Author: Anna Theoktisto, Genevieve Yam

Sometimes, especially when I’ve had a bad day, I stop at an outpost of New York's famous Magnolia Bakery for a chocolate cupcake on the way home. The cake is tender, moist, and packed full of bittersweet cocoa flavor, and finished with a swirl of chocolate buttercream and a handful of sprinkles. It’s a fun, delicious confection that never fails to lift my spirits. Though cupcakes get a lot of hate—Slate once called the dessert “a blight upon our land” and Vice went so far as to say there’s something “fundamentally wrong” about the confection—I still have a soft spot for the petite dessert. I’m convinced that anyone with a negative opinion about cupcakes simply hasn’t had a good one. The very best cupcakes are moist and flavorful, with just the right amount of silky smooth frosting to accompany each bite. The best way to guarantee you’re eating a great cupcake? Making your own. (Yes, that even goes for those of us who pass by a Magnolia on the way home from work.) 

Luckily for us, our Birmingham-based test kitchen colleague Anna Theoktisto has a stellar recipe for classic chocolate cupcakes that are tender, deeply flavorful, and have a pleasing, subtle tang from sour cream. It’s an exceedingly simple recipe that requires no mixer and it takes just 15 minutes to prep the batter before baking, making this a minimal-effort dessert that’s perfect for both weeknights and special occasions. Here’s how to make them.

4 Tips for Making the Best Chocolate Cupcakes

Use a combination of bittersweet chocolate and cocoa powder for double the chocolate flavor. Though you could swap in milk chocolate for a sweeter cupcake, we recommend using chopped bittersweet or dark chocolate, which typically ranges from 64 to 72% cacao. For a more complex tasting cake, we incorporate Dutch-processed cocoa powder into the batter, which brings a mellow, earthy chocolate flavor.

Melt the chocolate with hot water. Melting chocolate with hot water may feel counterintuitive, since water can cause the chocolate to seize. But, as I noted in my chocolate mousse recipe, adding just enough liquid can help coat the cocoa particles and keep them fluid. So go ahead: Pour half a cup of hot water over your chocolate. Folding melted chocolate (instead of unmelted chunks or chips) into the batter also ensures the chocolate will be evenly distributed throughout the batter, resulting in a deeply chocolatey cake.

Reach for sour cream for the moist, delicious cupcakes. Fat inhibits gluten development by coating the gluten proteins glutenin and gliadin; because sour cream is rich in both fat and moisture, incorporating it into the batter results in cake that’s tender and moist, with a subtle tartness that complements the chocolate’s fruity notes.

Decorate with a piping tip for the prettiest cupcakes. For a celebration-worthy dessert, fit a piping bag with a fun tip, then pipe squiggles, stars, or an elegant rosette with your frosting of choice. If you don’t have a piping bag on hand, not to worry—you can simply top the cupcakes with icing using an offset spatula. We've included links to our chocolate and vanilla buttercream frosting recipes below, which both go wonderfully with these cupcakes, but feel free to use your favorite homemade or store-bought frosting.

Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 350°F (175ºC). Place paper baking cups in two 12-cup muffin pans. Fit a piping bag with desired piping tip for frosting the cupcakes; set aside.

In a medium bowl, cover bittersweet chocolate with hot water; let sit 2 minutes. Whisk until chocolate is melted, about 1 minute. Whisk in eggs, oil, sour cream, and vanilla until smooth.

In a large bowl, whisk flour, sugar, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda, and baking powder to combine. Add chocolate mixture and whisk until just smooth and no lumps remain. Divide batter equally between baking cups, filling each about 2/3 of the way.

Bake until a wooden toothpick or cake tester inserted into center of cupcakes comes out clean and cupcakes spring back lightly when touched, about 18 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove cupcakes from pan and allow them to cool completely, about 20 minutes.

Using a flexible spatula, scrape buttercream into prepared piping bag. Pipe buttercream on top of each cupcake until completely covered. (Alternatively, use an offset spatula to spread buttercream on top of each cupcake until completely covered.) Repeat with remaining cupcakes.

Special Equipment

Baking cups, two 12-cup muffin pans, piping bag and piping tip or offset spatula, stand mixer, flexible spatula, wooden toothpick or cake tester, wire rack

Make-Ahead and Storage

Unfrosted cupcakes can be tightly wrapped in plastic wrap and frozen for up to 3 months. When ready to frost, thaw overnight at room temperature.

