These Chocolate Wedding Cupcakes are the perfect chocolate cupcakes for weddings or other special celebrations. Everyone at a wedding loves a good chocolate cupcake, and this recipe has been made and loved by many. Watch the video showing you how to make these cupcakes, then scroll to the bottom of this post and print out the recipe so you can make them at home.
A couple of years ago, I had the task of making White Wedding Cake Cupcakes with Wedding Cupcake Buttercream for one of the teachers at my son’s school. I managed to squeak out about 125 cupcakes for her and a small wedding cake too. Those cupcakes have been a very popular recipe on the blog- and for good reason. They’re moist and perfect.
They’re jazzed up so much that you’d never know they started with a boxed mix (eek!). Seriously, you’d never know. This is the chocolate version of those cupcakes: Chocolate Wedding Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting. And of course, they are not just for weddings!
The cupcakes themselves are moist and wonderful. The frosting is a simple chocolate buttercream- easy to pipe on in a swirly motion. I share what piping tip I used further down in this post. HERE is a great link from a blog that shows you some different ways to frost cupcakes. Decorate with pearls or sprinkles or leave them simple and plain.
If you’re baking these for a wedding, I recommend baking them in brown cupcake wrappers. You can always set the baked cupcakes inside of a more decorative wrapper on your display.
WHAT SUPPLIES DO YOU NEED TO MAKE WEDDING CUPCAKES?
IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR THE RIGHT SUPPLIES TO MAKE THESE CUPCAKES, HERE ARE MY SUGGESTIONS (THESE ARE AFFILIATE LINKS TO AMAZON):
- 12-cup muffin pan
- My suggestion for the cupcake liners is to visit a local baking supply shop where you live. They should carry a good, brown liner that won’t have the cupcake turning out greasy.
- Edible sugar pearls
- large plastic disposable pastry bags for piping the frosting
- For icing the cupcakes, I recommend trying either the Wilton Open Star 1M tip or the Wilton Closed Star 2D. Both of these you can usually find at craft or baking supply stores. Or just order a whole decorator tip kit and try out different ones!
- These disposable cupcake boxes are great… because you can bake and decorate your cupcakes, then store them in the boxes and refrigerate them overnight!
I own a wonderful cupcake stand, but the one I bought isn’t available anymore.
These kinds of stands are great for a wedding, but I’ve actually used them on a number of other occasions too. They’re a good investment if you see a lot of cupcakes in your future! I figure it will cost just as much or more to rent a nice cupcake stand, and if you fork over the $$ to just purchase one yourself- you’ll have something to use for parties in the future!
As with using any recipe for an important occasion, my best advice is to test this recipe out and see how you like it before you make it for the big day. Frost the cupcakes and everything!
Then you’ll know if this recipe is for you.
HERE ARE A FEW LINKS THAT MAY BE HELPFUL TO YOU:
- How to Make Wedding Cupcakes (a post showing you how I made them for a wedding)
- Wedding Cupcake Buttercream (the best frosting recipe for these cupcakes)
- White Wedding Cake Cupcakes
- White Wedding Cake
Chocolate Wedding Cupcakes
Ingredients
CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES:
- 1 box chocolate cake mix (15.25-ounce box) (Betty Crocker, Duncan Hines... something like that)
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 cup granulated white sugar
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1⅓ cups water
- 2 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup sour cream
- 4 large eggs
CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM FROSTING:
- 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, at room temperature
- 6 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
- 2 pounds powdered sugar, sifted
- ½ cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups dark chocolate chips (or chopped dark chocolate)
Instructions
MAKE THE CUPCAKES:
- Preheat the oven to 325°F. Place cupcake liners in cupcake pans (you'll need approx. 36).
- In a large bowl, whisk together the cake mix, flour, sugar and salt. Add the remaining ingredients and beat with hand mixer for 2 minutes, or until well blended.
- Use an ice cream scoop to fill prepared cupcake tins- fill about ¾ full. Bake about 18 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting.
FROST THE CUPCAKES:
- In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the butter and cream cheese at medium speed until creamy. Gradually add the powdered sugar, beating at low speed until blended. Increase speed to medium, and slowly add milk and vanilla, beating until smooth.
- Microwave the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl at MEDIUM 1½ to 2 minutes or until melted and smooth, stirring at 30 second intervals. Gradually add melted chocolate to mixture; beat until blended and smooth. If the frosting is too soft for piping, cover and refrigerate for a few minutes until it firms up a little bit. Otherwise, spread or pipe frosting on top of cupcakes and decorate as desired.
Notes
- If you prefer an "extra chocolatey" cupcake, add 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, and use chocolate extract in place of vanilla.
- *If you are swirling the frosting on with a tip (to use a generous amount of frosting), you'll want to use this recipe for the frosting. If you're just spreading it on, you can cut the frosting ingredients in half to make a smaller amount.
- *You can use either regular or light sour cream for this recipe, but heck... since it's a wedding cupcake and you want it to be as delicious and moist as possible, I recommend going for the full-fat kind.
- *Using an ice cream scoop is perfect for getting the batter into the cupcake tins without spilling.
- *You can also use this mix to make cake. Pour into greased and floured cake pans. Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
- *For best results, keep the cupcakes refrigerated until ready to serve.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Its been so long since I baked without Duncan Hines Cake Mix but my sisters and I decided to get together and bake something and we chose this recipe it was worth it-we bonded and made a mess and the cup cakes came out great.
I made these for a church potluck this Sunday and they were a winner. I am a big fan of boxed cake mixes, so this recipe was perfect (I do have a from-scratch chocolate cake recipe that I am in love with and will be using on these next go-round). The frosting was the ‘icing on the cake’ – smooth, smooth, and smooth. I will be making these again, and again, and again.
Love this recipe and your photos.. Chocolate Wedding Cupcakes and perfect, and they look so dressed up with the addition of the ‘pearls’..
I made these last night using a cake mix recipe from scratch. I added a few native chocolate tablets (tablea de cacao). I loved how dark and chocolatey it came out! Definitely a keeper (even though I didn’t really use a cake mix. Heh.)
Lori…these look delicious and absolutely perfect! I have NO problem jazzing up a cake mix. Hey….they put YEARS of research into those boxes!
Oh, how I love chocolate…and weddings…so I know that these Chocolate Wedding Cupcakes are absolutely perfect.
Lori, these little cupcakes are so perfectly lovely! They look absolutely fit for a fancy fete. Great job!
I am a testament to these cupcakes…they are perfect! Thank You Lori for this great recipe…
I made these for a girls night out and the girls RAVED about the cupcakes…the only thing I did different is I added a 1/4 tsp of KAF espresso powder to them, and boy did I get wonderful reviews on those babies!!!
these are PERFECT!
I have and LOVE LOVE LOVE the cupcake tower!!!!! Lovely cupcake Lori