These chocolate cupcakes are easy to make and taste delicious. They get their extra chocolate-y flavour from both cocoa powder and grated milk chocolate. Perfect topped with smooth chocolate buttercream.
As promised, here’s the recipe for my yummy chocolate cupcakes, all ready for the creation of my build-your-own cupcakes index which I’ve been busy working on and will be sharing with you soon. The idea is to have all of my cupcakes and buttercream recipes in one place so you can mix and match (with maybe a hidden centre in the middle too 🙂 ). The index is also going to have a round up of all of my fancier cupcake creations, such as raspberry trifle, white russian or millionaires’ shortbread as well.
These chocolate cupcakes are based on the same recipe as my chocolate birthday cake, which gets its extra chocolate-iness from using a combination of both cocoa powder and grated chocolate. I’ve used milk chocolate in the recipe (as I prefer it slightly sweeter) but I’ve been assured by readers that have tried the recipe that it works just as well with dark chocolate too.
These cupcakes are topped with my chocolate buttercream. For a change I used dark chocolate (OK, I went to the cupboard and discovered someone had eaten all my milk chocolate – I’m blaming the dog). The dark chocolate worked really well, I’d definitely recommend it if you prefer a slightly richer flavour.
Free From/Suitable For…
- Suitable for Vegetarians
- Nut-Free
- Soy-Free
The ingredients for this recipe are easily available free from all these allergens. However, please ensure you double-check allergen information for all ingredients.
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Easy Chocolate Cupcakes
INGREDIENTS
- 150 g self-raising flour
- 30 g cocoa powder
- 175 g caster sugar
- 175 g soft margarine - or softened butter
- 3 large eggs
- ⅛ tsp vanilla extract
- 75 g milk chocolate - choose something from the baking aisle in the supermarket as it will cope well with the heat in the oven without going grainy
- ½ tbsp milk
Extras
- 12 cupcake cases
INSTRUCTIONS
- Pre-heat your oven to 160ºC/140ºC fan.
- Put your cupcake cases into a muffin tin.
- Grate the milk chocolate (75g).
- Put all of the ingredients into a large bowl (150g self-raising flour, 30g cocoa powder, 175g caster sugar, 3 large eggs, 175g soft margarine, ⅛ tsp vanilla extract, ½ tbsp milk and the grated chocolate) mix on a low speed until fully combined.
- Divide the mixture evenly between the 12 cupcake cases (I use a cupcake scoop to help split it evenly).
- Put the tin into the oven and cook the cupcakes for 20-25 minutes. After 20 minutes put a skewer in the middle and check if it comes out clean. If it does they're done, if not pop them back in for a couple more minutes and check again.
- Once cooked, remove the cupcakes from the oven and leave them to cool in the tins for a few minutes.
- Remove the cupcakes from their tin and pop them onto a wire rack to cool completely.
NOTES
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
Any nutritional information provided is the estimated nutritional information per serving. Please refer to my guide to Charlotte’s Lively Kitchen nutritional information if you would like to learn more about how this is calculated.
Jane says
These cupcakes are absolutely delicious, they rise beautifully but I don’t know what I am doing wrong as when they are cooling the cakes shrink away from the cake cases, they look really unsightly, I love to give these as gifts so would be so grateful if you could help shed any light on this problem. The cakes aren’t wasted, we still eat them the taste isn’t affected, just as delicious.
Thank you
Jane
Maggi says
Love these cup cake receipts… the Lemon Drizzle was my first of these to do, They didn’t hang about long and I have a feeling these won’t even have time to get into the storage box!!
Helen Cattell says
Hi Charlotte
I don’t have a lot of strength in my hands now so could I use melted chocolate in these cupcakes instead of grated chocolate?
I make your easy chocolate cake regularly which uses melted chocolate and I always have great results.
I hope you can help with this.
Kind regards
Helen.
Charlotte Oates says
I think it would be most successful if you used the easy chocolate cake batter to make cupcakes rather than trying to amend this recipe. As I haven’t tested it with melted chocolate, I couldn’t be sure of the results.
Courtney says
I do it comes out lovely and everyone loves them I use galaxy chocolate
Rebecca says
This recipe has never failed me! I quadrupled the amounts today to make 48 cakes (actually stretched the mix to 54) and they have all turned out great. We love your chocolate buttercream also so they have all been topped with that. I wouldnt use any other chocolate cupcake recipe. Thank you!
Dillara says
My friends want the recipe and I adored them I also used this recipe to make red velvet cupcakes! Thanks , I spent hours looking for the best recipe!!! These were the best chocolate cupcakes I have had in my 11 years, 2 months and 6 days life !!! Once again thanks so much
Ellie says
Mine didn’t rise much! I checked them at the end of the recipe baking time and they weren’t cooked so left them in for a further 5 mins. Not sure what I did wrong as the tops flattened
Charlotte Oates says
This recipe is written so that the tops of the cupcakes are flat for easy frosting. Did they reach near the top of your cupcake cases?
Panika says
Hi I made these using 54% Callebeauts chocolate chips which i blended before adding to the mix and they were DELISH!
Thank you for a rare recipe for chocolate cake with actual chocolate in!
Ella Aldridge says
Hello, this recipe is delicious I found it a bit weird when you have to grate the chocolate but that’s ok. My friend and I enjoyed making these and had a fantastic time eating them. Please send more cupcake recipes!
Thanks
Luke says
Hi charlo
This recipe is very impressive,I really love it so much, continue to teach us more.
Thanks
Sarika says
Hello dear,
I love your recipe..but I have a question here in our country normal flour available.so except self rising flour what should I give? wait for your response.
Thanks
Charlotte Oates says
Take a look at my self-raising flour recipe to make your own from plain/all-purpose flour and baking powder.
Chloe says
these are great! rose really well and very evenly! unfortunately couldn’t add the baking chocolate because these were very impromptu, but they’re still great without :•)
Layla says
I did this recipe and my cupcakes were delish the bottom was burnt but it tasted a bit uncooked would recommend because it was nice and the chocolate chucks where a good addition. Would recommend putting smarties in the middle when it’s cool! Delicious recipe tho
Layla says
My one tasted uncooked asweell other than that good recipe
Clare says
Beautifully moist, well risen chocolate cupcakes. I doubled up and the mix made a perfect 24 cakes. Thanks so much for this really easy, delicious recipe x
Barbara says
I’m a novice baker, only been baking for 2 months. This was my 2nd foray into chocolate cake and by far the best. Such an easy recipe! Did take a while to grate the chocolate by hand but it was worth it! I had to leave mine in for 3 or 4 mins longer but they were perfect. I had my doubts because they looked quite soft even though the skewer came out clean but I had faith and took them out. I used dark chocolate in the cake and milk chocolate in the buttercream. Delicious! Between us, much better than Mary Berry’s recipe as far as texture of the cupcake. However that I am a novice and that could be user error!
Karen says
I just used a mini processor and left bits quite a lot bigger than grating because two hungry kids haha and they worked just as well…. I managed to sneak two from the batch for myself…delicious