Easy Moist Chocolate Cupcake Recipe Without Buttermilk

These super moist chocolate cupcakes pack TONS of chocolate flavor in each cupcake wrapper! Made from simple everyday ingredients, this easy cupcake recipe will be your new favorite. For best results, use natural cocoa powder and buttermilk. These chocolate cupcakes taste completely over-the-top with chocolate buttercream!

Today we’re diving deep into what I like to call a “foundation recipe.” Basic chocolate cupcakes which are, indefinitely, anything but basic.

This is a solid base recipe that serves as a jumping off point for many others. Like my basic vanilla cupcakes recipe, these chocolate cupcakes hold a sacred spot in my baking repertoire. There will never be a reason to find a better version—this is THE chocolate cupcake recipe I use time and time again.

Chocolate Cupcakes (with Coconut Oil

I shared this recipe 3 years ago as chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting, but I want to walk you through the process (1) with step-by-step pictures, (2) with careful explanations, (3) and I want toemphasizeone VERY crucial instruction. If you skip this instruction, your entire batch will be ruined. Trust me, the evidencehas landed in my trashcan time and time again. It’s not pretty.

Today’s chocolate cupcakes are for true chocolate fans. I’m talking about those of you who don’t qualify an item as dessert unless there’s chocolate involved. Strawberry shortcake is a dessert impostor and forget about apple pie. That’s some sort of health food, right?

You need 2 bowls, 1 whisk, and 1 spatula. The base of these chocolate cupcakes, and what is responsible for the super-moist texture, is oil. Like double chocolate muffins, we’re not creaming butter here, so there is no need to break out the mixer. Though you can absolutely use a hand or stand mixer if it’s easier for you.

Super Moist Chocolate Cupcakes

We’re also achieving an incredibly moist texture with buttermilk. Just like in these cream-filled chocolate cupcakes, buttermilk also gives us the best flavor. I don’t typically have buttermilk in the fridge, so I sour whole milk instead. Check out my recipe notes for how to do that one.

Another tip? Make sure you’re using natural unsweetened cocoa powder, not dutched cocoa. Why? Here’s the difference between dutch-process vs. natural cocoa powder. And if you really want to learn today, here is the difference between baking soda vs. baking powder and why I use both in these chocolate cupcakes.

So there’s 1 bowl for dry ingredients and 1 bowl for wet ingredients. Gently mix the two together. The batter isn’t as thick as you would think. We don’t really want a super thick chocolate batter because that would yield a cupcake similar to brownies. Dense. We don’t want dense! We want spongey, cakey, and rich.

Dairy Free Chocolate Cupcakes

Fill the cupcake liners only halfway full. Not 2/3, not 3/4, not all the way to the top. Half full. You will question yourself as you pour in the batter. Really? This is ALL that I’m using for each cupcake? The answer is yes, that is all you are using for each cupcake.

Now that the cupcakes are baked and your self control is fading quickly, it’s time to frost them. The frosting flavor is completely up to you. We have a plethora of options on this site from chocolate buttercream and rainbow chip frosting to strawberry frosting, vanilla buttercream, salted caramel frosting, and cream cheese frosting. Keeping things even (though highly indulgent) with chocolate buttercream and a friendly dose of chocolate sprinkles.

I don’t normally reach for chocolate desserts if there’s a fruity one on the menu, but I would gladly unwrap one of these over any other choice.

The Best Moist Chocolate Cupcake Recipe

Made from simple everyday ingredients, this easy chocolate cupcake recipe will be your new favorite. For best results, use natural cocoa powder and buttermilk. These chocolate cupcakes taste completely over-the-top with chocolate buttercream!

Sally McKenney is a professional food photographer, cookbook author, and baker. Her kitchen-tested recipes and thorough step-by-step tutorials give readers the knowledge and confidence to bake from scratch. Sally has been featured onMy easy Chocolate Cupcakes recipe yields cupcakes that are light, fluffy, and so much better than a box mix! Made quickly and easily in just one bowl, they can be baked and frosted in less than an hour.

