Everyone needs a good, delicious, crowd-pleasing chocolate cupcake recipe in their apron pocket. A go-to recipe for bake stalls, birthday parties and sports wind-ups. This is a good one to try and squirrel away for such occasions!
We love cupcakes!
We really DO love cupcakes here at Mum Central. If you love cupcakes as much as we do, be sure to check out nour cupcake posts including Rainbow Buttercream Icing Recipe: Perfect for Swirly Party Cupcakes! and Lemon Cupcakes Recipe – So Easy Peasy, Lemon Squeezy! We also have whole cakes made from cupcakes – 11 Easy Pull Apart Cupcake Cakes ANYONE Can Make. We really do have a cupcake for everyone!
Why add vinegar?
This chocolate cupcake recipe DOES contain white vinegar – but don’t be alarmed, you won’t taste it! Vinegar is needed in the recipe because it simply activates the bicarb-soda to cause a reaction so that you get yummy air bubbles (fluffiness) in your cake texture. Cooking REALLY is science, guys!
Ready to get your bake on? You’ll have these chocolate cupcakes on the cooling rack in just 30 minutes!
Chocolate cupcake recipe
Makes: 12 cupcakes
Ingredients
- ¾ cup plain flour
- ¾ cup caster sugar
- ½ tsp baking soda (bi-carb)
- Pinch of salt
- 130g butter, cut into small squares
- 70g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
- ½ cup good quality cocoa
- ½ cup milk
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla essence or paste
- 1½ tsp white vinegar
Buttercream icing
- 250g pure icing sugar
- 120g butter, softened
- 20g cocoa powder
- 2 tsp boiling water
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
Method
- Preheat the oven to 160°C (fan forced) or 180°C (no fan) and prepare a cupcake tin with 12 cupcake liners.
- Sift the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt into a bowl and stir together.
- In a large microwave-safe plastic bowl, mix together the chocolate and the butter. Heat in the microwave for 40 seconds, stir and then heat for another 40 seconds. Keep heating in bursts and stirring in between until smooth and melted.
- Add the cocoa powder to the chocolate mix and stir.
- To the chocolate mix, whisk in the milk and oil. Then add the eggs, vanilla and vinegar, whisking until lump free.
- Add the flour mixture and whisk until smooth.
- Divide the mixture between the cupcake liners. Don’t be tempted to overfill them, you want them to be filled not much more than ¾ full.
- Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until they spring back when lightly touched in the centre. Remove from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely before icing.
- To make the buttercream, use a stand mixer on medium-high speed, beat the butter, pure icing sugar, milk, and vanilla essence until smooth. Spread or pipe onto cupcakes. For generous mounds of icing, you may want to double the recipe!
TIP: Decorate with sprinkles or leave them naked, however you like your chocolate cupcakes best. Keep in an airtight container for up to four days.
Cupcakes with oily bottoms?
If you suffer from oily bottoms with your cupcakes, try adding some rice to the cavities in your cupcake pan BEFORE putting your liners in. It’s a neat trick that can really work! Just to be clear, oily bottoms on your cupcake liners don’t affect the taste of your cake – it just doesn’t do much for the presentation.
Will you be adding this chocolate cupcake recipe to your collection? Let us know in the comments below if you give it a try, as well as what your favourite cupcake flavour is!
