The Best Chocolate Cupcakes EVER

Happy National Coffee Day! Today, I wanted to share with you my go to recipe for chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting. It takes only 30 minutes to make two dozen and tastes like what dreams are made of. The secret ingredient is… coffee of course.

The cake is a doctored cake mix recipe from Kakeladi’s Original WASC cake. This is the base for most of the cakes I bake. I have tried all kinds of cake recipes through the years, some from the box, some totally from scratch, but found that this recipe resulted in the best taste and texture. This cake also can be made ahead of time (I usually bake three days ahead of birthdays) and stacked. For these chocolate cupcakes, I use Duncan Hines Devil’s Food and in place of water, I add coffee.

I have also tried numerous frosting recipes and even took a fun cake decorating class once upon a time but found the best frosting recipe to be from Two Sisters. They make THE BEST vanilla and chocolate buttercream frosting. If you haven’t checked out their Instagram page, you need to. These ladies know desserts. My only twist on their recipe is adding coffee in place of milk.

Ingredients:

For the cake:

• 1 box Duncan Hines Devil’s Food
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• a pinch of salt
• 1 cup coffee (cooled)
• 3 whole eggs
• 1 cup full fat sour cream
• 1 Tbsp vanilla

For the frosting:

• 2 sticks butter (room temperature)
• 1 pound powdered sugar (one of the few times I will actually take out my kitchen scale)
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 2 Tbsp vanilla
• 1-2 Tbsp coffee (cooled)

Directions:

• In a mixing bowl, add cake mix, all purpose flour, sugar, and salt. Mix well.
• Add the remaining liquid ingredients. Mix for 2 minutes on low-medium speed, scraping the sides of the bowl once or twice, until there are no longer any visible clumps.
• Pour batter into lined cupcake pans. It should make 24 cupcakes.
• Bake at 325 degrees for 18 minutes. Test for doneness with a toothpick.

While your cupcakes bake, you can make your frosting.

• Whip your butter, first at low speed then progressing to high speed until it looks very smooth.
• Add your powdered sugar and cocoa powder and mix in with your butter (first on low speed then progressing to med-high speed).
• Add 2 Tbsp vanilla and 1 Tbsp coffee, then mix on low then medium speed.
• Add 1 extra Tbsp of coffee if your frosting looks too thick.

Pipe onto your cupcakes and enjoy! My favorite tip is Wilton’s 1M. I also find Wilton’s decorating bags to be the most sturdy and well worth the price. The kids love making their own swirls but they also enjoy just spreading the frosting on with plastic knifes and decorating with a handful of sprinkles. So yummy and fun!