Easy Chocolate Birthday Cupcakes
Easy homemade chocolate birthday cupcakes, topped with fudgy chocolate buttercream frosting and rainbow sprinkles. Simple, moist, and flavorful – and so much better than box mix!
Oh, hey there! Itโs been a while.
The last time we chatted, I was a few days past my due date, waiting on our little Henry to arriveโฆ and this week he turns six months old.
I never intended to take this much time away from the blog, but life got really complicated after he was born, and Iโm only now starting to feel like a normal human again. So I made some chocolate birthday cupcakes to celebrate! Well, half birthday cupcakes.
Half birthdays are a family tradition. Growing up (at least in the early years), my parents always planned a tiny celebration for our half birthdays. I think they felt sorry for their December baby, with birthdays often overshadowed by Christmas.
Henry may not be eating solids quite yet, but I rarely need an excuse to make chocolate cupcakes, and it feels right to mark this milestone with fanfare, because I canโt believe that half a year has already passed with this sweet little human of mine.
Weโve got a lot to celebrate, and a lot to catch up on.
(The details of my absence are long winded, so if youโre interested, grab a cup of something cozy, and settle in. Or, at the end of this wordy, very personal story is a great chocolate birthday cupcake recipe – I wonโt be offended if you scroll on past it to get to the chocolate.)
Around this time last year, my husband had just returned home from a two month deployment. A day later we were moving into our new home, the renovations still in progress. It would be another month before we had a working kitchen or flooring downstairs.
Somewhere in there, just as I was starting to really show, we found out that heโd be deploying again over the Summer, a couple months before my due date. This time for six months.
Even without pregnancy hormones, that news would make for a very bad day, and I was devastated. It felt like what should have been a really special time – spending time together as a couple again, and preparing for our first baby – had been stolen from me. There were some tears – that erupted over completely unrelated things – but the Army wasnโt going to change its mind no matter the size of my pity party, and we had to figure out what to do. We rushed to book childbirth classes and choose a crib and a car seat before he left.
It made sense for me to pack up and head down to California to stay with my parents for the month before my due date, in case the baby came early. We donโt have any family up here, so that way at least I wouldnโt be completely alone, driving myself or taking a cab to the hospital while in labor. There wasnโt a lot of time for nesting, but I did my best to channel all those emotions and feelings of loss into getting the house ready before I left.
Henry was born in early September, a healthy eight pound, noisy, hungry, snuggly little boy – and thankfully a week late (I think my anxiety over having him early kept him locked in there tight!).
His Daddy made it home for his birth, and spent nine and a half days with us before returning overseas, which was โluckyโ by military standards. Some guys donโt meet their kids until months after theyโre born.
I stayed down in California until early October, and then it was just the two of us. And when I really began to learn what sleep deprivation felt like.
Around this time, I started to notice that Henry seemed to be having more digestive problems and tummy pain than the average newborn. Iโll spare you all of the gory details, but the short version involves regular diarrhea, sometimes with blood, and stomach pains and gas so severe it would wake the poor little guy up.
At first, the casual recommendation from his pediatrician was for me to eliminate cowโs milk and soy, as itโs reasonably common for babies to be allergic to dairy passing through breast milk, and this can cause these sorts of symptoms.
Most babies who have severe digestive issues also have trouble gaining weight, and often fall into the โfailure to thriveโ category. Henry however, who’s never passed up a chance to eat, was consistently in the 98th percentile for weight, hitting all of his benchmarks, and in every other way, a very healthy, happy baby.
Because of this, for the first month or so, the doctors didnโt take me very seriously, and the general advice was not to worry about it too much. But he continued to have bloody diarrhea just about every day, and despite being a first time mom, and doubting myself often, I intuitively knew this couldnโt be normal, and kept pushing for answers.
At this point, I hadnโt had any milk or soy for over a month, so I was confident there was something bigger than a milk protein allergy going on. They finally ordered a stool culture, which came back positive for a very unusual stomach infection, surprising even the doctors, who couldnโt figure out how he would have contracted it.
Within a day or two of starting antibiotics, Henry was doing so much better, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief, for both of us. I was still a sleepless, (temporarily) single mom, but my little one was healthy again!
Then two weeks later, his symptoms returned. Only this time, the culture came back completely negative.
