Eggless Chocolate Cupcakes + Video
Jul 18, 2017, Updated May 07, 2023
These Eggless Chocolate Cupcakes are super moist, chocolaty and perfect for your chocolate craving. These are topped with a creamy chocolate buttercream frosting for that special treat!
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Soft, moist and delicious Eggless Chocolate Cupcakes topped with a creamy Chocolate Buttercream Frosting!
This is the only eggless chocolate cupcake recipe you would need!
Thank you everyone for all your messages, comments, DMs, emails after my last post. I am so touched by all the love. I am not going to lie, it’s not easy. No matter how hard I try each day, the pain still feels unbearable.
I still find it hard to believe that I am living this life without my mumma, no child ever imagines such a life. But the irony is that life has to go on and it doesn’t stop for anyone.
I know this fact very well since I have lost most of my family in the last 15 years and well life still went on. I clearly remember when I lost my sister, she was 2 years elder to me and as most sisters are, we were very close.
When I lost her, I thought I couldn’t survive a day without her but here I am 15 years later. I know no one can ever replace my mumma, she is the reason for my existence but I will try to move ahead in life and hold on to good memories.
It might be tough right now but IÂ am hoping that with time, I will have more strength to bear this pain and live with it.
The first thing that I did make for my blog after a month are these eggless chocolate cupcakes. I was struggling for the last few weeks in the kitchen. Even if I tried, I couldn’t bring myself up to cook anything.
But over the weekend, I baked these cupcakes and it felt good. That’s the thing about baking, it always makes you feel good. I wanted to bake something with chocolate since chocolate is something I love so much and it always helps lift my mood and so I ended up baking these cupcakes.
I have been posting a lot of eggless baking recipes lately because I get lot of requests for it. I have had few readers ask me for eggless chocolate cupcakes and cake recipe and I am happy to be sharing this one with you guys.
This recipe is for cupcakes but you can easily bake it as a cake too. Only the baking time will be more in that case.
These Eggless Chocolate Cupcakes Are
✓ soft and moist
✓ have a nice chocolaty flavor
✓ are topped with a creamy chocolate buttercream frosting
These eggless chocolate cupcakes are soft and moist due to use of buttermilk! Since I did not have buttermilk at home, I mixed 1 cup milk with 1 tablespoon vinegar, let it sit for few minutes and then used that for this recipe.
You can do the same or if you have buttermilk, you can straight away use that. Vinegar is important here, since it would react with baking soda to produce carbon dioxide and life the batter as the cupcakes bake.
And if you have never tried vinegar in your cakes/cupcakes, let me assure you can’t taste it at all.
How to make the perfect Eggless Chocolate CupcakesÂ
✓ Fill cupcake liners only 1/2 full to get that perfect cupcake dome. No 2/3 rd full and no 3/4 full, just half would do the trick.
✓ Do not over-bake else top of the cupcakes will become chewy. Check at 15 minutes. Since you are adding less batter and filling the liners only till 1/2 full, the cupcakes will bake in less time.
✓ Do not over-mix the batter. Always remember that > over-mixing>more gluten>tough cupcakes!
✓ Use a teaspoon of instant coffee powder dissolved in a tablespoon of water for that intense chocolate flavor. I would have surely used it but I forgot to add it while baking these cupcakes!
✓ Since these chocolate cupcakes use cocoa powder only for the chocolate flavor, I highly recommend using a good brand.
My favorites are Rodelle, Anthony’s and Valrhona. I have all the three in my pantry but for this recipe I used Anthony’s organic cocoa powder. It is really good.
You can find it on amazon. [Not paid for this, just sharing the products I love]
The cupcakes come together pretty quickly. You whisk the dry and wet ingredients separately and then just combine the two. Pretty easy!
And then I topped these with a classic chocolate buttercream. Again, I used only cocoa powder in the buttercream too, you may use melted chocolate.
