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Sweet, delicious, and simple Chocolate Celebration Cupcakes. Light and fluffy chocolate cupcakes with both cocoa powder and real chocolate chunks, combined to create double the chocolate deliciousness. Each light, fluffy cupcake is generously frosted with a sweet whipped chocolate frosting made with luscious melted dark chocolate.
These cupcakes are nothing short of delicious. Each sweet mini-cake is layered with chocolate cake, sweet frosting, and hinted with espresso and vanilla. The perfect chocolate cupcake for any and all celebrations.
Oh my goodness, happy Friday! It really does feel like a Friday to celebrate too. This week went so fast. It has been back-to-back. But no complaints, I love a busy, productive week, and I’ll be ending it in New York too!
I’ll share more about my travels on Sunday. We’ll save all that for Nine Favorite Things!
For now, we have my favorite cupcake of all time to share and gush over. The perfect Friday before the Super Bowl recipe. And these are probably even more relevant for Valentine’s Day!
When I set out to make these cupcakes, I knew exactly what I was trying to achieve. I knew how to photograph them, and I knew the texture and taste. I knew every detail of how I wanted these to go.
Key word – wanted.
These took me far too long to get right. I should have given up on them. But I am so glad I stuck it out. These are my ideal chocolate cupcakes. I’m clearly so excited to share!!
The details
What we’ll all love most is just how no-fuss and basic these cupcakes are.
You can mix everything in one bowl, using ingredients you hopefully already have on hand. Start with the wet ingredients plus the sugar. Melted coconut oil, eggs, whole milk, Greek yogurt, granulated sugar, and vanilla.
Mix everything to combine. Now stir in the dry. Flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. The final two steps are to mix in hot coffee and a big handful of chocolate chips.
The coffee highlights the chocolate and vanilla, it’s not the dominant flavor, so don’t be afraid to use it! A little coffee with chocolate is always a nice pairing.
Now bake each cupcake up. There should be enough batter to make around 24 to 26 cupcakes.
While the cupcakes bake, make the frosting. The frosting is important. It’s made with butter, powdered sugar, melted dark chocolate, vanilla, and milk. It might be my favorite frosting.
Everything is whipped together until it’s just perfect. The key to frosting is to use room-temperature butter. Then add warm, but not hot, melted chocolate and warm milk. If anything is cold, the frosting will not mix well.
Room temp and warm! It’s not as much the ingredients that matter as it is that the ingredients are warm. That’s the secret to success here!
Now the fun part – frost and decorate!
I’m not usually someone who enjoys sprinkles but I wanted to make these fit for a celebration! I used pinks and reds for Valentine’s Day and just love how they came out! What’s nice is that you can decorate the cupcake for the occasion. For this Sunday’s game use your team colors, for birthdays use their favorite color. Have fun and use your favorite varieties!
The options are endless!
Each bite is filled with sweet moist cake and fudgy whipped chocolate frosting.
Best kind of any-time-of-year cupcake to bake, whatever it is that you’re celebrating! I was so excited when Asher LOVED every last bite of these mini cakes. An Asher seal of approval means they’re a really big success!
Looking for easy chocolate desserts? Here are a few ideas:
Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Blondies
Giant Salted Espresso Hot Fudge Cookies
Lunchroom Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars
Retro-Style Chocolate Sheet Cake
Lastly, if you make these Simple Chocolate Celebration Cupcakes, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
Chocolate, Chocolate Celebration Cupcakes
Servings: 24 cupcakes
Calories Per Serving: 283 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup melted coconut oil or avocado oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1 – 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar, using to your taste
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3/4 cup hot black coffee
- 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)
Dark Chocolate Frosting
- 2 sticks (1 cup) salted butter, at room temperature
- 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 6 ounces dark chocolate, melted
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1-3 tablespoons warm milk
- sprinkles or chocolate shavings, for decorating
Instructions
- 1. To make the cupcakes. Preheat oven to 350° F. Line cupcake molds with paper liners (24-26).2. In a large bowl, beat together the oil, eggs, milk, yogurt, sugar, and vanilla. Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix until just combined, then slowly beat in the coffee until combined. It will be thin. If using, stir in mini-chocolate chips.3. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared cupcake molds. Bake 25-30 minutes, until the tops are just set, and no longer wiggly in the center. Remove and let cool.4. To make the frosting. In a large bowl, beat the butter until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the powdered sugar and beat to combine. Pour in the melted chocolate, vanilla, and 1 tablespoon warm milk. Beat until fully combined and whipped. If needed, thin with milk. 5. Frost each cupcake, then decorate as desired with sprinkles and or chocolate shavings.
I made these for Valentine’s Day so I made them into heart shaped cupcakes. They were delicious! I didn’t have enough dark chocolate so I added some dark chocolate strawberry chocolates to it.
