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.
Hi Glory,
I made these cupcakes for my friend’s baby shower and they turned out really perfect as the name suggests. These were an instant hit with the party. Thank u for this wonderful recipe. My husband loved them and he is not a chocolate lover.
Thank u,
Rathna
Hello. I am trying your recipe. I know you said it is normal for it to be thin but exactly how thin? because mine is very runny.
Yes, the batter will be very thin. I generally pour the batter into a large (2 or 4 cup) measuring cup with a pour spout, and pour it into the cupcake papers from the measuring cup.
This cake was lovely .It was soft , moist and delicious just like a boxed mix .I recommend to increase the cocoa powder to 1 cup and sift the dry ingredients together into the bowl.after using this recipe I will never use a boxed mix again!!!!
I made these a while ago with gluten-free flour for my mom and also experimented by decorating with your buttercream frosting recipe. They were SO delicious!!! Thank you for sharing! 🙂
These really are the PERFECT chocolate cupcake! I’ll never use another recipe. Thanks so much for sharing!
Oh, and I used natural applesauce instead of oil… I haven’t baked a cake with oil in years, sooo… just my thing, really.. 😉
Wow. Just WOW. These came out fantastic! Not perfect, but that’s not the recipe, my baking soda and powder were not as fresh as they should be, didn’t rise too well. But taste-wise, fantastic! Plus I used the chocolate cream cheese icing (which I’ve been making forever, but never chocolate version) Double Bomb Good! Only thing I was worried about was the consistency of the cupcake batter… You say thun, but mine was so thin it looked like hot chocolate… I thought for sure they wouldn’t bake right. I was pleasant surprised! I’ll probably not use a box mix again. Well, maybe. But this was really just as easy, so silly to buy boxed… Now I need to try the other batter recipes as my hubby doesn’t like chocolate… these were made special for a friend’s birthday. And we really love chocolate, so… Thank you so very much!
Has anyone tried these with butter instead of vegetable oil? I hate using oil in my baking!!
I baked these yesterday and they turned out amazing. Anytime I try to bake cupcakes they come out dry. These were so moist. My fiance ate 7 yesterday! And he’s a small guy. But they were just so good. Then he ate 3 so far today. I on the other hand and trying to contain myself lol. As much as I want to eat 7. I know it’ll back fire. Thanks for the recipe. I was a bit nervous with adding the water. But turned out great!!
Definitely so goods! Thanks for sharing and I wonder about how long to keep cupcake in freezer for? or how long to keep cupcake until it’s expired, somehow? I’m going to use this my wedding come up.