Hope you guys enjoy this recipe for eggless chocolate cupcakes. And once again, thank you so much for all the kind and comforting words, I truly appreciate it.
PS: From now on, I will have ingredients measurement by weight for all the baking recipes. I have had so many of you commenting that you don’t bake using cups so I hope it’s useful guys. Actually I will try and do it for all the recipes and not only baking ones!
Method
In a large bowl, sift together flour and cocoa powder. Add sugar, baking soda, salt and whisk to combine all dry ingredients together.
Add 1 cup milk to a cup and then add 1 tablespoon white vinegar to it. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes. You can also use 1 cup buttermilk in place if you have that on hand. After 10 minutes, add oil and vanilla extract to the milk-vinegar liquid. Stir to combine.
Transfer the wet ingredients to dry ingredients.
Mix the ingredients are just combined. Do not over-mix. Add 2 tablespoons of water at this point if the batter seems too thick. This is optional, I did add it to my batter.
Fill the prepared cupcake liners 1/2 full with the cupcake batter. Bake at 350 for 15-17 minutes or till a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven, transfer to a wire rack and let the cupcakes cool completely.
Meanwhile make the frosting. Using the paddle attachment of your stand mixer or using your hand mixer, beat the butter on medium speed for 2 minutes till creamy.
Reduce speed to low and add powdered sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla extract and milk/cream.
Once all the ingredients are combined, increase mixer speed to high and beat for 2 minutes till frosting looks creamy.
Transfer frosting to piping bag and frost the cooled cupcakes.
Decorate with sprinkles if you like and enjoy!
Eggless Chocolate Cupcakes
Ingredients
Eggless Chocolate Cupcakes
- 1.5 cups all purpose flour 192 grams
- 1 cup granulated white sugar 210 grams
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 48 grams
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup milk 8 oz
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- 1/2 cup canola oil or any flavorless oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons water optional, if needed
Chocolate Buttercream
- 1/2 cup salted butter 1 stick or 113 grams, at room temperature
- 2 cups powdered sugar 248 grams
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 24 grams
- 2 tablespoons milk or heavy cream
Instructions
Chocolate Cupcakes
- In a large bowl, sift together flour and cocoa powder.
- Add sugar, baking soda, salt and whisk to combine all dry ingredients together.
- Add 1 cup milk to a cup and then add 1 tablespoon white vinegar to it. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes. You can also use 1 cup buttermilk in place if you have that on hand.
- After 10 minutes, add oil and vanilla extract to the milk-vinegar liquid. Stir to combine.
- Add the wet ingredients to dry, mix till the ingredients are just combined.
- Add 2 tablespoons of water at this point if the batter seems too thick. This is optional, I did add it to my batter. Remember to not over-mix the batter.
- Fill the prepared cupcake liners 1/2 full with the cupcake batter.
- Bake at 350 for 15-17 minutes or till a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Remove from oven, transfer to a wire rack and let the cupcakes cool completely.
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
- Using the paddle attachment of your stand mixer or using your hand mixer, beat the butter on medium speed for 2 minutes till creamy.
- Reduce speed to low and add powdered sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla extract and milk/cream.
- Once all the ingredients are combined, increase mixer speed to high and beat for 2 minutes till frosting looks creamy.
- Transfer frosting to piping bag and frost the cooled cupcakes.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Eggless Chocolate Cupcakes
Hiya, am I able to use white wine vinegar as the white vinegar? Are they the same thing?
Thankyou!
they are not same , flavor profile is different and also white vinegar is more acidic than white wine vinegar.
These cupcakes turned out so moist and delicious! Thank you for the perfect eggless recipe. Look forward to trying many more from your site. Thank you!
glad to know!
Can you tell what is the ideal temperature??? For baking
I am not sure what is ideal temperature? Different things need different temperatures. But 350 Degrees Fahrenheit (180 C) is one temperature where many cakes are baked.
I love this recipe!! It’s so easy and delicious.
