Scary Good Black Cocoa Cupcakes

These black cocoa cupcakes are out of this world good. They have such a strong, rich chocolate flavor, as well as a strikingly dark, black color. These fluffy, moist cupcakes are topped with an even more delicious black cocoa butter cream that's perfectly sweet and so smooth. These cupcakes should definitely be first on your must bake list!

INGREDIENTS FOR BLACK COCOA CUPCAKES

You might think that these cupcakes are super fancy or require a ton of special ingredients, but you'd be mistaken! This recipe requires simple, standard cupcakes ingredients. The only special ingredient you'll need for this recipe is black cocoa. Here is your shopping list:

• All-purpose flour

• Black cocoa powder

• Baking powder

• Salt

• Granulated sugar

• Vegetable oil

• Eggs

• Milk

• Coffee

• Vanilla extract

MAKING THE CUPCAKES

This cupcake recipe is a super simple, one-bowl recipe that can be whipped up in no time at all! Start by combining all of your dry ingredients into a large bowl. This is going to be the flour, black cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, and granulated sugar. Next, add in the vegetable oil, eggs, milk, coffee, and vanilla extract. Whisk until the cupcake batter is smooth.

Line a cupcake pan with 12 paper liners. Pour the cupcake batter evenly into each liner. Each one should be filled between ⅔ and ¾ of the way full. Do not fill cupcake liners to the top. Once all the liners are fulled, pop the cupcakes into a preheated 350°F for 19-22 minutes. Once baked, let the cupcakes cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack to finish cooling completely.

MAKING THE BLACK COCOA FROSTING

This frosting is so good, it will be hard to not eat half of it right out of the bowl. Start by creaming together the softened butter and cocoa powder until smooth, about 1-2 minutes. Next, add in the heavy cream, vanilla extract, and pinch of salt. Beat in the powdered sugar about a cup at a time. If you want your buttercream to a little firmer, you can add up to another ¼ cup of powdered sugar. Once everything is combined, turn your mixer back on a beat the finished frosting for 2-3 minutes on medium speed.

Your frosting should now be light and fluffy and ready to top your cupcakes with!

TIPS FOR THE BEST CUPCAKES

Even though this recipe is so easy to make, here are just a few simple tips you can do to make sure you get the best cupcakes possible!

Sift the cocoa powder. Sometimes cocoa powder can be clumpy, and it can be hard to break up the clumps once it's incorporated into a batter. The best thing you can do to avoid this is once you measure out your cocoa powder, use a fine metal sifter to sift it into the bowl with the dry ingredients.

Fill cupcake liners evenly, and don't overfill. This recipe should result in the perfect amount of cupcake batter to fill each cupcake liner between ⅔ and ¾ of the way full. You want to be sure to fill them each evenly and not overfill them. This will ensure that once they bake, all of the cupcakes will be the same size.

Cool the cupcakes completely. This is a fairly simple and obvious tip, but you always want to make sure that your cupcakes are completely cool before frosting them so the frosting doesn't melt!

MAKE 'EM SPOOKY

While you can totally eat these black cocoa cupcakes as is any time of year, they are the perfect dessert to make for Halloween time! And these cupcakes are super easy to take from tasty to spooky. You can top them with your favorite Halloween sprinkles, candy eyes, or even use Halloween cupcake liners when you bake them!



If you give this recipe a try and love it, be sure to leave a comment and star rating! Be sure to tag @thehungrykitchenblog on Instagram so I can see all of your delicious bakes! Happy baking! ♥