Black Cupcakes

These black cupcakes are rich, dense, and packed with chocolate flavor. They're topped with a thick black frosting, making the perfectly moist black velvet cupcakes. If you love any sort of dark chocolate cake, this black velvet cupcake recipe will be one of your favorite baked goods recipes! Plus they're so much fun for the whole family to make (and eat). 🙂

And if you love black cocoa, healthy chocolate zucchini bread and black forest brownies are a great use for it as well!

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Jump to:

• Equipment
• Ingredients
• How to Make Black Cupcakes
• How to Make Chocolate Avocado Frosting
• Variations & Substitutions
• Pro Tips
• Storage
• Recipe FAQ
• Other recipes you may like
• Black Cupcakes

Equipment

• Large bowl - I recommend combining the wet ingredients in a 3- or 5-quart large mixing bowl and then slowly adding the dry ingredients into it. You want enough room to mix the batter without flour and cocoa powders going everywhere!
• Muffin tin - I use a regular-sized muffin tin to bake these cupcakes.
• Cupcake liners - You can make these black cupcakes without liners but I prefer using them to keep things cleaner!
• Measuring cups - I like using a ¼ measuring cup to scoop the batter into a prepared cupcake tin for even portioning!
• Sifter - Sifting the cake flour and cocoa powders will remove any lumps, which will help prevent overmixing.
• Liquid measuring cup - this will ensure accurate measuring of the liquid ingredients!

Ingredients

Full ingredients, measurements, and instructions can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

For the Black Cupcakes

• Black cocoa - this is the star of this recipe! It's processed more than traditional cocoa powder to remove a lot of the bitter taste and flavor. Black cocoa is what gives these cupcakes and frosting their rich black color without having to use black food coloring. Fun fact: it's what they use to make Oreos!
• Cake flour - this is a softer flour compared to all-purpose flour or wheat flour. I highly recommend using cake flour and not substituting another type of flour!
• Unsweetened cocoa powder - I have found this bakes best in chocolate cakes and cupcakes!
• Large eggs - be sure to let them come to room temperature! This allows for more even mixing with less stirring. Overmixing cake batter can make the cake or cupcakes crumbly and dry.
• Pure vanilla extract - even though vanilla is the opposite flavor of chocolate, it enhances the deep chocolate flavor of these cupcakes.
• Coffee - it's important to let the hot coffee come to room temperature before stirring into the batter. If it's too hot, it will start to cook the eggs and make the batter chunky.
• Olive oil - I like using oil to add moisture to these cupcakes. You can use any neutral oil, like olive oil, avocado oil, canola oil, or vegetable oil!
• Kefir - kefir can be substituted 1:1 for buttermilk in a recipe! Since the black cocoa powder needs an acid to neutralize it, the traditional ingredient used is buttermilk. Since kefir has nutritional benefits like natural probiotics, I sub that.
• Mashed banana - this is a low-calorie way to provide moisture (plus some nutrition) without a lot of fat.

For the Chocolate Avocado Frosting

• Avocados - avocado is packed with unsaturated fat, which makes it a better alternative to butter! They have almost no flavor and the cocoa powders and powdered sugar really mask any flavor you might taste. Ripe avocados are best here! This will allow for easy mixing and result in a smooth chocolate frosting. I recommend placing avocados in a paper bag with the banana and some apples to speed up ripening!
• Powdered sugar - any good frosting has powdered sugar!
• Black cocoa powder - this is what gives the chocolate avocado frosting that deep, dark chocolate color. And amazing flavor too!
• Unsweetened cocoa powder - just to add a little bit more chocolate flavor!
• Cornstarch - this will thicken the frosting and prevent any moisture from leaking out of the avocado once the frosting is made.

How to Make Black Cupcakes

How to Make Chocolate Avocado Frosting

Variations & Substitutions

• These make the perfect Halloween cupcakes for a Halloween party if you top with candy corn and/or festive sprinkles!
• You can add ½ cup of your favorite chocolate chips to add even more chocolate-y flavor!
• I love making a chocolate avocado frosting for these black cupcakes but you could top them with black cocoa buttercream frosting, regular chocolate buttercream, cream cheese frosting, or even a dusting of powdered sugar!

Pro Tips

• I love using a piping bag to pipe black frosting on top of these black cocoa cupcakes but you can easily dollop of a scoop of frosting on and spread it with a rounded knife.
• Mix the batter until just combined and most lumps are gone (this is why sifting the flour and cocoa powder is important!). Mixing just enough will result in fluffy cupcakes with a soft texture.
• If your avocados and/or banana aren't ripe enough, I recommend placing them in a paper bag with each other and some apples for 2-3 days on the counter at room temperature. The gases from the apples and bananas will expedite ripening!

Storage

Store the black cupcakes in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. You can keep them at room temperature but they'll last longer in the fridge! They can also be frozen, ideally without frosting, for up to 2 months.

Recipe FAQ

Other recipes you may like

If you love these festive black cocoa cupcakes, you might also like:

• Healthy Buckeyes (Chocolate Peanut Butter Bites)
• Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding
• Espresso Chocolate Chip Muffins
• Healthy Cookie Dough Dip

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