The cupcakes were surely moist and fluffy but they were also extra fragile .
I’ve tried vinegar cakes before and this exact thing has happened before too.
Does vinegar make cakes so fragile ?
hmm buttermilk sure makes the cake very soft but it shouldn’t be extra fragile. Let the cupcakes cool completely before slicing or eating them
These are delicious and simple to make. Perfect for my son who is allergic to eggs, I didn’t miss them at all!
I live in Zimbabwe and i tried the chocolate eggless….easy to make. Yummy my kids really enjoyed. Wanna try the vanilla too. Thank you Manali
welcome!
Hi Manali,
Can this recipe be halved?
Also, should the granulated sugar be powdered before using or do we use the granules as is? Or do we use castor sugar? I ask coz i am in India and you might know that the sugar granules here are quite large. Will they work just as well?
use castor sugar or you can powder your regular sugar too, in US the granulated white sugar isn’t large so I don’t powder it and use as such.
Hi manali, I tried both chocolate and vanilla eggless cupcakes on my son’s birthday everyone loved it thank you.
Hi there! How would you bake as a cake? 2 pans? What time would you recommend?
please check this recipe: https://www.cookwithmanali.com/eggless-chocolate-cake/
Tried this out for my daughters pool party. it was awesome n kids just luvvd it.
awesome!
Hello! I will be making these today. I need to make them with zero refined sugar – I can make them with honey or sucralose/erithrytol. Can you please suggest. Thanks a lot!
hello since I haven’t tested the recipe with honey or erithrytol, I cannot comment how those will work. Sorry about that. Replacing with honey will add so much more liquid ingredient to the batter and change the whole ratio of dry to wet, it would need to be tested and will be a different recipe altogether.
Tried this recipe and the cupcakes came out great!!! Will try few other recipes from here too.
Really great recipe. I made cupcakes for the first time ever and followed the recipe exactly. They came out great. Thanks Manali. Hope you are doing well
Hi manali,
Wanted to understand if we need to pre heat the oven for this recipe?
yes pre-heat to 350 F!
Really enjoyed the cup cakes turn out so nice spongy moist my 4year daughter she loved it. Normally she doesn’t complete full cupcake but thus time she did that is also without frosting itself. I am so happy Thank u so much for the recipe.
Thanks it turned out nice, some items I didn’t use were vinegar and vanilla instead used 2 spoons yogurt..
these are literally the best cupcakes i have ever had!! 10000/10 would recommend!!
so glad to know 🙂
Which vanilla extract/essence u prefer to use ?
I live is US and use Nielsen Massey brand
Hi, can lemon juice be used instead of vinegar ? I don’t have white vinegar at home – only chilli vinegar and rice vinegar, both of which I am sure will have an unwanted taste.
yes use lemon juice
Hi Manali, I need to bake around 30 cupcakes for a bake sale at my daughters school. Could you please help me with the recipe and temperature in degree Celsius (as I use the convection mode of my microwave to bake). Please help.
TIA
Priya
hello I am not familiar with microwave baking unfortunately. But these cupcakes are baked at 350 F (180 C) in an oven.
Oh! Thanks a lot.
Hi
Can you please tell the ratio of yoghurt and water for making the buttermilk used in this recipe? Won’t vinegar give it a smell?
Also guide whether to use home made yogurt (curd) or Greek yogurt?
Thanks
Hi! This recipe doesn’t use yogurt. That will be a different recipe. To make this buttermilk, the instructions are listed “Add 1 cup milk to a cup and then add 1 tablespoon white vinegar to it. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes. You can also use 1 cup buttermilk in place if you have that on hand.” No there’s no smell of vinegar since it reacts with baking soda in the recipe to neutralize it.
What white vinegar do you use?
don’t have a preference, whatever I find at grocery store, this one was from Costco
I have tried many eggless cupcake recipes and tgis has been the best by far!
awesome!
