Mocha Cupcakes

Love chocolate and coffee? Then you’ll love this recipe for moist and fluffy mocha cupcakes with fluffy mocha buttercream frosting.

These cupcakes are perfect for coffee lovers! The mocha cake is delicious and has a rich chocolate flavor, while the mocha buttercream frosting is creamy and perfectly sweet.

These Mocha Cupcakes are the perfect way to jazz up your dessert routine with a delicious chocolate and coffee flavor combo. If you’re a coffee lover, these mocha cupcakes are for you!

The rich chocolate flavour is enhanced by the addition of strong brewed coffee, trust me you won’t believe how moist, fluffy, and flavourful these cupcakes are. This is the only chocolate cupcake recipe you will ever need.

What makes these cupcakes even better though is the extra creamy and fluffy buttercream frosting. Made with butter and powdered sugar, the frosting is flavoured with real brewed coffee and cocoa powder. This results in a perfect mocha flavoured frosting. It’s so good, and not too sweet!

Whether you’re craving a sweet treat or need something special for a party, these cupcakes are sure to impress.

Why You will Love these Mocha Cupcakes

• Easy to make from scratch.
• Made with freshly brewed coffee. No need to use instant coffee!
• Loads of Mocha flavour.
• Moist and tender crumb.
• Creamy and fluffy buttercream frosting.
• Just the perfect amount of sweetness.

Tips for the Best Chocolate Mocha Cupcakes

This easy chocolate mocha cupcake recipe results in rich mocha flavoured cupcakes with a tender crumb, but you should be aware of some cupcake baking basics.

• Make sure NOT to over-mix the batter if you want light, fluffy cupcakes.
• Spoon and carefully level your flour, do not pack the flour or eyeball it.
• Use ingredients that are at room temperature.
• Do NOT open the oven door while baking.
• Always fill your cupcake liners about 2/3 full.
• Allow your cupcakes to completely cool before frosting.
• Make sure the coffee is piping hot when adding to the batter,

How Long do you Bake Cupcakes?

Most cupcakes bake for 18-22 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

You can test if they are done by sticking a toothpick into the centre of a cupcake, and if it comes out clean, they are done.

You can also test by gently pressing down on the cupcake and looking to see if it bounces back completely or not. If it does, they are done, if your finger left a dent they need more time.

How to Store Frosted Mocha Cupcakes

To prevent these cupcakes from drying out, store them as you would other baked goods. These mocha cupcakes should last up to three days at normal room temperature covered in plastic wrap or stored in an airtight container, and about a week if refrigerated.

If you don’t plan on eating the chocolate cupcakes within two to three days of baking them, place the unfrosted chocolate cupcakes in an airtight container and freeze for up to two months.

Thaw at room temperature for about 5 hours, and frost with delicious mocha frosting when you are ready to serve.

About the Equipment Needed for Making Cupcakes

For making the actual cupcakes themselves I usually just use a large mixing bowl, and a whisk since we don’t need to cream butter.

You will need two muffin tins and 24 cupcake liners as well for baking them.

When it comes to the buttercream, I always pull out my stand mixer. A large bowl and a hand mixer works too.

If you want to decorate your cupcakes bakery style then you will also need a pastry bag and a large decorating tip.

About the Ingredients for Chocolate Mocha Cupcakes

These homemade chocolate mocha cupcakes only require a few simple ingredients you likely already have on hand.

Flour – Spoon and level the flour when measuring it, otherwise you’ll wind up with a dense cake.

Sugar – Just plain white granulated sugar.

Cocoa powder – Make sure you use unsweetened cocoa powder, and not hot chocolate mix. Also do not substitute with bakers chocolate, which can dry out the cake.

Baking powder & soda – Leavens the cake, make sure they are still active so your cake rises perfectly.

Salt – Helps to balance all the flavours and make em shine.

Eggs – Make sure you have room temperature eggs to start with.

Milk – Make sure your milk is room temperature before starting. You can use dairy or non dairy, I would recommend whole milk for the best flavour.

Oil – You can use any neutral flavoured oil, just don’t substitute with butter, oil makes for more moist cupcakes. You can also substitute with apple sauce.

Vanilla Extract – Use pure vanilla extract for the best flavour, but artificial is just fine too.

Coffee – Hot water creates moist chocolate cupcakes with a more tender crumb. Using freshly brewed coffee does the same but enhances the chocolate flavour. Alternatively you can use a little espresso powder with the boiling water. If using coffee make sure it is freshly brewed and still piping hot when you add it to the batter. For the best mocha flavour you need to make sure the coffee or espresso is very strong. When you are brewing it, make sure you also make enough for the buttercream.

About the Ingredients for Mocha Buttercream Frosting

The mocha buttercream is a basic, tried and true recipe for buttercream that I LOVE, modified for mocha flavour. Fluffy and flavourful, and not overly sweet.

Butter – It is best to use unsalted butter and then add salt for the best flavour. That said, I often make buttercream with what I have on hand, and that is generally salted butter and that works well too. Just omit half of the additional salt.

Powdered sugar – Also known as icing sugar or confectioners sugar.

Cocoa powder – Again, you want unsweetened cocoa powder here. If you want vanilla frosting instead, simply omit the cocoa powder.

Coffee – When you make the coffee for the buttercream, just set aside enough to flavour the buttercream. It needs to be cool, so set it aside to cool off after brewing.

Vanilla extract – Use pure vanilla extract for the best flavour, but artificial is just fine too.

Garnish – I used brown jimmies to decorate my cupcakes. You might want to use chocolate covered coffee beans instead.

Looking for More Chocolate Cupcake Recipes?

Check out more of my favourite chocolate cupcake ideas!

These Frosted Berry Cupcakes with an Orange Mascarpone Buttercream feature a fluffy orange cake topped with a luscious frosting, and sugared fruit.

This is the best, classic recipe for Lemon Cupcakes that are soft, fluffy and full of sweet and tangy lemon flavour.

These Cherry Pie Cupcakes feature a decadent vanilla cinnamon cupcake filled with cherry pie filling and topped with vanilla cinnamon buttercream and even more cherry filling!

How to Make Mocha Cupcakes

Yields: 24 Cupcakes | Prep time: 20 Minutes | Cook time: 22 Minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 cups All-purpose flour
• 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
• ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 1 cup milk, room temperature
• ½ cup Vegetable oil
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
• ¾ cup freshly brewed strong coffee

For the Mocha Buttercream Frosting:

• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3 ½ cups powdered sugar
• ½ Tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3 Tablespoons strong brewed coffee, cooled
• ⅛ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• optional: brown sprinkles for garnish

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Add cupcake liners to two 12 serving cupcake pans and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, add flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk to combine.

In that same bowl, add eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla extract. Whisk until just combined.

Stir in the coffee until just combined.

Use a large cookie scoop to equally portion the batter into the liners of the prepared cupcake pans, each one should be about 2/3 full. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre of a cupcake comes out clean.

Remove cupcakes from oven and place on wire cooling rack to come to room temperature.

While cupcakes cool, prepare the frosting: Add room temperature butter to the bowl of a mixer fitted with whisk attachment (or large mixing bowl if using hand-held mixer). Mix on high until a creamy consistency is reached.

Add powdered sugar, cocoa powder, coffee, salt and vanilla extract. Mix on low for 30 settings. Increase speed to high for 1 minute.

Spoon frosting into a piping bag fitted with a large star tip. Pipe frosting onto cooled cupcakes, garnishing each one with sprinkles if desired.

*Note: If you are decorating your cupcakes bakery style then you will need to double the frosting recipe. If you are just going to spread it on then it makes the perfect amount.