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I love making cupcakes.
Also, I have about a billion things of sprinkles that I want to use up before we move in August. I’m hard at work cooking my way through everything in our freezer and pantry, but there are some things that are hard to use up. Like sprinkles. I have SO MANY sprinkles. And even though I love them, there’s a limit to how many cupcakes I can scarf down in one sitting.
Also, confession: I really don’t have that much of a sweet tooth. I love cake. I love chocolate. I love cooking cake and eating chocolate. But I find that often my craving for sweets is satisfied after just a bite or two…and then I have a million baked goods and sweets left over that I can’t handle eating, so I have to pawn them off on friends. Which didn’t used to be a problem – but now, all of my people are getting real jobs and moving away. Which just leaves me. And Kyle. And about a million cupcakes. Which meant I either had to find a way to health-ify some cupcakes or sacrifice a bunch of REALLY AWESOME sprinkles in the move to New York. And I am NOT one to sacrifice sprinkles.
You might remember that greek yogurt is at the top of my “obsessions” list right now. And after adding it to everything else I’ve been making for WEEKS, it was only natural that I eventually put it in cupcakes, too. So it’s BASICALLY like they’re good for you now. (hashtag WINNING).
Maybe next I’ll work on some nutmeg cupcakes. That’s the other thing I have a billion bottles of. Until then, I’ll call these chocolate greek yogurt cupcakes a win. The best part? You totally can’t even taste the difference between these and the butter/oil-filled varieties. (And if you REALLY want to healthy them up, you can always nix the frosting or ganache in favor of a bit of low-fat ice cream or a dusting of powdered sugar). Happy cupcaking!
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Ingredients
For the Cupcakes: 6 oz. vanilla greek yogurt (about 3/5 cup) – (I used Chobani, and yummmmmmm)
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 cup flour
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 cup buttermilk (see how I make mine here using 1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar + 1/2 cup skim milk)
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup boiling water
For the Chocolate Buttercream:
- 1/2 cup butter (1 stick), room temperature
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 2 cups powdered/confectioner’s sugar
- 1/4 cup milk (I use skim!)
Instructions
For the Cupcakes:
- In a large mixing bowl, combine greek yogurt, sugars, and the egg. Beat until combined (you can use your stand mixer for this, although whisking it by hand works just as well).
- Add salt, flour, and cocoa to mixture and mix well.
- Add baking soda to buttermilk (I make my own – see above) and stir until it foams (the vinegar in my homemade buttermilk is what helps it foam – if you use store-bought buttermilk it won’t achieve the same foamy effect, but don’t worry!)
- Add buttermilk mixture a bit at a time to the cake mixture, mixing as you go to incorporate all of the liquid.
- Whisk in vanilla extract.
- Whisk in boiling water a little bit at a time so you don’t splash/burn yourself.
- Fill cupcake liners 2/3 of the way full and bake at 365 for 15-17 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Remove to a wire rack and let cool.
For the Buttercream:
- In a large bowl, mix all ingredients together with a hand beater. You can also do this with the whisk attachment in your stand mixer. Beat frosting for 2-3 minutes after ingredients are combined, to give it a bit of body. The frosting should hold its shape and be able to form stiff peaks. If you need it a little thicker, add more powdered sugar. Too thick? Add a few teaspoons of milk to thin it out.
- Frost cupcakes with a piping bag and a Wilton #1M tip. You could also use a ziploc bag with the corner cut out or spread the frosting on with a knife, but I think piping it just looks pretty.
Thank you sooo much!! I have tried 4 recipes for cupcakes and finally found the perfect one! 👍🏻👍🏻
I’m so happy to hear that, Samira!
These were gross. They never cooked all the way and eventually started to burn, so I took them out of the oven. They were at first puffy but then they sank and never seemed done in the middle. Did you forget butter or did you intend for them not to have butter? I think something must be left out of this recipe. Also they stuck to the paper cups. These paper cups I used have been used with normal success before on other recipes, so it’s not the cups. Also, I did all the tips from your page of cupcake tips. The trouble I normally have with cupcakes is they are a little dense, that’s how I found your recipe. Something’s certainly not working with this recipe though. Anyways, I just threw these away and made the Amy Sedaris Epicurious recipe, which is much better and more normal.
I would love to make this recipe, but I don’t see Greek yogurt listed on the ingredient list. How much does the recipe call for?
Oh, gosh, I just saw it as big as life 🙂
The frosting is really gritty? I’ve used other recipes before, including your vanilla buttercream, and it turns out perfectly fine. I did use sweetened cocoa, so maybe thats it, but it was very gritty, and i just am very confused on why…
Hi Ayden, oh no! I’m sorry about that. This is the same buttercream I use all the time, so I’m not sure why it would have misbehaved for you – I do know that when using sweetened cocoa powder while baking it’s generally recommended that you then decrease the amount of regular sugar in the recipe, but I haven’t experimented with sweetened cocoa powder and frosting before. I also sometimes find frosting to be a little coarser or gritty when I’ve used too much liquid (milk or cream) and not enough powdered sugar – when that happens, I just add more powdered sugar a bit at a time and use a hand mixer or the whisk attachment on my kitchenmaid to make sure everything gets mixed well. Without being in the kitchen with you, it’s hard to say for sure though. If you try it again and make any tweaks that fix the issue, please let me know! This is my go-to frosting, so I always want to do everything possible to make sure it works for people 🙂 Thanks for letting me know how it turned out!
Hi Jessie, I have some issue with sugar :'( , it looks like 2 cups of sugar is way to sweet for me. Do you have any suggestion how to make it less sweet?
If sugar is an issue, I’d recommend trying a sugar-free cupcake recipe (like this one!) as opposed to trying to adapt a recipe that calls for sugar – big changes like that can affect the chemistry of a recipe and are often tough to get right on the first try! I hope that helps!
Hello ,
Iam new to baking and i want to bake cup cakes. However i have few queries, hope you will help me to troubleshoot it. Can i bake cupcakes in pressure cooker ? and in place of Greek yogurt , can i use normal yogurt ?
I tried these tonight and had to substitute strawberry Greek yogurt for vanilla Greek yogurt and truvia for sugar. Everything was wonderful consistency until I added the boiling water, then it was very runny. They, too, turned out sticky and I didn’t want to overcook them. I was wondering if the boiling water was mandatory or if I could either cut back or eliminate it.
Thanks for letting me know how they turned out – I always use the boiling water and these cupcakes come out fine (the boiling water trick comes from my grandmother, a former professional baker). The batter is definitely supposed to be runnier than normal before baking, but if the cupcakes are turning out too sticky for you feel free to adjust the amount of boiling water (or eliminate it completely!) I also tend to shy away from sugar substitutes – I’ve found they can have a negative effect on cakes and cause them not to rise properly (ending up with an overly chewy center). Hope that helps!