I love chocolate…
So naturally, when I started experimenting with baking cupcakes from scratch (several years ago) I began a quest for the perfect chocolate cupcakes. I worked through several dozen recipes and of course, didn’t have too much trouble finding people willing to eat my “experiments.”
I finally found a recipe titled Hershey’s “Perfectly Chocolate” Chocolate Cake, hmm, “…Perfectly Chocolate”, sounds about right to me! The first time I made it, I used Hershey’s unsweeted cocoa (as the recipe calls for). They turned out pretty good. The next time I made them, I used Ghirardelli brand unsweetened cocoa, and… perfect! The Ghirardelli brand gave a much deeper chocolate flavor. So I’d highly recomend using either Ghirardelli brand unsweetened cocoa, or the best quality brand you can find. You can really taste the difference. Since discovering this recipe, I’ve made it dozens and dozens of times. And every time, it’s delicious! The cake has a nice light and fluffy texture and a rich chocolate flavor.
Perfectly Chocolate Cupcakes
(makes 24-27 standard sized cupcakes)
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa (best quality available)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (best quality available)
1 cup boiling water
Directions-
Line muffin tin with paper liners. Heat oven to 350*F.
In a large mixing bowl, stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Beat on medium speed for one minute.
Stir in boiling water (the batter will be thin, don’t worry, this is right).
Fill liners 2/3 full with batter. (I usually put the batter into a large measuring cup with a pour spout, and then pour the batter into the liners.)
Bake cupcakes for aproximately 18-22 minutes.
Cool completely on wire rack before frosting.
Recipe source- Hershey’s
Try the recipe HERE for either vanilla or chocolate (my favorite!) cream cheese frosting.
Perfectly Chocolate Cupcakes Recipe
Perfectly Chocolate Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa best quality available
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract best quality available
- 1 cup boiling water
Instructions
- Line muffin tin with paper liners. Heat oven to 350*F.
- In a large mixing bowl, stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Beat on medium speed for one minute.
- Stir in boiling water (the batter will be thin, don’t worry, this is right).
- Fill liners 2/3 full with batter. (I usually put the batter into a large measuring cup with a pour spout, and then pour the batter into the liners.)
- Bake cupcakes for approximately 18-22 minutes.
- Cool completely on wire rack before frosting.
I made the chocolate cupcake recipe for Christmas to give out to my family and friends. My cupcakes turned out very good and I got a lot of compliments from my family even using the Hershey cocoa powder, but next time I will try the Ghiradelli (their box brownie mix is way better than any other brand so I figure your’re right about the taste of the cocoa powder). I did overfill most of them but nobody noticed or cared (definitely didn’t consider them ruined)! Most of mine came out a little flat on top as well but maybe it had something to do with overfilling them. Anyway, great recipe! They were super moist.
These came out really good!. But I love the consistancy of your perfect vanilla cupcakes. Is there a reason why you shoulnd’t use cake flour in the chocolate recipe as well?
does this recipe have butter?
Is it possible to cup this recipe in half and keep the same consistency I need to make a dozen cupcakes and i don’t want to be tempted to eat the others!
Where can I find Ghiradelli cocoa powder? I heard it could be found in Whole Foods, but I wanna be 100% sure since I live far from Whole Foods… By the way, I live in Houston. 🙂
Of course I have no way of knowing what stores in your area may or may not stock Ghirardelli cocoa. I like Ghirardelli, and that’s what I use, but you can use any high quality cocoa powder available in your area. I’m sure Whole Foods would have a good choice. Usually price is a good way to know the quality of the cocoa… the higher prices cocoas are usually the higher quality.
Happy baking!
I have some left over cake flour from a previous recipe, that I am trying to use up. Would it work with this recipe, or is all-purpose the better route? Can’t wait to try them out, they look wonderful! Thank you much!
Kiley, I have never used cake flour for this recipe, so I can’t answer for sure. I would say it would probably work fine. But you’ll need to adjust the measurement of flour a bit. Use 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of cake flour for ever cup of all purpose flour listed.
Very happy! I have ghiradelli and hersheys in my cubbard and havent found one recipe (until now) that actually wants you to use that brand! Yaye, on my way to the kitchen now;-) thank you soo much!
-pastrychef
I have tried to make these a few times now, and every time they sink in the middle when cooling I have tried leaving them in at different times, 16, 18, 20 and 22 mins. But they still sink. I use your vanilla one all the time, it’s perfect but I can’t get this one right. Any suggestions? Also would you not try putting real melted chocolate in it? Many thanks Eloise. X x
Without being in the kitchen with you, it’s hard to know for sure. Do you live at high elevation? By “sink”, do the cupcakes get concaved, or just lower slightly? The cupcakes will sometimes reduce just slightly as they cool, but they will/should still have a slight dome, or at least be flat, they should not be concave.
Hi, i was wondering if i could half this recipe to make just 12 cupcakes? or will that not work? many thanks, eloise. x
Can I divide this cupcake recipe.