The best easy chocolate cupcakes with pink frosting! These soft, moist chocolate cupcakes are topped with an easy pink buttercream - simple to make and tastes delicious!
Jump to:
✏️ Recipe creation
I wanted to create a cute pink cupcake that chocolate lovers could enjoy, making it great for girly kid's parties, pink-themed parties, baby showers, bridal showers, Valentine’s Day and more.
I love these chocolate sponge cupcakes, it’s based on the recipe I use for my chocolate Oreo drip cake and Disney Maleficent cupcakes – fan favourites!
These easy chocolate pink cupcakes are simple to make, using a basic chocolate sponge and an American-style buttercream with pink food colouring. It’s a chocolate and vanilla-flavoured dessert sure to go down a treat with a crowd!
🥘 Ingredients
This pink chocolate cupcakes recipe calls for the following ingredients:
1. Chocolate cupcakes:
- Vegetable oil: or other neutral flavoured oil.
- Egg: large size, room temperature for ease of mixing.
- Milk: full-fat or semi-skimmed for a creamier consistency.
- Vanilla extract: use extract or paste over essence for best flavour.
- White sugar: finely granulated such as caster sugar.
- Plain all-purpose flour: sieve for a smooth cake batter.
- Cocoa powder: unsweetened type for baking (not drinking) e.g. dutch-processed.
- Baking powder: always check the expiry date before use or the cake won’t rise.
- Hot coffee: fresh or instant coffee.
2. Pink buttercream:
- Unsalted butter: room temperature for a softened butter that’s easier to beat.
- Powdered icing sugar: sieve your confectioners’ sugar for a smooth frosting.
- Vanilla extract: use extract or paste for best taste.
- Milk: use full fat or semi-skimmed milk.
- Salt (optional)
- Pink food colouring: use a gel or paste to prevent adding too much moisture.
See the recipe card for quantities.
Top tip: For accuracy, it’s best to weigh your ingredients rather than using cups.
♻️ Substitutions / Variations
Ingredient substitutions
Instead of white sugar, you can use golden caster sugar or light brown soft sugar. This gives it a more caramel flavour.
You can swap the all-purpose plain flour for self-raising flour and reduce the baking powder to only ½ tsp.
You can use fresh hot coffee for this recipe, or 2 teaspoon instant coffee dissolved into 100ml (½ cup) hot water instead. Either caffeinated or decaf works great.
You can use whole, semi-skimmed or non-diary milk in the cupcake batter and buttercream. For the buttercream, this gives it a thinner, creamier consistency, so only add as much as needed, 1 tablespoon at a time.
For the pink icing, you can swap pink food colouring for a small amount of red colouring.
Flavour options
You can swap your pink vanilla frosting for another pink frosting like this raspberry puree buttercream or the pink strawberry buttercream used in my best strawberry vanilla cake recipe.
You can also change the chocolate cupcake for another type like vanilla sprinkles cupcakes or these soft lemon cupcakes.
📖 Method
Chocolate cupcakes
Preheat oven: 180°C / 160°C (fan) / Gas Mark 4 / 350°F
Step 1: In a mixing bowl, beat the egg, oil, vanilla, sugar and milk together until fully combined.
Step 2: In a separate bowl, sieve in the cocoa powder, flour and baking powder and whisk them together.
Step 3: Gradually pour the wet ingredients into the dry, stirring together as you pour until just combined. There may be a few small lumps left, but that’s ok.
Step 4: Slowly add in the hot coffee (fresh or instant), mixing as you pour until the liquid has only just combined.
Step 5: Divide the mixture evenly between the cupcake cases in the muffin tin.
Step 6: Bake for 15-20mins until risen and springy to the touch. Allow the cupcakes to cool on a wire rack while you make the buttercream.
Pink buttercream
Step 1: Beat the butter (either by hand, using an electric mixer or stand mixer) until pale, light and fluffy. This could take several minutes.
Step 2: Sieve half of the icing sugar into the butter and beat until combined.
Steps 3 - 4: Repeat the above step with the remaining half of the icing sugar.
Step 5: Add in the milk, vanilla extract and salt, then mix until smooth. Stir in food colouring, a few drops at a time, until you get the desired colour.
Step 6: Once your cupcakes have fully cooled, add your buttercream to a piping bag fitted with a nozzle of your choice (e.g. large open star) and pipe large swirls onto each cupcake, then enjoy!
🎥 Recipe video
Check out the recipe video below for how to make the best chocolate cupcakes with pink frosting!
💭 Top tips
- For soft and fluffy chocolate cupcakes, try not to overmix your cake batter once you’ve added the baking powder.
- Your chocolate cupcakes are cooked once they’re risen and springy to touch. An inserted toothpick or skewer should also come out clean from the middle.
