These chocolate cupcakes are the best I’ve ever made! They’re moist, fluffy, easy to make and have the most delicious fudgy melt in your mouth texture! As a frosting recommendation, check out my chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream.
What makes these cupcakes different?
There are three ingredients I use in this recipe which really sets this chocolate cupcake apart from the rest!
– Real chocolate: This recipe uses 1/2 a cup of dark chocolate, which adds an incredible depth of flavour.
– Yoghurt: By adding in some yoghurt, it’s going to produce a fluffier and moister cupcake.
– Vegetable Oil: I love baking with oil, because it helps baked goods stay moist for days! Unlike butter, oil is liquid at room temperature, resulting in a much moister cupcake.
What frosting should I use for my cupcakes?
This chocolate cupcake pairs perfectly with so many different types of frostings! My personal favourite is chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream, but even vanilla American buttercream will work great.

Moist Chocolate Cupcakes
Ingredients
- ⅔ cup (83 g) flour - regular all purpose
- ⅔ cup (133 g) white sugar
- 3 tbsp (20 g) cocoa powder - unsweetened
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ cup (80 g) 50% dark chocolate - semi-sweet okay too
- ⅓ cup (72 g) unflavoured vegetable oil - I use canola
- ¼ cup (61 g) yoghurt - sour cream okay too
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp instant coffee powder
- ⅓ cup (78 g) hot water
- 2 tsp vanilla essence/extract
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 155 °C with the fan on and line a cupcake tray with cupcake liners.
- Combine your flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and whisk together until well combined. Set aside.
- In a heatproof bowl, combine your dark chocolate and oil and melt in the microwave for 1 minute or until your chocolate is melted. Mix together so they're well combined and you have a smooth liquid mixture.
- To your chocolate/oil mixture, add in your yoghurt, eggs, vanilla and instant coffee powder and whisk together until well combined.
- Add in your hot water to the chocolate mixture and mix until well combined.
- Pour your liquid mixture into your dry ingredients and whisk together for about 45 seconds until its well combined. Do not overmix.
- Distribute the batter into your cupcake cases and bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Allow them to completely cool before frosting with your favourite topping! I love using chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream for these cupcakes.
Video
Nutrition
Nutritional information are estimates only as they are automatically calculated by a third party application. Actual values may differ based on brands and types of products used.
22 Comments
Thanks MK for the recipe, I’ve made it a few times now. Came out delicious every time.
I’ve also tried the vanilla soooooo yummy.
Thanks for all your hard work and effort to making these recipes easy for us.
Thanks a million 🥰
So happy to hear you’re enjoying the recipes Farhana! 😀 Really appreciate all the love and support 🙂
Thank you for sharing. Please can I use this recipe for a normal baking Size 8 pan Instead of cup cakes pans..
Hi Evelyn! I haven’t tried these cupcakes as a cake layer so not too sure whether it will bake up in the same way sorry! Hope to share a chocolate cake recipe soon 🙂
Hi Maryam, I loved your red velvet cake recipe so gave these a go but something went wrong for me I think. They didn’t seem to rise much and def didn’t have that cracking effect. Did 155°c in bake setting on my oven (didn’t use fan forced) measured out all ingredients with scales digital scales and distributed all of the batter evenly over the 12 patty pans?? I would appreciate any tips or help you could give me thanks!
Hi Obie! 🙂 So glad to hear you loved the red velvet cake recipe but sorry to hear these didn’t quite turn out how you’d hoped! I believe the issue here may be with the cooking temperature. Fan forced ovens cook much faster, so if you’re not using a fan then you want to increase the temperature by about 20 degrees C so next time around try increasing the temperature to about 175c and this should do the trick 🙂 hope that helps!
Oh awesome thanks so much!!! I have fan bake as an option on my oven so will just use that!!!!! I wasnt sure weather to use fan forced or non fan forced bake so hopefully that does the trick!!! Thanks so much for replying so quick!!!
I tried the recipe about two days ago and couldn’t stop eating it my husband had to stop me from going over board. I made a second batch last night and tried the cream cheese frosting with it. My pipping skills aren’t great but the cupcake and frosting was amazing!! My next stop will be the vanilla cupcake! This recipe was very easy to follow.
Hi Nori! So so glad to hear you enjoyed the recipe 😀 and haha I am the same when it comes to sweets, can’t stop myself!! xD I’ve never tried my cream cheese frosting with these chocolate cupcakes but now that you have with success I’ll have to try it sometime for myself 😀 hope you enjoy the vanilla cupcake recipe just as much 🙂
Your recipes are fool proof! Thank you for creating amazing, easy to follow content !
Thanks so much Chaimaa! 😀
yummy
Thanks Niki! 🙂
The most amazing fail proof cupcakes ever! No domes, not overly sweet and super easy to put together. 10/10!
I make these cupcakes with my kids and they absolutely love them! They are quick and easy to make. They also turn out so soft, we love this recipe!!
I have used this recipe and method a few times and no matter what I put on top, everyone absolutely loves them, including those who don’t even usually like cake! Very delicious and soft. Thank you. It has inspired me to keep baking : )
So happy to hear this recipe has inspired you to keep baking Noor! Keep up the awesome work 😀
So glad you and the kids enjoyed them Rosanna! 😀
Amazing, my cupcakes came out super super moist, very delicious. Thank you MK
You’re welcome Nomkhosi! So glad you enjoyed them 🙂
I absolutely loved it . It was simple but delicious
I have used this recipe and method a few times and no matter what I put on top, everyone absolutely loves them, including those who don’t even usually like cake! Very delicious and soft. Thank you. It has inspired me to keep baking : )