Hi manali i tried this recipe my cakes made very hard and stuck with paper .i should grress them before .can you tell me plse why my cakes become very hard . thanks
make sure you never over-mix the batter..that could be the reason for your cupcakes turning hard..mix the batter until just combined. And if your batter is sticking with the paper, spray the liners with non-stick spray before you add the batter.
Thanks ??
These turned out great and we’re so easy and quick to make! The only thing was mine took about 10-12 minutes longer to bake, but other than that it was perfect. I frosted them with a strawberry buttercream. Thanks for the recipe!
awesome!
Oh I also added some instant coffee granules to the mix which deepened the chocolate flavor 🙂
Coffee is a great addition!
Hi Manali, Thank you so much for the recipe!! My kids simply loved it. Your recipes are all so trouble free and easy! Thanks again!!!
I have made them twice in a week with frosting. I always avoided frosting step so far thinking it’s tedious n tricky but I followed as u mentioned n they have turned out perfect. I used whole wheat flour instead of maida.
Thanks a ton Manali
good to know Sudha! and frosting can be fun sometimes. I don’t usually frost too but only for special occasions! 🙂
I would like to make these for my son’s birthday party, in advance. Do you know if it’s possible to freeze them?
I haven’t tried but you should be able to freeze them.
Thank you! I’ll report back.
Made these for a class party at my son’s elementary school (one child has an egg allergy) — they were really good! Thanks for sharing!
Glad to know!
hey it’s a great recipe .. really enjoyed trying i
Hi Manali, these chocolate cupcakes are delicious! Here is the UK they are much better than Lola’s Cupcakes (shop) vegan offering. Please can you put the grams and ounces measurements for the vanilla cupcakes too? The cups measurements are very confusing to us over here! Thank you!
will do Sarah! Glad you liked the chocolate cupcakes!
These came out great . Ty! We used equal exchange cocoa and was delicious
good to know that Sheri!
Hello Manali, for choclate cupcakes frosting , you mention milk or heavy cream.. these 2 are very different items.. we can add either of them.. milk will make frosting thin and heavy cream will thicken it. So which one to add
No Gunjan, milk doesn’t really thin it out..but cream definitely adds richness to the frosting..cream is preferred but whole milk will also do. You only want to dilute the frosting a bit so that you can pipe it and that’s why add cream or milk…
Hi Manali,
I have tried the recipe last night and it just came out yummmmy! Thank you very much. For someone who has never cooked anything in her life, this is a great achievement for me. My colleagues tasted today and they loved it. As for my husband, well….I think his love for me grew a little bit more.. 🙂
I am so glad to hear that! 🙂 You are most welcome!
Hi Manali,
Thanks for this recipe, hope you are feeling better now than when you posted this post.
I found this recipe very easy to use and also cupcakes came out yum(considering I’m no good at baking).
Could you please help me with ingredients measures on how to transfer this cupcake recipe into cake format, I want to try to make it for my kid’s bday cake.
Neha, I am glad you liked the cupcakes 🙂 You can bake this into 8-inch round cake pan. you would only need to bake it for longer time, I would bake around 30-35 minutes. Hope this helps!
Hi Manali, last weekend I tried this cupcake recipe for a friend’s birthday party. It turned out well. Only I receive comment it was sweet. I want to know if I reduce the sugar quantity for the cake or the frosting, will it effect the outcome.
Hi there! Glad to know you enjoyed the cupcakes.. in my opinion the cupcakes aren’t sweet (I mean its a cupcake so it will be sweet but they are no extra sweet) maybe it’s the frosting that is sweet to you..American buttercream is always quite sweet..you can reduce the sugar in the cupcakes or the frosting without much difference in the outcome..it should be fine…
Hey don’t know How My cupcakes are burnt… Followed the recipe carefully… You didn’t use baking powder?
