal, so don’t worry if it looks thinner than you’d expect.
Step 4: Bake and cool. Divide the batter evenly into the cupcake liners and bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until set and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool completely.
Step 5: Frost the cupcakes. Once the cupcakes have cooled, use a small offset spatula or butter knife to swirl the frosting on top. The cupcakes can be made a day ahead and stored in an airtight container at room temperature. Freeze (without the frosting) for longer storage.
More Cake and Cupcake Recipes You May Like
Chocolate Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the Cupcakes
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled-off
- 1½ cups granulated sugar
- ¾ cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder, such as Hershey’s
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- ¾ cup sour cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾ cup boiling water
- Chocolate frosting
Instructions
For the Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and set two oven racks in the middle positions. Line 18 muffin cups with paper liners, using two standard 12-cup muffin pans.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Mix on low speed for 30 seconds to combine. Add the eggs, oil, sour cream, and vanilla and mix on low speed until combined.
- Increase the speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes. Then, reduce the speed to low and gradually pour in the hot water (be careful to pour very slowly so it doesn’t splash). The batter will be soupy. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl; mix again until evenly combined.
- Pour the batter evenly into the prepared muffin tin (they should be about halfway full). Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until the cupcakes are set and a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
- Cool the cupcakes in the tin for about 10 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. Frost the cooled cupcakes as desired.
Notes
- I like frosting these cupcakes with chocolate buttercream, but vanilla buttercream frosting, or cream cheese frosting are delicious too.
- Nutritional information is for the cupcakes only.
- Make-Ahead/Freezing Instructions: The cupcakes can be made up to one day ahead of time and stored in an airtight container at room temperature. They can also be frozen without the frosting for up to 3 months. Let them cool completely, wrap them individually in plastic wrap, and then in foil. Thaw overnight on the countertop before serving. (Wait until the cupcakes are defrosted to ice them.)
Nutrition Information
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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Hi Quick question if I halve this whole recipe will it turn out the same and if so how much will come out of the recipe
Hi Mirini, It’s perfectly fine to cut the recipe in half; I’d just cut all the ingredients in half (and it will make 12 cupcakes). Enjoy!
Made these for my spouse’s birthday. Per a previous reviewer’s comment, I added espresso in lieu of hot water. Yummo! I can confidently rely on your recipes to turn out which is important to me with inflation on the rise and grocery prices going through the roof. I ordered a copy of your new cookbook! Can’t wait!
Glad you enjoyed these (and thanks for your support with the cookbook)! 🙂
wow I made those cup cakes but in a smaller version like one bite , well they turned out exactly perfect and I did iced them its a keeper ..
MERCI love all your recepies
I don’t believe you CREATED these cupcakes, you tweaked Hershey’s recipe and swapped out milk for sour cream. I suspect this is true because you do not print comments that call your attention to this and I can’t be the only one who has noticed this. You should give Hershey’s credit where credit is due. Pretty creative blog though to cover up.
Hi Harold, Any resemblance to the Hersheys recipe is purely coincidental and most chocolate cake/cupcakes are pretty standard. I did adapt the frosting from a Cook’s Illustrated recipe. (When I do use recipes from other websites or chefs, I’m always very careful to give credit to them.) I appreciate your feedback.
I’ve noticed so many negative, spiteful, mean comments from men on your site. This is unfortunate, maybe misogynists are reading your recipes!! For what reason, I cannot comprehend. But you answer with such grace and nonchalance, they are not deserving of your grace and manners. Stay calm and cool, there are many women admiring you and backing you.
💗
I made your chocolate lovers cake – amazingly moist. Then made these for my husband’s birthday and come to find, although they were delicious…..no where near the cake version. But noticed the recipe was a bit different. Next time I’ll make the cake recipe into cupcakes. Thanks.
Hi Jenn, these are in the oven as we speak, I know they’ll be amazing! I’m going to freeze half of them unfrosted for when I need a quick dessert and am wondering if the frosting freezes well? I figured I’d just make a half batch of the frosting since that’s all I’ll need now but then it occurred to me that I could make the full batch and freeze half of it separately if it freezes as well as a typical buttercream. Thanks!
Hi Emilie, I’ve never frozen frosting so I can’t say from experience, but just googled it and it looks like you can.
Hi Jenn,
Love your blog and cookbook! Would it be ok to substitute the sour cream for whole milk yogurt?
Thanks so much.
Reem
So glad you like the recipes! As long as it’s Greek, yogurt should work here. Enjoy!
Absolutely fantastic!!!!! Next time could I substitute hot coffee for the boiling water?
Sure, Tamera – I think that would work well. Glad you enjoyed!
I’m in San Antonio Texas. This week was crazy for us with 10 inches of snow, 3-4 days of power and water outages, and 50 year record low temperatures. All I could think about while sitting in the dark bundled in blankets was how amazing these cupcakes would be to make. I was finally able to bake them today and share them with all my neighbors! They are AMAZING and such wonderful texture of the moist cake and creamy frosting. A deep rich chocolaty flavor, but not sugary sweet, perfectly balanced. My husband says they are the best chocolate cupcakes ever and an excellent reward for surviving this insane week! Brava Jenn
Hi Erika, so glad to hear that you’re back in your home, safe and with power — it sounds like it’s been pretty horrendous in Texas. And happy you enjoyed the cupcakes; I’m sure all of your neighbors appreciated a little sweet treat! 🙂
We jdust made these for dessert on Shrove Tuesday…they were a big hit! I loved the rich taste of the muffin even without the icing and next to some black coffee. But of course the fam loved the icing! I must say I couldn’t get karo syrup down here so I used golden syrup, which I had on hand. It’s a little runnier so I had to offset with more icing sugar but it looked just like the pic! Thanks, Jenn!