The Perfect Chocolate Cupcake

After years of tinkering with chocolate cake recipes and coming up disappointed, I'm happy to announce that I have finally found an amazing chocolate cake recipe! I stumbled upon this one by accident while I was trying to track down a s'mores cupcake recipe somewhat similar to Sprinkles.

My successful s'mores cupcakes

I've made these twice now - once as part of the original s'mores cupcakes recipe and once as straight up chocolate cupcakes. Both times, they've turned out perfectly. I have made a few changes to the original recipe (because I'm me and I can't help but tinker with recipes), so here it is!

Chocolate Cupcakes (from Unusually Lovely)
1 1/2c granulated sugar
1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter, room temperature
3 eggs
2c flour
3/4c cocoa powder (I used Ghirardelli)
1tsp baking soda
1tsp baking powder
1/2tsp salt
2tsp vanilla
1c buttermilk
1c dark chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli's 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 350 and place liners in a cupcake pan.

Cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Mix until well-combined. Add vanilla. In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add dry mixture to the butter mixture, alternating between dry and buttermilk. Only mix until combined so you don't overmix. Fold in chocolate chips. Fill each cupcake liner about 2/3 full.

Bake for 16-18 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting.

Chocolate caramel pretzel cupcakes

There you have it. I highly suggest you now stop reading this post and start baking right now!