A small batch of 6 chocolate cupcakes, made in one bowl, and topped with vanilla buttercream frosting.
My husband and I just celebrated our 10 year anniversary. TEN years! That makes me feel old – like a real grown-up. When the heck did that happen?! I will say though, I’m so happy to be at the stage of life that we’re in. Even though we are going non-stop with the demands of our two young children, I know that these are the days I’m going to look back at fondly in years to come.
On our anniversary, we spent the day as a family. We made plans to go out for dinner, and I wanted to have a little something sweet to finish the day with. Since it was just the four of us (one of which doesn’t yet eat solid food), I didn’t want to make anything too big or labor intensive. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to make these small batch chocolate cupcakes.
Small Batch Cupcakes
This is a super simple cupcake recipe made in only one bowl. The cupcakes are moist and light with a mild chocolate flavor. I topped them with a vanilla buttercream frosting because I love the combo of chocolate and vanilla together. And since I was making these for a special occasion, I took the extra step of making chocolate hearts to top the cupcakes with. Feel free to skip the chocolate hearts, or make another design of your choosing.
To make chocolate shapes: Melt chocolate chips (I used 1/2 cup) in a microwave or double boiler. Let cool for 5 minutes, then transfer into a plastic bag. Snip off a small corner of the plastic bag and squeeze the melted chocolate into desired patterns on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Transfer the baking sheet to the refrigerator for the chocolate to firm up.
NEVER MISS A RECIPE!
Subscribe to receive my recipes (free!) to your inbox
Like Celebrating Sweets on Facebook
SMALL BATCH RECIPES:
Small Batch Peanut Butter Cup Fudge
Small Batch Chocolate Cupcakes
A small batch of 6 chocolate cupcakes, made in one bowl, and topped with vanilla buttercream frosting.
Ingredients
Cupcake:
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- heaping 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- pinch salt
- 1 egg
- 3 tablespoons milk
- 2 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup hot coffee see note
Vanilla frosting:
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter softened
- 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar sifted
- 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons milk, half and half, or cream
Instructions
For the cupcakes:
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease 6 muffin cups or place 6 liners in a muffin pan. Set aside.
- With a stand mixer or hand mixer, combine sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add egg, milk, oil, and vanilla extract and beat for 2 minutes. Add hot coffee or hot water, and beat until just combined. Batter will be thin.
- Divide evenly between 6 prepared muffin cups. Bake for approximately 15 minutes, until the tops spring back when you touch them, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool completely.
For the frosting:
- Beat butter and powdered sugar for several minutes, until smooth. Add vanilla extract and milk, and beat for several more minutes, until light and fluffy. If the frosting seems a little too thick, beat in a splash of milk. If it seems too thin, add another tablespoon of powdered sugar.
- Frost the cooled cupcakes using a decorating tip or a butter knife. Garnish with sprinkles, if desired.
Recipe Notes
The flavor of the coffee will not come through in the cupcakes. The coffee flavor will help intensify the chocolate flavor. If you'd rather not use coffee, you can substitute hot water.
Chocolate hearts inspired by Uproot from Oregon
Thanks for linking back to my chocolate hearts! These turned out really gorgeously – and 6 cupcakes is the perfect amount! Pinning for later when I need 6 to share 🙂
You’re welcome, Marisa! Thanks for the inspiration!
Just made these cupcakes again for a small birthday celebration (but without the chocolate topping)! Always delicious!
I’m so glad to hear that, Marisa. Thanks for stopping by!
Can i know this recipe in grams
Hi, Ann. You can try entering the ingredients in an online calculator. Unfortunately I don’t have the conversions for you.
I just adore these cupcakes! They are perfect!
Thanks, Jocelyn!
These chocolate cupcakes look simply divine! My favourite cupcake flavour! Congrats on your 10 year anniversary! What a delicious way to celebrate! 😀
Thank you, Jess! I appreciate you stopping by!
Happy 10 years!!! That’s exciting! We had our 11th this year and it makes me feel old, too! Lol! These cupcakes look like the best way to celebrate! I love that it only makes 6, that way I won’t eat a whole dozen! 🙂 Pinned!
Thanks so much, Jen!
