I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me to try this recipe a long time ago! I’ve only made chocolate cupcakes a few times in recent years and had not found a recipe I was at all happy with. For (yet another) birthday in the park with a steamy forecast, I knew I would be relying on the amazing frosting from your Vanilla Cupcake recipe. It paired so well with these light, fluffy, CHOCOLATEY cupcakes! Thank you so much, Danielle — another keeper!!

* I made one-and-a-half times the recipe, for 24 mini + 18 full-size cupcakes. I didn’t want to fuss with 1/2 an egg, so used “flax egg” for the additional amount and it worked great. (For reference: Baked full-size for 16 min, minis for 10 min, rotating halfway on each.)

Hi, Hillary! I haven’t tested this with a gluten free flour, so I’m really not sure. If you use one that substitutes 1:1 for all-purpose flour, you may not need to make any adjustments to the recipe.

Absolutely! You can replace the boiling water and espresso with 1/2 cup of strong coffee.

I learned something new today. I didn’t realize that you could use buttermilk in cupcakes. I just so happened to be making chocolate cupcakes and this recipe came at just the right time. Since I don’t have espresso powder on hand, perhaps a bit of strong coffee will work as a substitution. Thank you for this recipe. 

Wow, these are awesome cupcakes!
Don’t know if I even need the frosting..so fluffy and moist. Used a few substitutions and improvisations.. unsweetened chocolate almond milk for buttermilk, and ran out of oil so used half applesauce, and lastly my coffee was mocha flavored so it added onto the chocolate intensity! Yum 😋

You may be able to replace it with a flax egg, but I haven’t personally tried it.

I literally use this recipe for all of my chocolate cupcakes. They are amazing. I just did a chocolate cupcake with peanut butter buttercream and they are so delicious. I posted them on my Instagram.

I typically use canola or vegetable oil, since it’s what I keep on hand.