There are many, many different recipes for chocolate cupcakes out there and, as much as I like to be creative and try as many of them as I can, I also like to have an easy, reliable recipe to fall back on when I need cupcakes in a hurry.  This is my “old reliable” chocolate cupcake recipe.

The cupcakes have a deep chocolate flavor and take only a few minutes to throw together. In a pinch, the batter could even be mixed up in one bowl. The batter uses liquid fat instead of solid butter, so there is no need for creaming and you don’t even have to use an electric mixer. I often use oil in the recipe for simplicity’s sake, but it works perfectly well with melted butter, too. Sometimes, I will throw in a few handfuls of mini chocolate chips if I want to make the cupcakes just a touch more chocolaty. The batter is fairly thin and full sized chocolate chips will sink to the bottoms of the muffin cups; mini chips help to alleviate this problem.

This recipe, unlike so many others posted here, will make 2 dozen cupcakes in one go. This makes it an excellent choice for parties and other occasions where you might need to serve a big crowd.

These chocolate cupcakes were made to complement a batch of vanilla cupcakes, but rather than just set them out on a plate, I decided to do something special with them. The suspense will only last a bit longer, I promise…

Easy Chocolate Cupcakes
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup vegetable oil or melted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup mini chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350F. Place liners in 2-12 cup muffin tins.
In a large bowl, whisk together cocoa, flour, white sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt until thoroughly mixed.
In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, water, buttermilk, vegetable oil and vanilla extract. Whisk into flour mixture until all of the ingredients are mixed in and no streaks of flour remain. Add in optional mini chocolate chips, if using.
Fill muffin cups evenly with the prepared batter.
Bake at 350F for 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean, or with only a few crumbs.
Remove cupcakes from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.

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