Frosted cupcakes can be kept at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

When I was 14, I purchased a copy of Fergal Connolly’s 500 Cupcakes: The Only Cupcake Compendium You’ll Ever Need. I had just developed an interest in baking and having this book at home spelled doom for my parents and their kitchen: I spent afternoons and weekends creating a giant mess whipping up all kinds of cupcakes, some more delicious than others. I begged my parents for a stand mixer, and they acquiesced after they realized that baking was probably a healthier habit for their adolescent daughter than…some other habits. I brought cupcakes to every party, every bake sale, every family gathering, foisting them on anyone who paused to ask how I was doing. The one recipe that never let me down was the vanilla cupcake, which I turned to over and over again. It was the crowd favorite, the one my friends expected me to show up with.

When I saw that my test kitchen colleague Anna Theokisto developed a recipe for vanilla cupcakes, I jumped at the chance to make them. To come up with the very best cupcakes, Anna methodically tested every recipe variable possible—including the best kind of flour, fat, and liquid to use—until she landed on what another coworker describes as the “perfect vanilla cupcakes.” Anna’s recipe hit all the right spots: With a fine, tender crumb and just the right amount of vanilla, these cupcakes are easy enough to make on a weeknight, but also special enough for a celebration. In other words, they are everything I want in a cupcake. Here’s how to make them.

5 Tips for Making the Best Vanilla Cupcakes

Cream the butter and sugar well. As former editor Stella Parks noted in her classic vanilla butter cake recipe, butter is best beaten when it’s at soft but cool room temperature—ideally 65ºF or 18ºC. At this temperature, butter is pliable enough to beat with the sugar, which aerates the batter. Adequately creaming the butter and sugar traps air bubbles in the batter; as the cake bakes in the oven, these bubbles expand, helping the cake rise. “Without those air bubbles,” Stella writes, “butter and sugar form an ultra-dense paste that gives cakes the texture of a wet brick.” 

Use room temperature ingredients. Because we’re using room temperature butter, it’s essential that all the other ingredients are also at room temperature. Incorporate cold eggs or milk into the batter, and chances are you will curdle the batter, ruining the emulsion and aeration you worked so hard to achieve when creaming the butter and sugar. 

Reach for bleached cake flour. Flours have different protein contents, which indicate gluten potential. The higher a flour’s protein content, the more gluten it can potentially develop in a dough or batter. While all-purpose flour typically contains nine to 12 percent protein, cake flour generally ranges from seven to eight percent protein, making the latter ideal for tender cakes and pastries. Unlike unbleached cake flour, bleached flour is treated with chlorine. As Stella notes in her guide to the ingredient, this gives the batter more time to rise, and produces “super-lofty” and well-risen cakes.

Alternate the dry ingredients and liquids. It may be tempting to add all the flour or liquid at once, but resist, as it can overwhelm the batter. Alternating the ingredients on low speed ensures that each is properly incorporated, resulting in a smooth, evenly mixed batter.

Decorate with a piping tip. For that extra-special touch, fit a piping bag with your favorite tip and pipe a dramatic rosette, cute little stars, or delicate petals with your frosting of choice. And if you can’t be bothered? Slathering the icing on with an offset spatula is just fine.

Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 350°F (175ºC). Place paper baking cups in two 12-cup muffin pans. Fit a piping bag with desired piping tip; set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and salt to combine; set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together whole milk and sour cream until smooth; set aside.

In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar together on  medium speed until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, followed by the vanilla. Reduce speed to low and add about 1/4 of the flour mixture, then drizzle in 1/3 of milk and sour cream mixture. Beat at low speed until just blended after each addition. Repeat adding in increments, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Use a flexible spatula to scrape bowl, if necessary, and beat at low speed until combined, about 1 minute. Divide batter equally between baking cups, filling each about 2/3 of the way.

Bake until a wooden toothpick or cake tester inserted into center of cupcakes comes out clean and cupcakes spring back lightly when touched, about 18 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove cupcakes from pan and allow them to cool completely on wire rack, about 15 minutes.

Using a flexible spatula, scrape buttercream into prepared piping bag. Pipe buttercream on top of each cupcake until completely covered. (Alternatively, use an offset spatula to spread buttercream on top of each cupcake until completely covered.) Repeat with remaining cupcakes.

Special Equipment

Two 12-cup muffin pans, piping bag, piping tip, stand mixer, flexible spatula, wooden toothpick or cake tester, wire rack, flexible spatula, offset spatula

Make-Ahead and Storage

Frosted cupcakes can be kept at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days. 

Unfrosted cupcakes can be tightly wrapped in plastic wrap and frozen for up to 3 months. When ready to frost, thaw overnight at room temperature.