We found a pediatric gastroenterologist. The first appointment, the doctor had barely walked in the room when he announced Henry had allergic colitis and if I eliminated the top most common allergens from my diet (dairy, soy, wheat/gluten, eggs, fish/shellfish, tree nuts, and peanuts), he would start feeling better within days.
Only he didnโt.
A couple weeks later, still no change.
Finally, the doctors seemed to recognize that there was indeed a problem, and it was something unusual. We added on a pediatric allergist. And more trips to specialists at the childrenโs hospital. For most of November and December we were going to 2-3 doctorโs appointments a week, and turning up nothing. Every test we took came back negative. Every awful, invasive procedure that left both of us in tears resulted in normal findings.
Which was good in one sense – only his symptoms were continuing to get worse. Neither of us was sleeping well. I was averaging 3-4 nonconsecutive hours of sleep a day.
I continued to eliminate more possible allergens. Corn, beef, citrus, legumes, and berries.
Then the more unusual stuff, trying to find the mystery culprit. Rice, oats, potatoes, sunflower seeds, chicken, turkey, tomatoes, and chocolate.
We tried switching to a hypoallergenic amino-acid based newborn formula, which made the whole house smell like rancid cat food, and surprise, surprise, Henry couldnโt keep down.
A day or two might pass where I could almost imagine his symptoms were improving, and then my hopes would be dashed and weโd be right back where we were.
Ultimately, I eliminated upwards of twenty different food groups, and was living off mostly lamb, sweet potatoes, dark leafy greens, and as many superfoods (flax, chia, hemp, acai, etc.) I could pack into a daily smoothie. Thank goodness for postnatal vitamins.
Needless to say, I wasnโt doing a lot of cooking, let alone recipe development. My husband had been gone for five months at this point, and the lack of sleep was catching up to me – we were in full on survival mode. All I wanted was for our sweet, otherwise happy little boy to feel better.
By Christmas, weโd exhausted most possibilities of what could be causing Henryโs digestive distress. It wasnโt something structural and it didnโt seem to be an infection. We went to a naturopath, who prescribed stronger probiotics than the over-the-counter ones heโd been taking, along with a host of natural gut healing supplements. And as a last ditch effort, his gastroenterologist prescribed a broad-spectrum antibiotic to eliminate any possible infection that may have eluded the multiple cultures weโd tested over the last couple months.
Weโll probably never know exactly why, but after that, Henry slowly started to get better. The collective medical theory is that the antibiotics for his first infection likely wiped out everything in his gut – good and bad – leaving his tiny little system incredibly inflamed and causing him to develop temporary allergic colitis. That meant his bodyโs immune system was overreacting to the proteins in foods that normally wouldnโt have caused him any issues, but instead were creating massive irritation to his colon and stomach lining.
His gastroenterologist told me later that my aggressive elimination diet combined with the natural supplements probably staved off Henry developing Crohnโs disease or inflammatory bowel disease, because they allowed his gut to heal. Which made me glad I’d listened to my gut feeling.
After months of awfulness and uncertainty, I finally feel confident saying that weโre out of the woods. My husband came home in late-January after seven months away. Henry is doing so well now, sitting up and rolling over, and babbling all day long, and finally sleeping through the night (which means this Mama is too!).
Iโve been able to add foods back to my diet – slowly, one every week – and so far Henry has been able to tolerate all of the new additions. Our days are tired and messy, but so good.
So you can probably see why this half birthday deserves a celebration. We love this little boy so much, and it was a long road, this earliest part of motherhood, both wonderful and terrible at once. But heโs finally healthy and thriving, and that deserves all the cupcakes.
Now about this recipe:
You must know by now that Iโm a chocolate fiend, and these classic chocolate birthday cupcakes check off all my chocolate-y boxes. Theyโre also a breeze to make, with ordinary ingredients, and come together quickly in one bowl. Perfect for sneaking in some baking during nap time.
These chocolate cupcakes are largely based on the original recipe on the side of the Hersheyโs cocoa can. Itโs a classic for good reason, but I made a few updates. I love using olive oil in baked goods, especially with chocolate, which I think elevates the flavors of even simple ingredients, and I bumped up the vanilla, and added espresso powder.
You can also use hot coffee in the place of the boiling water, if youโd like a more pronounced coffee/espresso flavor. Itโs such a lovely complement to chocolate.
Half the recipe was more than enough for just the hubs and I, but you can easily double this to feed a crowd.
Iโve been back in the kitchen these last few weeks, and have some more goodies lined up (Iโm especially loving Winter citrus), so expect to see me more frequently around here again. Iโve missed you!
