The Easiest Chocolate Cupcakes! Basic Recipe From Scratch
This super simple recipe will show you how to make the easiest basic chocolate cupcakes from scratch and get the best results. No buttermilk and still the best, super soft cupcakes!
The recipe I’m sharing with you today is my grandma’s chocolate cupcake recipe. My Nani has made these cupcakes pretty much my whole life. They are crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and absolutely delicious all around!
These will always be the most nostalgia-inducing cupcakes for me, and I hope you love them as much as I do. This is also a very simple and easy recipe to follow, so don’t worry if you don’t bake much; I’m sure you can bake these with ease.
Enjoy!
Some tips to make the process easier, before we get into the recipe:
You can mix all the sieved dry ingredients together (flour, cocoa powder and baking powder) and then add the dry mixture into the wet batter in parts. This results in less mixing overall and an easier and faster process.
You can substitute the granulated sugar with fine-grain or caster sugar if you want less texture in your cupcakes.
If the batter is too thick at the end, just add a splash of warm milk to make the consistency better.
Whisk just as much as required to combine the ingredients well. Over-whisking can cause your cupcakes to deflate while baking because the batter gets aerated.
In my opinion, these cupcakes are lovely just as they are, but if you’d like to add some toppings or decorations, try topping them with some chocolate shavings or chocolate spread. It just adds a little finishing touch to your cupcakes.
If you do add chocolate shavings or any other toppings, ensure that the cupcakes are completely cooled first, or the toppings will melt.
Additionally, it helps to shave/grate the chocolate in advance and keep it in the fridge, so it stays cool and doesn’t melt. This makes it very easy to add on top of the cool cupcakes at the end.
Here is some of my favourite baking equipment that I use for all my recipes and highly recommend:
Yield: 12 scrumptious cupcakes.
Ingredients:
All-Purpose Flour (sieved) - 7 ounces
Cocoa Powder (sieved) - 1 ounce
Granulated Sugar - 8 ounces
Butter (softened) - 4 ounces
4 Eggs
Baking Powder - 1 teaspoon
Vanilla Essence - 1 teaspoon
Method:
Preheat your oven to 170 degrees Celsius (340 degrees Fahrenheit.)
In a mixing bowl, whip together the butter and sugar.
Once the butter and eggs are combined, add in the eggs one at a time, whisking between each addition.
Now add the vanilla essence and mix.
Next, add in the flour in 2 parts, whisking between each addition to make mixing easier. When mixing the flour, also add in the baking powder.
Then, whisk in the cocoa powder.
If you find the mixture a little too thick, you can add just a dash of milk to improve the consistency. This is optional and will just facilitate mixing.
Line your cupcake tin with cases and fill them two-thirds of the way.
Put them in your preheated oven for 15 minutes. Check if they are done by poking a skewer or knife into the middle of one of them.
And they’re ready! I hope you love this recipe and find these cupcakes to be delicious and super easy to make.
Before serving, you could add some decorations/toppings. We sometimes do Nutella, shaved chocolate, or even a simple buttercream icing when we really feel like going all-out. But always let your cupcakes cool completely before you top them with anything that may melt.
Another way we enjoy these cupcakes is by having them fresh out of the oven, piping hot, paired with some vanilla ice cream! SO good. I hope you try out one of these combinations. If you do, let us know in the comments below. Enjoy!