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Chocolate Cupcakes with blackberry buttercream are deeply fudgy, bakery style cupcakes made moist with a splash of hot coffee and crowned with a silky pink frosting whipped from real blackberry preserves. I baked a batch on a *rainy Sunday afternoon* and Lizzie claimed frosting duty before the pan even cooled. If you love a bakery style cupcake, my funfetti cupcakes are the confetti covered cousin of these.
Deep, moist chocolate cake in a paper liner, topped with a berry buttercream that tastes like summer.
Chocolate Cupcakes Quick Look
- 🕒 Prep Time: 20 minutes
- 🌡️ Cook Time: 25 minutes
- ⏳ Total Time: 45 minutes
- 🍽️ Serving: 12 cupcakes
- ⚡ Calories: 795kcal
- 🌶️ Flavor Profile: Rich cocoa crumb with a sweet, tangy blackberry frosting
- ✋ Difficulty: Easy, on par with my lemon cupcakes
Quick Answer
Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt in one bowl, and mix the sugar, milk, oil, eggs, and vanilla in another. Add the dry mixture to the wet in batches, then stir in a half cup of hot coffee until the batter is smooth. Fill 12 lined cupcake wells about three quarters full and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely, then frost with buttercream whipped with blackberry preserves.
Jump to:
- Chocolate Cupcakes Quick Look
- Quick Answer
- Why This Recipe Works
- Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Key Ingredients
- Variations and Substitutions
- How to Make Chocolate Cupcakes
- Recipe Tips & Tricks
- Serving Ideas and Suggestions
- Chocolate Cupcakes FAQs
- Other Recommended Cupcake Recipes
- Chocolate Cupcakes with Blackberry Buttercream
Why This Recipe Works
Click to see the technique science
- Hot coffee blooms the cocoa. Pouring hot coffee into the batter dissolves and intensifies the cocoa powder, so the cupcakes taste deeply chocolatey without any coffee flavor coming through.
- Oil keeps them moist for days. Vegetable oil stays liquid at room temperature, unlike butter, so the crumb stays soft and tender long after the cupcakes cool.
- Batching the dry mix prevents overmixing. Adding the flour mixture in stages lets it hydrate evenly, so you can stop mixing the moment it comes together and keep the crumb tender.
- Real preserves flavor the frosting. Blackberry preserves bring concentrated fruit flavor and a natural pink hue that extract alone cannot match, with tiny seeds that prove it is the real thing.
- A full three minute whip makes it fluffy. Whipping the finished buttercream on medium high for three minutes beats in air, turning it light and pipeable instead of dense and greasy.
- The ice cream scoop portions evenly. Scooping the batter with an ice cream scoop gives every liner the same amount, so the whole batch bakes level and finishes at the same time.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- The crumb is deeply fudgy and stays moist for days thanks to the oil and hot coffee in the batter.
- The blackberry buttercream is naturally pink from real preserves, no food coloring needed.
- The hot coffee trick deepens the cocoa the same way it does in my chocolate poke cake, without making them taste like coffee.
Key Ingredients
Pantry basics plus one secret liquid make these shine.
- Cocoa powder: The chocolate backbone. Unsweetened cocoa gives the crumb its deep flavor and dark color.
- Hot coffee: The secret weapon. It intensifies the cocoa without making the cupcakes taste like coffee.
- Vegetable oil: The moisture keeper. Oil based cakes stay softer longer than butter based ones.
- Whole milk: The richness. It loosens the batter and keeps the crumb tender.
- Blackberry preserves: The frosting star. A few spoonfuls whip into the buttercream for real berry flavor and a rosy tint.
- Unsalted butter: The frosting base. Two cups whip up silky and light for piping tall swirls.
See recipe card for exact quantities.
Variations and Substitutions
One chocolate cupcake, endless frosting moods.
- Use raspberry or strawberry preserves in the buttercream instead of blackberry for a different berry finish.
- Stir mini chocolate chips into the batter for a double chocolate crumb.
- Swap the blackberry buttercream for my chocolate cream cheese frosting for a double chocolate version.
- Make them mocha by adding a teaspoon of espresso powder to the batter along with the hot coffee.
- Skip the piping tip and swirl the frosting on with an offset spatula for a casual homestyle look.
How to Make Chocolate Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a cupcake tray with 12 paper liners. Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt together in one bowl. In a large mixing bowl, mix the sugar, milk, oil, eggs, and vanilla until well combined.
- Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients in batches, mixing until it is just fully incorporated with no dry streaks.
- Pour in the hot coffee and stir it well into the batter, scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula so everything is evenly combined. The batter will be thin, that is exactly right.
- Scoop the batter into the liners with an ice cream scoop, filling each about three quarters full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then move to a wire rack to cool completely.
- For the frosting, cream the butter in a stand mixer until light and smooth. Add the blackberry preserves, heavy cream, and powdered sugar in batches, then whip on medium high speed for 3 minutes until light and fluffy.