- Use good quality sturdy baking cases or baking cups, as sometimes the cheap ones can peel over time due to the moisture in your moist chocolate cupcakes.
- For creamy pink buttercream, beat your butter until it’s pale, light and fluffy first. This could take several minutes with an electric mixer.
- Food colouring develops stronger over time, so stop adding your pink colouring a few shades before you get the intensity you want.
- To decorate your chocolate cupcakes with pink icing, use a piping bag and your favourite tip to pipe big swirls on top of your chocolate cupcakes. I like to use a large open-star nozzle like a Wilton 1M for an easy but pretty finish.
❔ Recipe FAQs
Your chocolate pink cupcakes should last for up 4 days stored in an airtight container at room temperature. If it’s hot where you live, store your cupcakes in the fridge instead.
Yes! You can freeze your frosted chocolate pink cupcakes in an airtight container or wrapped in cling film and then foil for up to 3 months. Defrost and enjoy!
No, cake flour is actually different to both plain flour and self-raising flour. It has a different composition and your cake will have a different consistency if you use it.
For tips on how to get the exact shade of pink frosting, whether that’s baby pink, hot pink, dusty pink or more, check out my pink frosting recipe colour tips.
Swap the plain all-purpose flour for a gluten-free 1:1 blend. Check out this easy gluten-free chocolate cupcake recipe for more information.
🧁 Other goodies
Looking for some more easy desserts?
If you love easy cupcakes, perfect for birthday parties and special occasions, give these tasty treats a try:
For more great chocolate cupcake frosting ideas, check out these delicious cupcake toppings:
- Boozy Baileys buttercream – add pink food colouring for a pink Baileys frosting!
- Fresh lemon buttercream
- Orange buttercream
- Caramel buttercream with store-bought caramel
You can also take your chocolate cupcakes with pink icing to the next level by filling them with a few teaspoons of this delicious strawberry cupcake filling or this lemon curd cupcake filling.
Looking forward to some new recipes? Check out my Youtube, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest pages for a few sneak peeks and some sweet inspiration!
Or if you’d like to hear about our latest recipes, why not subscribe to our newsletter?
📋 Recipe
Chocolate Cupcakes with Pink Frosting
Rate this recipe here:
Equipment
Ingredients
Chocolate cupcakes
- 1 egg
- 65 ml (¼ cups) vegetable oil or other neutral oil e.g. sunflower
- 125 ml (½ cups) milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 165 g (¾ cups) white sugar finely granulated e.g. caster
- 140 g (1 cups) plain all-purpose flour
- 45 g (4 tablespoon) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- 75 ml (⅓ cups) hot coffee or 2tsp instant coffee dissolved in 75ml hot water
Pink buttercream
- 150 g (⅔ cups) unsalted butter
- 350 g (3 cups) powdered icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoon milk
- ⅛ teaspoon salt optional
- Pink food colouring
Instructions
Chocolate cupcakes
- Pre-heat oven: 180°C / 160°C (fan) / Gas Mark 4 / 350°F
- In a mixing bowl, beat the egg, oil, vanilla, sugar and milk together until fully combined.
- In a separate bowl, sieve in the cocoa powder, flour and baking powder and whisk them together.
- Gradually pour the wet ingredients into the dry, stirring together as you pour until just combined. There may be a few small lumps left, but that’s ok.
- Slowly add in the hot coffee (fresh or instant), mixing as you pour until the liquid has only just combined.
- Divide the mixture evenly between the cupcake cases in the muffin tin and bake for 15-20mins until risen and springy to the touch. Allow the cupcakes to cool on a wire rack.
Pink buttercream
- Beat the butter (either by hand, using an electric mixer or stand mixer) until pale, light and fluffy. This could take several minutes.
- Sieve half of the icing sugar into the butter and beat until combined, then repeat this with the remaining half of icing sugar.
- Add in the milk, vanilla extract and salt, then mix until smooth.
- Stir in food colouring, a few drops at a time, until you get the desired colour.
- Once your cupcakes have fully cooled, add your buttercream to a piping bag fitted with a nozzle of your choice (e.g. large open star) and pipe large swirls onto each cupcake, then enjoy!
Video
Notes
- Your cupcakes are cooked once they’re risen and springy to the touch. An inserted toothpick or skewer should also come out clean from the middle.
- Use sturdy cupcake cases or baking cups so they don't peel with moisture.
- Swap your plain flour for self-raising flour and reduce the baking powder to only ½ tsp.
- You can use fresh hot coffee or 2 teaspoon instant coffee dissolved into 100ml (½ cup) hot water. Either caffeinated or decaf works great.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is an estimate based on an online nutritional calculator, actual values may vary.
Comments
No Comments