Best EASY Chocolate Cupcakes (no stand mixer)

The Best EASY Chocolate Cupcakes are moist, have a tender crumb, are deeply chocolatey and made without an electric beater. No waiting for butter to soften, no creaming, the batter is simple and quick to make. Excellent emergency cupcakes!

After Vanilla Cupcakes? Here they are!

Chocolate Cupakes

Using the term “BEST” is not something I do lightly.

I do feel a bit uncomfortable saying that these are the BEST Easy Chocolate Cupcakes. But in the cupcake world, I truly do believe these to be the best that can be for a simple no-standmixer, no creaming butter recipe.

I was back and forth about which cupcake recipe to share. I was tempted to go for a “100% perfect” version which requires a stand mixer / electric beater to cream butter. And I wanted to be able to talk to you about how perfect they are.

But you know what? The Perfect version is not the one I make the most. This Easy version is. It’s my “go to”, the one I can make right now, without waiting for butter to soften, without pulling out my hand beater. And the difference between this Easy version and the Perfect version is so insignificant, I don’t care.

And so it was settled. I went for the Easy version. 🙂

These Chocolate Cupcakes are…

1. Soft and tender, not crumbly. Like Red Velvet Cake – it should be “velvety”;
2. Moist;
3. Actually taste of chocolate (unfortunate many lack this!);
4. Delicate, but still be sturdy enough to support a generous pile of frosting; and
5. Have a sweet dome, shaped such that it looks nice enough if you just dust with icing sugar / powdered sugar, but flat enough to pipe on tall swirls of frosting.

Being the quick and easy version these are, you’ll notice that the surface of the dome does have some small cracks on it. But for the easy of this recipe, it is a very small price to pay.

Besides, no cupcake ever leaves my kitchen without frosting!!!

Best frosting for Chocolate Cupcakes

Hard to go past chocolate-on-chocolate, but I will put forward some non chocolate options too!

• Chocolate Buttercream – I realise how ironic it is that I’d feature these cupcakes with tall swirls of buttercream frosting which calls for both softened butter and and stand mixer! 😂 But hey, frosting is worth the effort. 😇 Pipe on swirls, or spread on with a knife;
• Speedy Chocolate Fudge Frosting (pictured below, in recipe card) – made with cocoa powder mixed with melted butter, then thickened with icing sugar/frosting until it’s a spreadable consistency, this frosting is quite rich so I’d recommend just spreading onto the cupcakes rather than piping tall swirls;
• Decadent Chocolate Ganache Frosting – made with melted chocolate and cream, this is a deluxe chocolate frosting that I use for my sinfully decadent Chocolate Fudge Cake. Once melted, it’s cooled until it thicken into a spreadable consistency. I don’t recommend piping this on in tall swirls, it would be overly rich I feel!
• Vanilla Buttercream – White frosting on chocolate cupcakes looks striking and makes for a lovely flavour combination! Use the recipe in my Vanilla Cake recipe – it will frost 12 cupcakes generously (tall swirls) though if you just want to smear it on then you can halve the batch; and
• My Secret Less-Sweet Fluffy Vanilla Frosting – this frosting is magical! It’s like a cross between whipped cream and buttercream. Far less sweet and fluffier than buttercream, and it’s also 100% silky smooth (buttercream will always have a faint grit to it, the icing sugar/powdered sugar never fully dissolves). Dense than whipped cream, and unlike whipped cream, it holds its form for days.

I’ve shared the Chocolate Buttercream Frosting in a separate post because I think it’s worthy of being a separate recipe. 🙂 Also because I’ve done a video for that too – I didn’t want to cram it into the cupcake recipe video.

The weekend is here!! Do I hear chocolate cupcakes calling your name?? I think I do….. 😉 – Nagi xx

WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT

Best Easy Chocolate Cupcakes recipe video!

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Best Easy Chocolate Cupcakes

Author: Nagi

Prep: 15 mins

Cook: 20 mins

Total: 30 mins

Baking, Cupcakes, Dessert

Western

5 from 35 votes

Servings12

Tap or hover to scale

Print

Recipe video above. These cupcakes are deeply chocolatey, they're moist - and stay moist for 3 days - and have a terrific tender crumb. It's extremely simple to make - no creaming butter, no beater required. By far the best chocolate cupcakes I've ever had made with such little effort!