Hello Manisha, burning cupcakes mean there is something wrong with your oven. Please check your oven temperature by getting a oven thermometer. A lot of ovens are off by few degrees which results in over-baked, under-baked or burnt good. This is my full proof recipe and I am very confident that it comes out perfect each time. So many people have tried and loved this recipe so I can’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work for you. Yes I don’t use baking powder, the recipes calls for 1 teaspoon baking soda which is a lot of leavening agent (it reacts with vinegar) to raise the cupcakes and make them fluffy and light..
the measurements to grams are incorrect! 1.5cups is not equal to 192 grams.. its equal to 354 grams. Can you check this please. Thanks.
Hi Rachel, they are not. US 1 cup flour measurements are usually between 120-130 grams, just check anywhere else. My 1 cup is 130 grams so 1.5 cups is 195 grams, hope that helps!
Hi Manali
After doing a bit of research i found that you correct, had no idea about US cup measurement. Thanks for replying to me to let me know. Look forward to making this!
hope you like it! 🙂
Hi Manali,
I just tried this recipe yesterday. Tastes absolutely divine.
Never had so much success with an eggless recipe. Thanks for sharing
so glad to hear Bhargavi 🙂
I liked your reciepe alot! But what uf we use sunfkower oil? And how much to use?
you may use any flavorless oil of your choice, just make sure the oil that you doesn’t have a strong smell. Use will use 1/2 cup like mentioned in the recipe.
I liked your receipe alot! But what if we use sunflower oil ? And how much to use?
Hey y’all ? I just baked the cupcakes and may I say they look great, but uhhh I must say to the author of this recipe please make sure to include EVERYTHING in the recipe as they forgot to put sugar in the method
And I ended up forgetting to sugar as well, obviously this was not the author’s fault but just some recommendation for the near future.
Loved the recipe though the cupcakes baked really well and the buttercream was amazing – thoroughly enjoying that the recipe was eggless!
hello, thanks for trying. Hmm sugar is very much mentioned in the method, maybe you missed reading it. Here it is mentioned: “In a large bowl, sift together flour and cocoa powder.
Add sugar, baking soda, salt and whisk to combine all dry ingredients together.”
So cute and great video, Manali!
Hi Manali, it’s so gud to c u back. I can’t thank u enough for posting eggless bakes n also measurements in grams. It’s not only boost our confidence in baking but also helps us believe tht we can also bake something similar to u.
Could u pls post a eggless vanilla cupcake n a red velvet cupcake.
Lots of happiness your way
Sneha
Welcome Sneha, I am glad you liked them 🙂 Thanks for all the good wishes and will try and post those recipes soon. Btw I already have an eggless vanilla cupcake recipe on the blog https://www.cookwithmanali.com/perfect-eggless-vanilla-cupcakes/ (though I need to update the recipe in grams, will do soon!)
THANK YOU MANALI FOR THE RESPONSE.
WOULD LOVE TO BAKE THOSE VANILLA BEAUTIES AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE. WOULD APPRECIATE UR GRAM CONVERSIONS FOR THE RECIPES.
LOVE TO U
SNEHA
I’ve been thinking about you Manali. Death is so tragic and the loss never really goes away, it just gets a little easier as time goes on. Glad you’re back getting into the swing of things!
These cupcakes look so moist and incredible too!
Thank you Marcie
These cupcakes look amazing, Manali! I totally agree with you about baking. It really is relaxing and comforting. And, of course, you end up with amazing treats like these cupcakes once you’re done. Hang in there, my friend! Great having you back! 🙂
Such pretty cupcakes! Love that they’re eggless!
These cupcakes look beautiful Manali! Pinning to try them asap!
yumza
Can u plz share eggless recipe for Oreo cake.
Sure, I will share it some time Falguni.
Good to see u that slowly u are trying to be back in the rhythm of life…chocolate cupcakes are tempting me
Thanks Amrita
These cupcakes look incredibly beautiful and delicious!
Thank you Angie
Really nice recipe, it is a lifesaver when you need an emergency ?
Thank you for
Posting this recipe.