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These Brownie Cupcakes are completely from scratch with a delicious chocolate frosting. Make these regular cupcakes size OR mini cupcakes (brownie bites) for easy portable brownies with or without frosting!
Making these Brownie Cupcakes will give you a rich, chocolatey, and fudgy brownie in cupcake form, which makes them even more fun. This recipe is very similar to my regular brownie recipe, but a bit easier.
This recipe makes about 11 regular size cupcakes which you can use with or without frosting. Want to make brownie bites? No problem – just bake these in a mini muffin pan and you’ll get about 33 of them (1 cupcake = approximately 3 mini cupcakes).
Essential Brownie Ingredients
- Why to use oil instead of butter: I go back and forth between using melted butter and oil in brownies. For the cupcakes, I find oil is best. Oil keeps them softer at room temperature than butter, which is vital for a cupcake.
- Unsweetened Cocoa Powder: Gives that chocolate flavor – you can use regular cocoa powder or Dutch process cocoa.
- The role of baking powder: I find that adding a bit of baking powder makes these more like cupcakes – that way they’ll rise a bit. It gives enough lift to make a cupcake but they stay fudgy.
- All-Purpose Flour – be sure to measure your flour correctly.
Storing and Freezing Brownies
- Brownie cupcakes will last in an airtight container for up to 3 days. They don’t need to be refrigerated unless the frosting you’re using requires it.
- Freeze cupcakes frosted in a single layer (or freeze unfrosted cupcakes) for up to 3 months.
Dorothy’s Expert Tips
- The #1 complaint with brownie cupcakes is that the brownie sticks to the paper liner, making them impossible to eat. Pro Tip: Even if you are using high-quality paper liners, give the inside of each liner a quick spritz of non-stick cooking spray before filling. This ensures the fudgy brownie slides right out, leaving you with a perfect, bakery-style cupcake.
- Be careful not to over bake the cupcakes – a toothpick right on the edge of the liner will come out with a few moist crumbs. If it’s completely clean they’ll be to hard to eat as a cupcake.
- You must cool these in the pan at least 10 minutes so they don’t collapse.
- If you decide to make Mint Chip Frosting, be sure that you are using peppermint extract and not mint extract. Mint Extract gives a different taste that isn’t right for this frosting.
Brownie Cupcakes from Scratch Recipe
Recipe Video
Ingredients
Cupcakes:
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (40g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup + 2 tablespoons (109g) all-purpose flour
Frosting:
- Mint Chip Frosting (see notes)
- Ganache Frosting
- Vanilla Buttercream
- Chocolate Buttercream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cupcake pan with liners.
- Stir together oil, sugar, and cocoa. Stir in eggs, vanilla extract, baking powder, and salt. Carefully stir in flour.
- Fill liners about ⅔ full (about 3 tablespoons of batter each).
- Bake for 20-30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean from right along the edge of the liner. Cool completely before frosting.
- Store in refrigerator loosely covered, serve at room temperature.
Recipe Notes
- Mint Chip Frosting: beat 1/2 cup unsalted butter and pinch of salt until smooth. Slowly mix in 4 cups (452g) powdered sugar until crumbly. Add 1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, and 2 tablespoons of heavy cream. Beat until smooth, adding more cream as needed to get the consistency desired. Add a few drops of green food coloring and mix in, if desired. Stir in 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips.
- You can frost these with any frosting you like.
- Be careful not to over bake the cupcakes – a toothpick right on the edge of the liner will come out with a few crumbs.
- Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days or freeze cupcakes for up to 2 months.
Recipe Nutrition
How to make Brownie Cupcakes Step-by-Step
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cupcake pan with liners.
- Stir together oil, sugar, and cocoa. Stir in eggs, vanilla extract, baking soda, and salt. Carefully stir in flour.
- Fill liners about ⅔ full (about 3 tablespoons of batter each).
- Bake for 20-30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean from right along the edge of the liner. Cool completely before frosting.
- Store in refrigerator loosely covered, serve at room temperature.
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FAQs
Baking brownies at 350° will take around 20-30 minutes. In that window, do the toothpick trick, where you’ll know it’s done when a toothpick comes out clean from right along the edge of the liner.
You can! In an airtight container for up to two months.
This from-scratch recipe is perfectly scaled for a rich, dense brownie texture. Because we aren’t using the chemical fillers found in box mixes, it yields exactly 11 standard cupcakes. To protect your pan and ensure even baking, fill the empty 12th cupcake cavity halfway with water before sliding the tray into the oven!
A brownie cupcake is a rich, fudgy chocolate brownie baked in a cupcake pan for easy portioning and extra chewy edges.
Always spray the inside of your cupcake liners with non-stick cooking spray before adding the batter.
Yes, you can use a box mix, but this from-scratch recipe uses oil and a touch of baking powder to ensure a superior moist crumb.
Bake at 350°F for 20–25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center has just a few moist crumbs.
Delicious and yum yum
Glad you liked them!
Can these be made in a bigger 6 jumbo muffin tin?
Yes – it will affect baking time (it’ll be longer)
Is it baking powder or baking soda?? Ingredients and directions are not clear on which one to use.
baking powder thank you for catching that – fixed
Dorothy, you poor thing!! Making a leprechaun trap was never any fun, even when I was back in elementary school and made it from a cardboard box (or shoe box, I can’t remember). I think we only did them in first grade; after that, we mainly celebrated with green cookies and cupcakes while the teachers tried to make sure nobody pinched each other. (Good luck on that one.) If you kept the leprechaun trap in the garage, would Jordan finally be able to sleep like normal??
I’m SO right there with you on brownies — probably my favorite dessert ever! You’re so sweet to make a mint-flavored frosting in honor of Jordan too. You definitely earned the “Best Mom” award for this recipe! 🙂 I bet you could add an Oreo crust to a brownie cupcake and combine your two favorites into the best treat ever. But then again, knowing you and how much you think/bake, you’ve probably done that already!
LOL! Well, those little brownie bites from Saturday…they’re coming tomorrow! 🙂 Thanks Amy!
Really?? Too funny — I’m planning on posting my raspberry brownies tomorrow too! (Well, technically much, much later today, if you look at the time stamp… 😉 ) Good thing there’s never such a thing as too much chocolate or brownies!!
NEVER! 🙂
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