- Fill a piping bag fitted with an open star tip with the buttercream and pipe tall swirls onto the cooled cupcakes. Top each with a fresh blackberry and serve.
Recipe Tips & Tricks
- Cool the cupcakes completely before frosting. Even slightly warm cake melts the buttercream into a slide, so give them the full rest on the rack.
- Use hot coffee, not warm. It needs real heat to bloom the cocoa powder, so pour it straight from the pot or kettle.
- Do not overfill the liners. Three quarters full gives a level dome. Fuller than that and the batter spills over the edges.
- Strain the preserves if you want smooth piping. Blackberry seeds can catch in a small star tip, so press the preserves through a sieve first or use a large tip.
- Whip the frosting the full three minutes. The difference between dense and cloud light buttercream is patience at medium high speed.
- A few moist crumbs on the toothpick are fine. Wet batter means bake longer, but pulling them at moist crumbs keeps the centers fudgy.
Serving Ideas and Suggestions
Set them out next to a pan of my fudgy brownies for a chocolate lover”s dessert table.
My double chocolate muffins carry the same deep cocoa flavor into breakfast territory.
For a soda fountain twist on the same idea, my Dr Pepper cupcakes are always a conversation starter.
And when berry season hits, my chocolate poke cake with fresh berries makes the perfect big batch companion.
Chocolate Cupcakes FAQs
Hot coffee intensifies the cocoa powder, giving chocolate cupcakes a deeper, richer chocolate flavor without tasting like coffee at all. The heat blooms the cocoa the way hot water blooms ground spices, unlocking flavor compounds that cold liquids leave behind. If you prefer, you can substitute hot water and the recipe still works, the chocolate just will not be quite as intense.
Fill each liner about three quarters full. This batter is on the thin side, which is normal for coffee based chocolate cupcakes, and three quarters gives the cupcakes room to rise into a gentle dome without spilling over. An ice cream scoop is the easiest way to portion it evenly across all 12 liners.
Store frosted chocolate cupcakes in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days because the buttercream contains fresh cream and fruit preserves. Let them sit at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes before serving so the cake softens and the frosting loses its chill. Unfrosted cupcakes keep at room temperature for 2 days.
Yes, chocolate cupcakes freeze beautifully unfrosted. Cool them completely, wrap each one or freeze in a single layer, then store in a freezer bag for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature and frost with fresh blackberry buttercream before serving. The frosting itself can also be frozen separately and re whipped after thawing.
Sunken chocolate cupcakes usually mean underbaking or an oven that runs cool. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs, and resist opening the oven door during the first 15 minutes. Overfilling the liners can also cause a collapse because the center cannot support the extra batter.
The buttercream uses blackberry preserves rather than fresh berries, so it works year round no matter what the produce section looks like. Fresh blackberries are just the garnish on top. If you only have frozen berries for garnish, thaw and pat them dry first, or simmer them with a spoonful of sugar into a quick homemade preserve for the frosting.
Made these chocolate cupcakes? Leave a comment and a star rating below, and tell me if the blackberry buttercream made it onto the cupcakes or straight onto a spoon!
For a cinnamon sugar twist on the same easy formula, my snickerdoodle cupcakes taste like the cookie in cupcake form.
For a fall twist on cupcake night, my pumpkin cupcakes pair spiced pumpkin cake with chocolate frosting.
For the holidays, my filled eggnog cupcakes hide real eggnog pudding in the center.
Chocolate Cupcakes with Blackberry Buttercream
Ingredients
For the cupcakes
- 2 & 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- pinch of salt
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup hot coffee
For the frosting
- 2 cups unsalted butter
- 4 to 5 tablespoons blackberry preserves
- 1 tablespoon heavy cream
- 4 & 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- Fresh blackberries for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350*F and line your tray with 12 cupcake paper liners.
- Whisk the dry ingredients together in a bowl – flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.
- Add the wet ingredients – sugar, milk, oil, eggs, and vanilla extract to a large mixing bowl and mix well.
- Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture in batches until it’s fully incorporated. Lastly, add the coffee and stir it well into the mixture, scrape the bottom of the bowl and sides with a rubber spatula to make sure it’s well combined.
- Using an ice cream scoop, scoop out the cupcake batter and fill your liners till 3/4 full.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 min or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. A few moist crumbs is okay but any wet batter and they need to bake longer.
- Let the cupcakes cool for 10 minutes, then take them out of the pan and cool down completely on a wire rack before frosting.
- In a bowl of a stand mixer or hand mixer, cream the butter until it’s light and creamy.
- Add blackberry preserves, heavy cream, and powdered sugar in batches. Once everything is added, whip on medium-high speed for 3 minutes until light and fluffy.
- Fill the frosting in a piping bag and frost your cupcakes (I’m using an open star tip). Decorate with fresh blackberries if using and serve.
Notes
- This makes 12 cupcakes, but you can easily double it to feed more or halve the recipe as needed.
- Tons of custom options, see my tips above on that.
- This freezes well, see my tips above on how to store.
- Use fresh blackberries in place of blackberry preserves if desired.
Nutrition
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