Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Blackberry Buttercream
dairy-free recipe
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New Year's Eve dessert idea for dark chocolate blackberry cupcakes with fresh blackberries and edible gold stars as garnish.
Dark chocolate dessert idea
These dairy-free dark chocolate cupcakes with a luscious blackberry buttercream are the answer to all your dessert dreams! With velvety rich chocolate and a burst of tangy sweetness from the blackberry topping, these cupcakes are guaranteed to satisfy your sweet tooth. These decadent cupcakes are great for several special occasions such as a birthday, graduation, Halloween, New Year’s Eve or any celebration.
Halloween dark chocolate cupcake with easy blackberry buttercream frosting and chocolate skull garnish on top.
The blackberry chocolate buttercream frosting is made with seedless blackberry preserves or you can use your own home made jam. This frosting makes a perfect match for the delectable dark chocolate cupcakes. If you’d prefer a more colorful frosting, you can omit the cocoa in the buttercream recipe and the preserves will give your frosting a lovely pink purple tint, or you can use a food color to enhance the purple. Makes 18 regular sized cupcakes.
Let’s begin!
Ingredients to make dark chocolate cupcakes
Dark chocolate cupcake ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweet dark chocolate cocoa powder
2 tsp instant coffee powder (or 1 tsp espresso powder)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup canned coconut milk (full fat)
Blackberry buttercream frosting ingredients
Blackberry buttercream frosting ingredients:
1 cup plant butter, softened
4 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted
1/2 tbsp dark cocoa powder, unsweet
pinch of salt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup seedless blackberry preserves (or your own homemade jam)
Optional garnish: chocolate shavings, edible sprinkles, fresh blackberries.
How to make dark chocolate cupcakes
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350℉ and line a muffin pan with paper liners.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, instant coffee powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, mix together remaining cupcake ingredients (eggs, both sugars, oil, vanilla extract and coconut milk with an electric mixer until well blended, about 2 minutes.
Add dry ingredients to large bowl and mix until just blended and no dry ingredients remain, about 1 minutes or so.
Fill cupcake liners halfway and bake in center of preheated oven for 16-18 minutes.
When baking is complete, place on a cooling rack for 5 minutes, then transfer cupcakes to another cooling rack to completely cool before frosting them.
How to make chocolate blackberry buttercream frosting
In a large bowl, add butter and use an electric mixer to cream until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Next, start adding confectioner’s sugar, 1 cup at a time, and mix well after each addition. Next, add cocoa powder and pinch of salt and mix for 1 minute more.
Scrape down sides of bowl and add the vanilla extract and blackberry preserves and mix until well incorporated. Transfer frosting to a frosting bag with Wilton 1M tip (or you can snip a corner of plastic baggie) and swirl frosting on top of each cupcake.
If desired, add some extra garnish of shaved chocolate, blackberries, chocolate skulls or some fun edible sprinkles for the occasion.
These are decorated for Halloween dessert with festive orange, black and yellow sprinkles, a fresh blackberry and dairy-free chocolate skulls. For the silicone skull mold on Amazon, click HERE.
These also make a great dessert idea for New Year’s Eve celebration. I added some elegant gold edible star sprinkles for garnish to make them extra special.
Enjoy!
💜Julie
Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Blackberry Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350℉ and line muffin pans with paper liners.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, instant coffee powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix together remaining cupcake ingredients (eggs, both sugars, oil, vanilla extract and coconut milk with an electric mixer until well blended, about 2 minutes.
- Add dry ingredients to large bowl and mix until just blended and no dry ingredients remain, about 1 minutes or so.
- Fill cupcake liners halfway and bake in center of preheated oven for 16-18 minutes.
- When baking is complete, place on a cooling rack for 5 minutes, then transfer cupcakes to another cooling rack to completely cool before frosting them.
- In a large bowl, add butter and use an electric mixer to cream until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Next, start adding confectioner’s sugar, 1 cup at a time, and mix well after each addition. Next, add cocoa powder and pinch of salt and mix for 1 minute more.
- Scrape down sides of bowl and add the vanilla extract and blackberry preserves and mix until well incorporated. Transfer frosting to a frosting bag with Wilton 1M tip (or you can snip a corner of plastic baggie) and swirl frosting on top of each cupcake. Garnish as desired with chocolate shavings, fresh blackberries or sprinkles.
Notes
Note: I used dairy-free products because I am lactose intolerant, but feel free to substitute with real dairy ingredients in equal amounts, if desired.
Nutrition Facts
Calories
139Fat (grams)
7 gSat. Fat (grams)
2 gCarbs (grams)
60 gFiber (grams)
2 gNet carbs
18 gSugar (grams)
12 gProtein (grams)
2 gSodium (milligrams)
108 mgNutrition Disclaimer: Nutritional Information is provided as a courtesy only and should be viewed as an estimate. Ingredients can vary with brands and size and Inspiration Apron makes no guarantees to the accuracy of this information. Per cupcake
