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Crumbl Chocolate Cupcake Cookies bring the bakery experience home, giant soft cake batter cookies topped with a swirled crown of real chocolate ganache and sprinkles, and when I tested these against the real box last winter my family genuinely could not tell which was which. If you love a rich chocolate cookie, our mudslide cookies are the double chocolate cousin of this recipe.
The dough is one bowl and the ganache is three ingredients, patience while it cools is honestly the hardest step.
Crumbl Chocolate Cupcake Cookies Quick Look
- 🕒 Prep Time: 15 minutes
- 🌡️ Cook Time: 15 minutes
- ⏳ Total Time: 30 minutes plus cooling
- 🍽️ Serving: 12 servings
- ⚡ Calories: 845kcal
- 🌶️ Flavor Profile: Sweet cake batter cookie under a rich, fudgy chocolate ganache
- ✋ Difficulty: Easy, just bigger than our classic sugar cookies
Quick Answer
Cream butter and sugar, add eggs, yolks, and cake batter, almond, and vanilla extracts, then mix in flour, baking powder, and salt. Portion into twelve 4 ounce balls, flatten, and bake at 350 degrees for 13 to 15 minutes. Pour simmered heavy cream and corn syrup over chopped chocolate, whisk smooth, cool until pipeable, then pipe a rosette on each cooled cookie and top with sprinkles.
Jump to:
- Crumbl Chocolate Cupcake Cookies Quick Look
- Quick Answer
- Why This Recipe Works
- Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Key Ingredients
- Variations and Substitutions
- How to Make Crumbl Chocolate Cupcake Cookies
- Recipe Tips & Tricks
- Serving Ideas and Suggestions
- Crumbl Chocolate Cupcake Cookies FAQs
- Other Recommended Cookie Recipes
- Crumbl Chocolate Cupcake Cookies
Why This Recipe Works
Click to see the technique science
- A ganache frosting, not buttercream. Crumbl tops this cookie with a fudge like swirl, and only real chocolate melted with cream and corn syrup recreates that dense, glossy texture.
- Extra egg yolks in the dough. Yolks add fat without extra structure, which keeps a cookie this large soft and thick instead of cakey or dry.
- Cake batter extract. It is the flavor bridge between cookie and cupcake, one teaspoon makes the whole batch taste like birthday cake batter.
- Corn syrup in the ganache. It blocks the chocolate from crystallizing, so the rosette stays shiny and soft for days instead of hardening dull.
- Flattening before baking. These 4 ounce dough balls are too big to spread properly on their own. Pressing them into discs guarantees the wide, flat bakery style cookie.
- Cooling on the tray. Giant cookies finish setting from the residual heat of the sheet pan. Moving them early is how the centers break.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- They taste like the real Crumbl box for a fraction of the price, one batch makes twelve bakery sized cookies.
- The ganache rosette makes them look professionally made, easier than it looks and even more impressive than our chocolate chip cookie bars.
- The dough freezes beautifully, so you can bake two and stash ten for future cookie emergencies.
- It is the kind of no fuss win that pairs beautifully with our triple chocolate cookies on a busy week.
- It is the kind of no fuss win that pairs beautifully with our baileys cupcakes on a busy week.
- It earns a spot in the rotation right next to our copycat crumbl golden oreo cookies.
- It is the kind of no fuss win that pairs beautifully with our chocolate chunk cookies on a busy week.
Key Ingredients
This copycat leans on a few specialty ingredients that make it taste like the real bakery box.
- Cake Batter Extract: The secret to the cupcake flavor. It gives the cookie base that unmistakable birthday cake taste that separates these from a plain sugar cookie.
- Egg Yolks: Two extra yolks on top of the whole eggs keep these giant cookies rich, dense, and soft in the center for days.
- Semi Sweet Baking Bars: The frosting is a true ganache, so use baking bars, not chips. Chips have stabilizers that keep the ganache from setting silky and pipeable.
- Light Corn Syrup: A quarter cup in the ganache adds shine and keeps it soft enough to pipe into that signature rosette without cracking.
- Almond Extract: Just half a teaspoon rounds out the cake batter flavor, it reads as bakery, not almond.