Congratulations! And these look so yummy! I wanted to let you know that this post is being featured tonight at the Create & Share Link Party (7:00 PM MST)! Congratulations!!! Can’t wait to see what you share with us this week 🙂 http://www.designsbymissmandee.com/
Thanks, Mandee! I’ll be sure to stop by!
Happy anniversary! The little hearts made me smile! So sweet! Love that these are small batch and made in one bowl! You go girl! I always make half batches of cupcake…nobody needs 12 cupcakes sitting around to tempt them. Nobody. Pinned!
Thanks, Lindsey! 🙂
Your cupcakes look absolutely delicious, and the perfect dessert to celebrate your anniversary! Happy 10 years! 🙂 I love the small batch–perfect for a small family like yours (and mine!) Definitely trying this one out! Pinned!
Thanks so much! Enjoy! 🙂
These were really good! I only needed a few cupcakes for a class I was teaching so this worked out well. This recipe makes 8-9 standard size cupcakes not 6…I actually made 8 and they overflowed the liners. Next time I will cut this recipe in half to make 4 or 5. Anyway, I liked the recipe and will use again for sure! Thanks!
I’m so glad that you liked these. Thanks for sharing your feedback! 🙂
These are amazing! My son wanted chocolate cake and I really didn’t want to make a whole cake just for us, because we would eat it!
The recipe was easy to follow and similar to the recipe I usually make with coffee. I haven’t frosted them yet, but already made the frosting and it’s really divine. The cupcakes smell wonderful and feel very fluflly. We’re waiting for them to cool and frost ^_^ Thank you! Will be using again, especially for dinner parties 😉
Hi, Gloria! I’m so glad that you enjoyed these. I love this recipe for the same reason – if I made a whole cake I’d eat it too! 🙂 Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy!
Do we have to turn on the bottom heat????
I’m unsure about what you’re referring to…
The best cupcake recipe ever….. Moist and delicious.
So glad that you like them! Thanks for stopping by!
As stated the batter is really thin. My batch actually made 9 cupcakes. I used water, it wasn’t enough chocolate flavor for me… I don’t know if maybe since I don’t use coffee maybe I will add a bit more chocolate. I really like the fluffy and airy texture. They baked faster than 15 minutes. This recipe is a keeper. Next time just might add more cocoa powder. Thanks so much for sharing.
I’m glad you liked them, Erika! Thanks for stopping by!
Just made a batch for my husband and grandson , they leaving in a few hours for an overnight fishing trip. Easy and quick to make, love them. Thanks for the recipe.
You’re welcome! That sounds perfect. I’m so glad that you liked them.
I made these as 3 jumbo cupcakes and they are so adorable! Perfect for gifts. I also made the frosting and that came out great too. The proportions are so accurate and you have just enough!
Awesome! Thanks for stopping by to let me know that you liked them. 🙂
I want to say a massive thank you for providing small batch recipes. It has made life easier for me as I often need to make small batch cupcakes for friends.
I appreciate the recipes and you are doing a great job.
Much love from Leeds, England
Thank you SO much for your kind words. I am glad that you enjoy my recipes. Thanks for stopping by. Happy baking!
These were delicious! I had enough batter for 7 cupcakes. Will definitely make them again.
Fantastic! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
These cupcakes are divine!! My husband was making espresso stove top so I just used what he had left over… I’m not sure if that’s what made the chocolate flavor explode, but they turned out like little dark chocolate pieces of heaven! I followed your recipe exactly and made 6 enormous cupcakes. I don’t mind the overflow; just a good excuse to have a good size portion of cupcake! Thank you for the recipe. It’s perfect for this stay at home mommy of one and my love for baking!
Hi Kristen! Thanks SO much for taking the time to share your feedback. I’m happy to hear that you liked these. I created this recipe back when we were a little family of three and we didn’t need two dozen cupcakes sitting around. It sounds like they’re the perfect fit for your family too. Thanks again!
Could you leave the frosting off and place pear slices on top?
Hi Debbie. If you’re planning on baking the cupcakes with pear slices on top I would be concerned that the pears might sink into the batter. This specific cupcake batter is quite thin and it might not be able to hold the weight of the pears. You could try adding them partially through the baking time. Sorry I can’t say for sure. Good luck!
