Moist Chocolate Cupcakes (One-Bowl)

If you ever need quick, easy, and moist chocolate cupcakes, this is it. Nothing gets easier than these one-bowl chocolate cupcakes. In fact, you simply add all ingredients in one single bowl, mix it up and your batter is ready. These are delicious on their own, but you can also top them with my one-bowl chocolate frosting.

Table of Content

• Why make these cupcakes?
• Ingredients and substitutes
• Step by step instructions
• Tips - one-bowl recipes
• Frequently asked questions
• You may also like
• Printable Recipe
• Join the conversation

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Both my moist vanilla and chocolate cupcakes are delicious on their own, but you can also top them with my one-bowl buttercream frosting recipe. A great treat for a simple evening tea, last-minute kids' party, or decorated beautifully for a celebration.

Why make these cupcakes?

• The batter takes just about 5 minutes to make and all you do is throw everything in one bowl and mix.
• I have used a hand mixer in the video, but a bowl and whisk are all you need.
• And this recipe is very forgiving and a little undermixing or overmixing is not an issue. This means it is perfect to do with kids.
• Also, the cupcakes freeze beautifully, which means they are perfect to save in the freezer for later use.
• While I have given you a one-bowl frosting recipe, these are delicious on their own even without frosting.

Ingredients and substitutes

• Flour - Regular all-purpose flour is all you need for these cupcakes.
• Fat - I like to use unsalted butter and oil. While butter adds a nice flavor, the oil helps keep the cupcakes moist. And if salted butter is all you have, use it. But, omit salt in the recipe. Also, it is very important that the butter is room temperature, but soft is better than firm or it will be lumpy in the batter.
• Sugar - Fine-grain white sugar works best for one-bowl recipes. This helps the sugar dissolve easily in the batter. And if coarse grain sugar is all you have - pulse it in the food processor for a few minutes.
• Eggs - Always use large eggs, about 50 to 60 grams each. Make sure they are room temperature or the cold eggs will curdle the batter.
• Buttermilk - Makes the cupcakes moist with a tender crumb.
• Cocoa powder - I use regular dutch-processed cocoa powder.

Step by step instructions

One-bowl cupcakes

• Preheat the oven 325 °F / 160 °C / Gas Mark 3.
  Pro tip - The batter gets ready very quickly but, make sure the oven is preheated well.
• Line a muffin pan with cupcakes liners.
• In a bowl of a stand mixer, with the paddle attachment or (mixing bowl with a whisk), add all the cupcake ingredients starting with the cocoa powder and hot water first.
  Pro tip - It is essential that all ingredients are at room temperature. Otherwise, you will have a lumpy batter.
  Also, adding the hot water and cocoa powder first will give a deeper color to the cupcakes.
• Next, combine on medium speed until you have a smooth batter.
  Pro tip - Do not overmix the batter, since we don't want to activate the gluten in our flour.
• Then, divide the batter between 12 cupcake liners using an ice cream scoop or ⅓ measure cup.
  Pro tip - These make 12 regular size cupcakes, you can also make 8 large cupcakes in baking cups.
• Bake for 18 to 20 minutes until a skewer inserted in the center comes clean.
  Pro tip - Turning the baking pan halfway through will ensure they bake evenly (I forgot as you can see in the video - some baked with sideway domes 🤪).

• Cool in the pan for 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
• Cool cupcakes completely before you decorate.
  Pro tip - It is essential to cool cupcakes or cake completely before frosting or the frosting will melt.

One-bowl chocolate frosting

• In a bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, add all the buttercream ingredients. Combine, and then add all the rest of the ingredients.
  Pro tip - Make sure the butter is at soft room temperature otherwise you will have a lumpy mixture.
• Whip until you have a smooth, light, and fluffy buttercream.
  Pro tip - It is important to whip for at least 3 minutes so you have a light and fluffy whipped cream consistency buttercream.

Assemble

• Place buttercream in a piping bag with your favorite piping tip. I like to use a large star tip to make swirls.
• Add the frosting to the bag. Pipe a generous swirl on each cupcake. 
  Pro tip - You can also color frosting into one, two, or more colors as desired and then put it in the piping bag.
• A few sprinkles and your cupcakes are ready to be served.
• Enjoy!

Tips - one-bowl recipes

• The one thing you want to take note of is the temperature of your ingredients. You want all the ingredients to be at room temperature.
  • If the butter is not at room temperature, it will not cream well but lumpy.
  • On the other hand, if the butter is too soft (or melted) the batter will be denser rather than light and fluffy resulting in dense cupcakes.
  • The same goes for the eggs. Cold eggs will curdle the batter.
• Also, don't overbake cupcakes since they can become dry easily. Similar to cake, cupcakes are done when a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
• These cupcakes today were frosted with my one-bowl vanilla frosting but they are also perfect with so many other frostings. For example, cream cheese frosting, Strawberry Buttercream, whipped cream, American, French, German, Swiss, or Italian buttercream.

Frequently asked questions

You may also like

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Printable Recipe

• Moist Vanilla Cupcakes (one-bowl)
• One Bowl Vanilla Cake
• One Bowl Chocolate Cake - Naked Cake
• Lemon Cupcakes
• Best Chocolate Cupcakes Recipe