Ingredients

CupsMetric

Dry:

• ▢ 3/4 cup plain/all purpose flour
• ▢ 3/4 cup caster sugar (super fine sugar, or sub with normal white sugar)
• ▢ 1/2 tsp baking soda / bi carbonate soda (Note 1)
• ▢ Pinch of salt

Wet:

• ▢ 120g / 8 tbsp unsalted butter , cut into 1" / 2cm pieces (1 US stick / 1/2 cup)
• ▢ 60g / 2 oz dark chocolate , preferably 70%+ cocoa, broken into pieces (Note 2)
• ▢ 1/2 cup cocoa powder , preferably Dutch processed (Note 3)
• ▢ 1/2 cup milk
• ▢ 1/4 cup vegetable oil (or other neutral flavour oil)
• ▢ 2 large eggs (55 - 60g / 2 oz each)
• ▢ 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ▢ 1 1/2 tsp white vinegar

Chocolate Fudge Frosting:

• ▢ 120g / 8 tbsp unsalted butter , cut into 1" / 2cm pieces (1 US stick / 1/2 cup)
• ▢ 1/2 cup cocoa powder , preferably Dutch processed
• ▢ 2 1/2 cups soft icing sugar / powdered sugar (NOT pure icing sugar)
• ▢ 3 - 4 tbsp milk (any)
• ▢ Sprinkles and other decorations, if desired

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F (160°C fan). Put oven rack in the middle of the oven.
• Place 12 cupcake liners in a cupcake tin.
• Sift Dry ingredients into a bowl. Whisk briefly.
• Place butter and chocolate in a separate, large heatproof bowl. Microwave for 45 seconds, mix, then microwave for another 30 seconds. Mix until chocolate is melted and smooth (keep microwaving in 20 sec bursts if chocolate not melted).
• Add cocoa powder and mix.
• Add milk and oil, then eggs, vanilla and vinegar. Whisk until smooth.
• Add flour mixture and whisk until lump free.
• Divide mixture between cupcake liners. I use a ice cream scoop for this. They should be just over 3/4 full.
• Bake for 18 - 20 minutes, or until skewer inserted into the cupcake in the middle of the tray comes out clean.
• Remove from oven and immediately transfer to cooling rack (spoon or knife helps).
• Once cool, spread with frosting and decorate with sprinkles if desired. Alternatively, use Chocolate Buttercream Frosting!

Speedy Chocolate Fudge Frosting:

• Melt butter then mix in cocoa powder until smooth.
• Add icing sugar and milk. Mix until smooth. Use milk to adjust consistency if required - it should be a soft spreadable consistency (like peanut butter).

Recipe Notes:

1. You can substitute the bi carb with 1 1/2 tsp baking powder. The cupcake is not quite as fluffy, but it is still lovely and soft.

2. Use dark chocolate purchased from the baking section of the supermarket, not eating chocolate. You can use any dark chocolate you want, but a good quality one with 70% or more cocoa (will say on packet) will give a better chocolate flavour.

3. Dutch processed cocoa has a more intense chocolate flavour than normal cocoa. However, you can use normal cocoa if you want.

Using a normal cocoa and normal dark chocolate will still yield a lovely chocolate tasting cupcake. It is just that by using 70%+ chocolate & Dutch processed cocoa powder makes a more intense chocolatey flavour. 🙂

4. For BAKING NERDS: Mixing cocoa powder with hot butter (or hot water, as is usually done in recipes) makes it "bloom", enhancing the chocolate flavour. Also, I add the milk and oil first into the melted butter mixture to bring the temperature down so you can add the eggs without worrying about the heat from the butter "cooking" the eggs!

This recipe is deliberately and specifically made with both oil and butter. Butter for flavour, oil for moisture.

Cup sizes in the US are slightly different to those in the rest of the world. For most recipes, the difference is immaterial and won't affect the recipe. For baked goods, it can matter. I have made this recipe using US cups, Australian cups (same as UK, EU) and weight measures and noticed no difference in the results. I find this recipe pretty forgiving compared to most cupcake recipes - because it's made like a quick bread / muffin batter.

5. The Frosting recipe makes enough to slather each cupcake quite generously - around 2.5 tbsp per cupcake. If you want less, use the SCALER (hover over servings) to reduce the butter to 70g - this will make enough frosting to just spread frosting on each cupcake.

6. These cupcakes stay beautifully moist for 3 days, in an airtight container. If it is very hot where you are, refrigerate them (because of the frosting) but ensure they are brought to room temperature before serving. They also freeze great (even with he frosting) - I've made so many in recent weeks, I've been freezing tons of them!

7. Nutrition includes the Chocolate Fudge Frosting.

Nutrition Information:

Serving: 97.5gCalories: 408cal (20%)

Keywords: chocolate cupcakes, easy chocolate cupcakes

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LIFE OF DOZER

No chocolate cupcake for Dozer. Bad for you! How about a giant bone instead? (Mind you, it’s a dry aged one from a fancy butcher. Got it for free! 💪🏻)