Hey Tanya,
Happy Monday!! 💘 Thanks so much for making this recipe, I love to hear that it turned out well for you! xx
Could the milk be subbed out for almond or coconut? It would that really change the recipe? I love everything you make!!!
Hey Jane,
Thanks so much for your kind message! Any milk that you enjoy will work here:) Please let me know if you have any other questions! xT
these look amazing! I had an idea: while I LOVE coffee & chocolate together, I’m not a fan of having coffee at night, so I could just swap in decaf for regular, right?
Hey Wendy,
Totally, that will work well for you! Let me know how these turn out for you, I hope you love this recipe! xT
Can I make this a 9×13 cake? Will there be enough frosting for 9×13? And bake time suggested? Thanks!
Hi Gina,
Sure, I bet that would work well for you! I would bake 30-35 minutes! Let me know how this recipe turns out, I hope you love it! xT
Frosting was amazing!!cake too! Made 1/4 frosting recipe as gifted 2 cupcakes to my sister in law… we ate wo frosting while smoking hot and gave 2 to librarian ladies.. loved em! ThNks😊👍 a keeper for sure!
Hey Debbie,
Happy Saturday!! Thanks so much for making these cupcakes, I love to hear that they were delish! xT
These cupcakes are easy and delicious. The recipe is missing the instant coffee instructions so added to the hot coffee and that worked well.
At 350 these baked in 15 min to perfection
Can I sub veg oil for coconut oil?
Hey Dana,
Sure, that will work well for you! Please let me know if you have any other questions, I hope you love this recipe! xT
Hey Jodi,
Perfect!! So glad to hear that these cupcakes were enjoyed, thanks so much for trying them out!! The instant coffee was a typo and has been deleted from the ingredients:) xT
These are so beautiful! Saving this recipe to try. Xx
Thanks so much Kelly-Jane!! xT
I just made these moist and delicious cupcakes- and gobbled one down!
I love reading reviews before making a new recipe. I went back to the text to figure out the coffee confusion in the batter. This is what I did- and it worked. I boiled some water- measured out 3/4 cup and added 2 tbsp of espresso. I didn’t have instant coffee. I allowed that cool a bit- and added to the last step of the batter.
The only other variation- I had a little heavy cream in my refrigerator- used instead of milk. I melted my chocolate on the stovetop- not a fan of microwaves- then added my cream to the melted chocolate-once cooked a bit- then mixed into the butter cream.
So smooth and velvety!!
Very helpful comment, Debra!
Hey Debra,
Wonderful!! I love to hear that this recipe was enjoyed and appreciate you giving it a try! Thanks for sharing what worked well for you! Have a great weekend! 🏈
Would substituting the sugar with maple syrup work–if so how much? Many thanks.
Hey Linda,
So sorry, for this recipe you’re going to need to use the sugar:) Please let me know if you have any other questions! xx
These are delicious! I have a heart Bundt cake pan for Valentine’s Day. If I added the all the batter to the pan, how long should I bake?
Hey Deanna,
So sorry, I’ve not tested this recipe in a large bundt pan so I’m not sure the results or baking time. Let me know if you give it a try! xT
Could you swap out maple sugar for sugar?
Hey Christina,
So sorry, but you are going to want to stick with the sugar for this recipe:) Please let me know if I can help in any other way! xx
Question – I’m allergic to coffee. What could I use in place of it?
Hey Claire,
You can skip the instant coffee and then just use hot water in place of the black coffee;) I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions! xT
Same question about instant coffee. They look yummy!
Hey Jann,
Sorry about that! The instant coffee was a typo and has been deleted from the ingredient list:) Please let me know if you give this recipe a try and if I can help in any other way! xT
What do you mean by “dark chocolate” in the frosting? Semi sweet? Bittersweet? What % of chocolate? Thank you
Hi Heidi,
It’s not bittersweet or semi sweet, you want to use dark chocolate and the % just depends on the amount of bitterness that you enjoy, so totally up to you! I hope this recipe turns out well for you, please let me know if you give it a try! xT
This would be perfect for my husband. He LOVES chocolate. So these are mini size??? I saw the word mini some where in your post.
Hey Charlotte,
I made mine regular sized, but you can easily make them mini by reducing the bake time. Please let me know if you have any other questions, I hope you love this recipe! xT
I can’t wait to make these! So decadent! Question, where does the instant coffee powder come in? Do you use that to make the coffee you add? Or is that added to batter in addition to the prepared black coffee?
Thank you!
I was wondering the same thing. In the directions is says one cup of hot coffee, but no mention of the powdered espresso/coffee added to the batter.
Hey Michelle,
Sorry about that! The instant coffee was a typo and has been deleted from the ingredient list:) I hope you love this recipe! xT
Hey Amy,
So sorry for any confusion, the instant coffee was a typo and has been deleted from the ingredient list:) You are going to use the hot black coffee once the dry ingredients are mixed in step 2. I hope this helps! xT