See recipe card for exact quantities.
Variations and Substitutions
This base cookie and ganache formula loves a remix.
- Milk or dark chocolate ganache: Swap the semi sweet bars for milk chocolate for a sweeter swirl or dark for a more grown up cookie.
- Rainbow sprinkles: Trade the chocolate sprinkles for rainbow jimmies and it becomes a full birthday cake cookie.
- Peanut butter drizzle: Warm 2 tablespoons of peanut butter and drizzle it over the piped ganache.
- Cookie butter fans: Our butterfinger cookies scratch the same candy bar cookie itch.
- Half size cookies: Portion into 24 two ounce balls and bake 10 to 11 minutes for standard sized cookies.
- For another spin on this idea, try our chocolate mandm cookies next time.
- For another spin on this idea, try our cookie butter biscoff cupcakes next time.
- In the mood for something different? Our chocotorta scratches a similar itch.
- For another spin on this idea, try our chocolate cupcakes with blackberry buttercream next time.
How to Make Crumbl Chocolate Cupcake Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line sheet trays with parchment. Stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl and set aside.
- In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar for 3 minutes until light and fluffy, then add the eggs and egg yolks one at a time, mixing each in fully.
- Add the cake batter extract, almond extract, and vanilla extract and mix them in.
- Add the flour mixture in three batches, letting each mix in completely before the next, scraping down the sides as needed.
- Portion the dough into 12 even pieces, just over 4 ounces each, roll into smooth balls, and place them 6 inches apart on the trays, they spread, so bake in batches.
- Gently press each dough ball down into a large flat circle.
- Bake for 13 to 15 minutes until lightly golden and dry looking in the center, then cool the cookies completely on the sheet trays.
- For the ganache, pour the simmered heavy cream and corn syrup over the chopped chocolate, rest 5 minutes, and whisk until smooth. Cool until solid but pipeable, then pipe rosettes onto each cookie with an open star tip, leaving the edge visible, and add sprinkles immediately.
Recipe Tips & Tricks
- Weigh the dough portions. At just over 4 ounces each, a kitchen scale is the difference between an even dozen and a mismatched batch.
- Chop the chocolate fine. Small, even pieces melt fully from the hot cream alone, big chunks leave lumps in the ganache.
- Whisk the ganache patiently. It looks broken and greasy right before it suddenly comes together glossy and smooth, keep going.
- Test the ganache before piping. It should hold a soft peak on the whisk, too warm and the rosette slumps, too cold and it will not pipe.
- Leave the cookie edge visible when piping, that golden ring around the chocolate swirl is the signature Crumbl look.
- Add sprinkles immediately after piping, the ganache skins over fast and the sprinkles will not stick once it does.
- Six inches apart is not a suggestion, these cookies spread wide and two crowded cookies become one megacookie.
- Double up for gatherings. Serve it alongside our chocolate dipped pistachio cookies and watch both disappear.
- Double up for gatherings. Serve it alongside our monster cookie cupcakes and watch both disappear.
- Make it a full spread. Our cream cheese cookies rounds out the table.
Serving Ideas and Suggestions
And if you want one more idea for the table, our no churn cookie dough ice cream never misses.
Store them in a single layer in an airtight container at room temperature for 3 days, the ganache keeps the cookies underneath soft the whole time.
Crumbl Chocolate Cupcake Cookies FAQs
Crumbl Chocolate Cupcake Cookies are one of the bakery chain Crumbl’s rotating flavors, a giant soft cake batter cookie topped with a piped swirl of chocolate frosting and sprinkles. This copycat recreates them with a vanilla cake batter cookie base and a real chocolate ganache rosette.
Baking bars work much better than chips for Crumbl Chocolate Cupcake Cookies. Chocolate chips contain stabilizers that resist melting, which leaves the ganache grainy and too stiff to pipe into a clean rosette. If chips are all you have, add an extra splash of warm cream while whisking.
It is just too warm. Ganache firms as it cools, so keep whisking it every few minutes until it reaches a solid but pipeable consistency, like soft peanut butter. You can refrigerate it to speed this up for your Crumbl Chocolate Cupcake Cookies, just whisk often so it cools evenly and does not set hard.