Thank you very much for your recipes..at last my new cupcakes baking tin can be used after long storage in my kitchen cabinets..your chocolate cupcakes were so yummy delicious! I was extremely happy because it was my first baking on cupcakes too. 🙂
Fantastic! I’m so happy to hear that! Thanks for taking the time to stop by.
My cupcakes were made good but they didn’t rise.Can someone tell me why??Although the taste was good.
Usually if a cupcake doesn’t rise it’s because the baking powder and/or baking soda is not fresh. These cupcakes do not have a large dome. Once baked they just barely reach over the top of the cupcake liner. Sorry they didn’t work out for you. Thanks for stopping by!
I made these with gluten free flour and lessened the milk by a tablespoon and they baked up perfectly! Thanks for the recipe that is just the right amount!
Fantastic! Thanks for sharing your adaptation with the gf flour! I’m glad you enjoyed them. 🙂
I love, love, LOVE this recipe! It has been my go-to cupcake recipe for over a year. The fact that I can make 6 for our family of 2.5 (me, husband, toddler) makes it even better!
Tonight, NYE, I decided to make them, but found I was out of cocoa powder and vegetable oil. I melted chocolate chips (a heaping 1/2 cup scoop; cut the sugar to about 1/3 cup) with 1 tablespoon of coconut oil (also all I had) and 1 tablespoon of butter for the cake. And it worked!
I also exploded a bowl in the microwave on my first try to melt the chocolate chips. I blame 2016 for trying to be a punk one last time.
Long, long comment short… Thank you for this recipe! And Happy New Year!
Ha! Thanks for the laugh! I’m so happy to hear that you like these cupcakes. I created this recipe back when my family was just my husband, our 2 year old, and I. It’s perfect for a small family. Thanks for taking the time to stop by. And thanks for sharing your adaptation. Happy New Year!
What do es “cup heaping 1/4 cocoa” mean? Is it a quarter of a cup? Please explain. Thanks.
Hi, Anna. I apologize. It should read “heaping 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa”. My recipe card format changed recently and a few words got jumbled. Thanks for bringing this to my attention, I have corrected it. Enjoy the cupcakes!
When you say heaping does that mean you just scoop and not level? I don’t want to put too much. These look amazing I want to make them for my mom’s birthday.
Yes, scoop it generously and do not level. Enjoy!
These were amazing! My 6 year old wanted to do these on her own. Easy. Few dishes. And amazingly moist and delicious cupcakes. Thanks!
Thanks for taking the time to let me know that you liked them. I’m so happy to hear that! I’m also happy to hear that your 6 year old is spending time in the kitchen – hooray! Thanks, Sabrina!
How thin should the batter be? I was only able to make 5 very small cupcakes.
Hi, Patricia. The batter is very thin, just barely thicker than water. I have made it several times and it produced 6 cupcakes each time. I have a couple of other readers who have been able to stretch the batter into 8 cupcakes. There might be small size variances between muffin tins.
HI..Can you please tell me the substitut for egg in this recipe as I am plannning to make eggless cupcake
I have never made this recipe without eggs, so I can’t say. You could try substituting flax eggs but I’ve never tried that.
Made these for a small birthday celebration and was told they were fantastic, the most moist cupcake they had ever had. I loved the “heaping” 1/4 cup of cocoa and the coffee addition-makes them delish! Thanks for the small batch recipe, it’s a keeper.
I’m happy to hear that you liked them. Thanks for stopping by!
This was such a delicious recipe! I was craving sweets tonight and wanted to make some cupcakes for my husband and I but since it’s just the two of us, I didn’t want to make a dozen (or more as some recipes call for!) So this was the PERFECT amount! I was able to bake, cool, and frost all within 30 min. I had leftover chocolate buttercream icing in the freezer so I used that to frost. But the cupcake itself was so yummy and moist. Thank you for this recipe! It will be going in my recipe box. 🙂
I’m so glad that you liked it! It is perfect for satisfying a craving. Thanks for stopping by!
Delicious recipe! I’m not too crazy about buttercream frosting in general so next time I might cut the amounts in half but no complaints about the cupcakes. Moist, rich, chocolaty and best of all there’s half the temptation 🙂 thank you so much!
I’m so happy to hear that you liked them! Thanks for taking the time to stop by!