You’re going to be so happy you found this recipe. After all, who doesn’t love a perfectly balanced chocolate cupcake (preferably topped with a

The Best Chocolate Cupcakes Recipe

Swirl of chocolate buttercream). My recipe is incredibly moist, so soft, and so perfectly fluffy. Taste wise, they’re sweet without being too sweet and have a pronounced chocolate flavor. Plus, they’re incredibly quick and easy to make in just one bowl! To put it simply, these chocolate cupcakes are just wonderful.

I first published this recipe six years ago and it’s been a huge hit with my readers and my own faithful go-to chocolate cupcake recipe (I prefer my slightly heavier chocolate cake recipe for cakes). However, the original recipe made a large, awkward number of cupcakes, so I’ve scaled down the recipe to now make a neat 24 cupcakes.

The original recipe also produced cupcakes with completely flat tops, and I’ve since remedied that so the cupcakes come out with subtle domed tops. They look lovely with a swirl of frosting, and speaking of frosting, these cupcakes go great with any kind!

Super Easy, Super Moist Chocolate Cupcakes Recipe

Making chocolate cupcakes from scratch is just as easy as using a box mix, but they taste so much better. Here are a few of the ingredients you’ll be using today:

SAM’S TIP: If you choose to use coffee, your chocolate cupcakes will not taste mocha-esque; rather the coffee helps to enhancethe rich chocolate flavors of the cocoa powder. I recommend you use it!

It’s very important to not fill your cupcake liners higher than ⅔ full. If you do, the batter will spread out over the tops and the resulting cupcakes will have flat tops that are likely to sink in on themselves. Opt for under-filling rather than over-filling, and if you do happen to have leftover batter, make extra cupcakes or discard it.

Eggless Chocolate Cupcake Recipe Without Butter, Condensed Milk

SAM’S TIP: I recommend baking one pan of chocolate cupcakes at a time, just in case your oven bakes unevenly or does something funky while baking, or even just in case you accidentally leave the first batch in too long.

While you can always stick with the easy frosting I’ve linked to in the recipe, my chocolate cupcake recipe tastes lovely with just about any topping. Some of my top recommendations are brown butter frosting, marshmallow frosting, cream cheese frosting, peanut butter frosting, Swiss meringue buttercream, or vanilla frosting.

This chocolate cupcake batter will be very, very thin–much different from the thick batter of my vanilla cake. It’ll seem almost watery/soupy. This is normal and means you’ve done everything right! 

Super Moist Chocolate Cupcakes.

While I do have a great chocolate cake recipe, you can use this recipe to make a two layer 8″ or 9″ cake. I provide instructions on how to do this in the recipe notes.

Let’s bake together!I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe andvideobelow! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me onInstagram , and you can also find me onYouTube andFacebook

These chocolate cupcakes are light, fluffy, and so much better than a box mix. Made quickly and easily in just one bowl, they can baked and frosted in less than an hour.

Salted Dark Chocolate Cupcakes

Cocoa powder I recommend using natural unsweetened cocoa powder for best results. However, in a pinch Dutch process cocoa powder can be used instead, but note that the flavor will be slightly different and the cupcakes will be darker.

Cornstarch Cornstarch is my secret ingredient, it makes the cupcakes tender and fluffy and gives them the perfect, slight domed tops. However, if you do not have it on hand you may omit it, note that your cupcakes will likely be flatter though.

Hot coffee/hot water A hot liquid is essential to properly blooming the cocoa powder (which gives the cake a pronounced, rich chocolate flavor). I like to use hot coffee because the coffee flavor enhances the chocolate, making the flavor even richer and deeper. However, you can just use hot water instead. The hotter the liquid the better; boiling is fine, just be careful! Please note I don’t recommend using other hot liquids such as hot chocolate which often have other additives and sugar added and could adversely affect the final outcome.

Small Batch Chocolate Cupcakes

Frosting I used my Ateco 848 tip to pipe the frosting on the cupcakes in the photos above and in the video. If you wish to frost all of your cupcakes this generously you will want to double the frosting called for in the recipe that I linked to, but honestly you don’t need to and a more modest amount (half the amount shown) works great and allows the cupcake flavor to really shine, it just didn’t look quite as nice in the pictures!

Baking chocolate cupcake batter in different sized pans You may bake these cupcakes in two 8” pans for 35-37 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean with a few moist crumbs.

This recipe should also work just fine in a 13×9” pan, but I would keep an eye on it

Easiest Moist Chocolate Cupcakes