Store Crumbl Chocolate Cupcake Cookies in a single layer in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days, or refrigerate up to a week. The ganache acts like a lid that keeps the cookie soft, bring refrigerated cookies to room temperature before serving for the best texture.
Both freeze well. Freeze the portioned dough balls for up to 3 months and bake from frozen with 2 extra minutes. Baked and frosted Crumbl Chocolate Cupcake Cookies freeze solid on a tray first, then go into a container for up to a month, thaw at room temperature.
Cake batter extract tastes like boxed vanilla cake mix, sweet vanilla with a hint of almond and butter. It is what makes Crumbl Chocolate Cupcake Cookies taste like a cupcake instead of a sugar cookie. Find it near the vanilla in most grocery stores, or use equal parts vanilla and butter extract in a pinch.
Working through the cookie jar bucket list? Our butterfinger cookies should be next.
Crumbl Chocolate Cupcake Cookies
Ingredients
For the cookies:
- 4 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 ½ cups unsalted butter
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon cake batter extract
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
For the frosting:
- 16 ounces semi-sweet baking bars finely chopped
- 14 ounces heavy cream
- ¼ cup light corn syrup
- Chocolate sprinkles optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line sheet trays with parchment paper, set aside.
- In a large bowl stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt, set aside.4 ½ cups all-purpose flour, 1 tablespoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- In the body of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment cream the butter with the sugar for 3 minutes until light and fluffy.1 ½ cups unsalted butter, 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- Add the eggs and egg yolks one at a time, mixing the last one fully before adding the next.2 large eggs, 2 egg yolks
- Add the cake batter extract, almond extract, and vanilla extract, mix it in.1 teaspoon cake batter extract, ½ teaspoon almond extract, ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- In three batches, add the flour mixture, making sure it mixes in all the way before adding the next batch. We do this so we don’t get flour all over the countertop!
- Scrape down the sides as needed.
- Portion the cookie dough into 12 even-sized portions, just over 4 ounces each.
- Roll them into a smooth ball and place them on the sheet trays, 6 inches apart, they will spread quite a bit, so you will have to bake in batches.
- Gently press down on the cookie dough balls and flatten them out into a large flat circle.
- Bake for 13-15 minutes until lightly golden brown and they appear dry in the center of the cookies.
- Let the cookies cool completely on the sheet trays.
- While the cookies are cooling, make the frosting by placing the chopped chocolate into a large heat-proof bowl.16 ounces semi-sweet baking bars
- Add the heavy cream and corn syrup to a small saucepan and bring it to a simmer, stirring occasionally.14 ounces heavy cream, ¼ cup light corn syrup
- As soon as it starts to simmer, pour it over the chocolate.
- Let it sit for 5 minutes then whisk it all together until smooth, it will take a while to fully come together.
- Let this come to room temperature until solid but pipeable, this will take a while so I suggest whisking it every few minutes to help cool it down faster. To speed up even more you can place it in the refrigerator and whisk it again every few minutes. Just be sure it does not become too cold and hard that is no longer pipeable.
- Place the pipeable ganache into a pastry bag with an open star tip. Pipe rosettes on top of each cookie, but do not go all the way to the edge, we want to still see some of the cookie along the outside.
- Immediately add chocolate sprinkles and serve.Chocolate sprinkles
Notes
- Beat Butter and Sugar Well: Cream your unsalted butter and sugar on high speed for at least 3 minutes. This helps create air in the dough for a lighter texture.
- Scoop Evenly: Use a medium cookie scoop or weigh the dough with a kitchen scale for consistent dough balls—nobody wants that tiny cookie next to a giant one.
- Don’t Overbake: Bake just until the edges are golden brown. Over-baking leads to a tough cookie, and these are meant to be a bit soft and chewy.
- Cool Before Frosting: Let your cookies cool fully on a wire rack. If the cookies are too warm, the frosting might melt off.
- Room Temperature Ingredients: Using a room temperature egg and butter helps blend the dough evenly—less lumps, better results.
- Decorate with a Piping Bag: For that fancy swirl, toss your frosting in a piping bag and give it a swirl that’d impress your friends.
Nutrition
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