Love this recipe! So easy and makes really light, fluffy and chocolatey cupcakes. I have baked this 3X now with my 4 year old son and he loves it. I plan to bake this for his birthday party. If i would like to make it for 18, do i just triple all the ingredients? Or should it change? Thanks in advance!
Hi, Abi! I’m so happy to hear that you like it. Yes, you could try tripling the ingredients, although I haven’t tried it with this recipe. This recipe is based off the Hershey’s Chocolate Cake recipe (link below), so you might be better off using that as it’s written to feed more people. Thanks for stopping by! https://www.hersheys.com/kitchens/en_us/recipes/hersheys-perfectly-chocolate-chocolate-cake.html
These are soo good and pretty! Thanx for sharing the recipe! 😊
You’re welcome. I’m glad that you like them!
Hi..
An Excellent recipe..
1 cup = ? grams?
Thanks.
Are you referring to flour? I believe one cup = 128 grams.
I think I have mini muffin tray so I got 12 mini cupcakes…so cute and so yummy!!
Yay! Thanks for letting me know!
These are awesome! Boyfriend & I were craving cupcakes so I found this recipe & we made it on a whim, and they were exactly what we were hoping for. I’d love to make it again in the future, but it would be fun to experiment with it a little bit and get some unique flavors for different occasions — what are some interesting combinations or substitutions we could try with this recipe? Thanks in advance!
Hi, Lauren. I’m so glad that you liked them. As for switching up the recipe – you could add a peanut butter cup into the cupcakes and top with peanut butter frosting (see here), you could top them with strawberry frosting (here), or you can try my Small Batch Vanilla Cupcakes. Enjoy!
Hello~! Thank you for the recipe ^_^ , btw i want to ask you about the milk you used in this recipe. Was it fresh milk, condensed milk or sweetened milk?
Just regular milk, preferably whole or 2%.
Just made these for an after dinner dessert for my family of four. They were delicious and the kids loved them, nice and airy. I ended up with exactly 6 perfect sized cupcakes. I didn’t use the frosting recipe since I was out of icing sugar, but found some leftover gingerbread house frosting in a packet. It worked good enough for our purposes. Can’t wait to try the frosting next time!
Perfect! Thanks for stopping by to let me know. I’m so glad that you enjoyed them. 🙂
Cant believe i made them. They are so so so soft and very easy to make. Feeling like i discovered a country lol
Will be making this forever.
Ha! Yay! I’m so happy to hear that. Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
Just wanted to let you know that I tried these, but I did make three adjustments. They were yummy, First one was that I have to be on a Gluten-free diet so I substituted 70 gm. of my gluten-free flour ( which does have both xanthum gum and guar gum in it) for the 1/2 c. All purpose flour. I used buttermilk instead of reg. milk and increased the baking soda by about 3/8t. instead of 1/4t.. They have a wonderful, crumb. and taste really good. I was looking for a small batch of cupcakes because my husband and I are getting ready to go on vacation and I had already made a batch of goodies to take. Thur. is my birthday and while I usually do not make myself a cake., I decided that I would like something sweet to have after dinner. I also nearly forgot that I had discovered that I did not have a rounded or heaping 1/4C. of cocoa so I added some dutch cocoa. Now you may think that I made too many changes to it to still be your recipe, but I want to thank you for figuring out the amounts needed to do a small batch. They were yummy!
I’m glad that you enjoyed them. Thanks for sharing your changes. Happy birthday!
I tried this recipe but my cupcakes are sinks inside why this is happening
Were your baking powder and soda fresh? Did you measure the flour correctly? If any of that was off it would prevent the cupcakes from rising.
Can You use Hersheys special dark cocoa powder? ( dutch processed cocoa powder)
I have never tried it. I believe that there could be a chemical reaction, although the baking soda might offset that. I can’t say for sure. If you try it, please let me know how it goes.
I’m so glad I found this fast,easy, and DELICIOUS small batch recipe. lately I’ve been looking into small batch recipes to try different things with ingredients, and without changing anything this recipe is THE BOMB!! I did sub the milk for heavy cream…and wow!!! The tops of the cupcakes had a slight crispy texture…wonderful. Thanks for this recipe. 👍💞💙
Glad that you enjoyed them. Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment!