I’ll just start off saying…I love Chocolate. It’s delicious. I love cupcakes. They are delicious. Chocolate on chocolate is definitely a classic. My kids love them. I love them. We love them with sprinkles. Sprinkles are fun.
I have tried many different methods of making chocolate cupcakes & I finally found a winner! The reason why I love this recipe is that the cake stays moist a few days longer than other recipes I’ve tried. Typically, the cocoa powder dries out baked goods because it acts like flour would. So, I took out some of the flour & compensated it with more cocoa powder. Did I say I love chocolate? I also like the combination of having equal parts of brown & white sugar. The brown sugar also helps in making the chocolate cake have a moist & soft texture which is a beautiful thing is my mouth!!! Needless to say, this recipe works as a chocolatey, moist, delicious chocolate cake with creamy chocolate frosting…which I added sprinkles to…of course!!!
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- ½ cup white sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- ¾ cup Cake Flour
- ½ cup cocoa powder
- ¼ t salt
- ½ t baking soda
- ¾ t baking powder
- ½ cup milk
- 1 T vanilla
- Chocolate Frosting
- 2 sticks of butter
- ¾ cups cocoa powder
- 1 bag (2lbs) confectioner’s sugar
- ½ cup milk
- 2 t vanilla
- Preheat oven 350°F.
- Pour oil in the bowl of the mixer. Add sugar. Add eggs one at a time until fully incorporated.
- Sift together the cake flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda, & baking powder.
- Interchangeably mix in milk mixture & flour mixture ⅓ at a time just until incorporated. Do not overmix. Add vanilla.
- Line cupcake tin with cupcake liners & fill ⅔ full with batter.
- Bake 16 minutes for regular cupcakes/9 minutes for mini cupcakes or until the top is springy & a toothpick is clean when inserted. If the toothpick is wet, put the cupcakes back in the oven for 2 more minutes. Repeat as many times as needed.
- Once the cupcakes are fully cooked & are easy to handle, pull the cupcakes directly from the cupcake tin to a wire rack to cool.
- To make the frosting, beat the butter until soft & creamy in the mixer with the paddle attachment. Add half powdered sugar & half of the cocoa powder & mix. Add half of the milk & mix. Add the rest of the powdered sugar & cocoa powder & mix. Add the remainder of the milk & vanilla & mix.
- Place a piping tip in a piping bag & fill with frosting. When the cupcakes are fully cooled, frost the cupcakes.
- Decorate the cupcakes with sprinkles, candies, or decorative picks.
- Enjoy! ♡
KITCHEN TIPS ♡
♡ This recipe calls for both baking soda & baking powder. I will hopefully address the difference between the two in a later post because it super scientific & some may find it boring!!! They are both baking leavening agents which means they are used to incorporate air into the batter by reacting with other ingredients to get the batter to rise.
♡ If using a stand-up mixer, the paddle attachment is the best attachment to use. I have made cupcakes with people recently that had no idea what the paddle attachment is! It is the best attachment to make a batter with. In general, it works best for creaming butter which means the batter & the frosting. I use my paddle attachment more than my whisk or the dough hook. Ingredients get really stuck in the whisk attachment & the dough hook is for kneading purposes.
♡ I use cake flour for my vanilla cupcakes instead of all-purpose flour. AP flour will work, but cake flour makes the cake light & spongy whereas the AP flour will create a texture that can be heavier & dense. I like to make my own cake flour because it is less expensive to make than to buy it & it is easy to make! Scale 1 cup of flour in a bowl & then take 2 tablespoons of the flour back out of the bowl. Replace that with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch. Yes! Cornstarch! Cornstarch has a silky feel to it & it helps take out some protein content which makes a difference with gluten forming.
♡ I sift my dry ingredients of flour, salt, & baking powder. Sifting is important in cupcakes because it makes the flour lighter which helps all the ingredients to incorporate easier. To sift, a strainer is needed & a medium-sized bowl. Simply put the flour, salt, & baking powder through the strainer by hitting the sides of the strainer or if the flour is going outside the bowl, use a spatula to push the ingredients through.
♡ In order to try & keep my cupcakes uniform, I use a scoop & a bowl of water when I am putting the batter in the muffin tin. I use a 1/4 cup scoop for regular cupcakes & a tablespoon for mini cupcakes. The bowl of water keeps the batter from sticking to the scoop. I place my scoop in the water in between each cupcake scoop. A little bit of water won’t affect the baking process!
♡ My oven has hot spots which means that the oven is hotter in certain places than in others. When I check my cupcakes, I turn the cupcake tins around & switch the sides of the cupcake tins. This helps me cook my cupcakes more evenly!
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