You donโt even know how much it means to me that you show up and share this space with me. Getting emails and comments while I was away, that youโve made and loved some of my favorite recipes was a bright spot during a really trying time. I truly appreciate each and every one of you. xo, Laura
PrintEasy Chocolate Birthday Cupcakes
- Prep Time: 30
- Cook Time: 30
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: About 15 Cupcakes 1x
Description
Easy Homemade Chocolate Birthday Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting and Rainbow Sprinkles – So much better than box mix!!
Ingredients
for the cupcakes:
1 cup organic cane sugar
3/4 cups + 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1/4 cups + 2 Tbsp natural unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted if needed
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp espresso powder (optional)ยน
1/2 tsp fine grain sea salt
1 large egg
1/2 cup whole milk
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup boiling water
for the chocolate buttercream frosting:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1/2 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
2 to 2-1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1–2 Tbsp milk, to taste
Instructions
make the cupcakes:
Preheat the oven to 350. Line your muffin tins with paper liners. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla, and beat on medium speed for two minutes. Stir in the boiling water until combined. The batter will be thin. Divide between the prepared muffin cups, filling each about 2/3 full.
Bake for 22-25 minutes until the cupcakes are gently domed and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a baking rack to cool completely before frosting and decorating.
make the chocolate buttercream:
Using a stand up mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or a hand mixer, beat the butter on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
Add the sifted cocoa and powdered sugar, a half cup or so at a time, until the frosting is thick and creamy. Drizzle in the milk until the buttercream frosting reaches your desired consistency. It should be spreadable, but thick enough to hold its shape on the cupcakes.
Spread the frosting on with a knife, or pipe into a decorative design. Top with sprinkles. Enjoy!
Notes
ยน The espresso powder can be omitted if baking these for children (there is a tiny, negligible amount of caffeine), but I like to add just a pinch to most chocolate recipes. It wonโt add a discernible coffee flavor, but much like vanilla, enhances the natural chocolate flavors of the cake.
I really like your recipe. I always order cupcakes online but after reading you I will definitely try it out at home.
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Thank you!! Hope you enjoy ๐
Hi I am a eight year old that wants to make this for my uncles birthday in December ,what are any substitutions for icing sugar because I only have granulated sugar. Plz answer?
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Hi Emmanuella! Unfortunately, there isn’t really a good substitute for the powdered sugar in the frosting. In the cake itself though, granulated sugar works great.
Can I make these a day before my son’s birthday party? And if so, any tips for keeping things fresh? Thanks!
Hi Tamar! Yes, you can definitely make the cupcakes the day before, just store in a tightly covered container so that they don’t dry out. The buttercream will develop a bit of a “crust” on the outside when exposed to air, so you may want to wait until the day of the party to decorate them if you want softer frosting. Although, little kids may not notice or care ๐ Happy birthday to your son!!
Wow! Haven’t had a chance to try the recipe, since I just found this link and post. But I’m in awe of your accomplishments in finding the medical solutions for Henry. It’s a major endeavor to eliminate much-loved ingredients from your own diet, for the sake of your little guy’s diagnosis, and I commend you for all that you did. It had to have been so incredibly frightening to deal with his symptoms and not be able to fix it after one doctor’s theory and trial after another.
It’s such a relief to hear that Henry is doing so well now.
One wonderful outcome from this, is that you, being such a magnificent and creative baker and cook, are directing your creative processes to producing wonderful sweet things that many people with similar restrictions will be able to enjoy, as well as your son! That will be a real service to so many.
My heart goes out to you about the preschool separate dining table. It’s so hard (on the parents, and probably eventually on the child), to be different. When you find good recipes for birthday cupcakes, cookies, and the like, I hope you’ll print and share them with each of the preschool children to bring home to their parents. It may inspire them to make treats that can be shared with Henry too!
Keep on with your wonderful work, both on your home-front and with your cooking blogs!
Love your site….quick question – can i make a cake with this recipe instead of cupcakes?
Thank you, Bernie! Yes, you absolutely can. The cupcakes are actually adapted from a cake ๐ Bake at 350 for 30-35 mins in a greased and floured 9-inch round pan. Or double the recipe for two layers. Enjoy!!
Can I make this into a cake?
But if I wanted to make them vanilla, what should I do?
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Wow, what a rough start for everyone!! Glad your sweet boy is better! A celebration was definitely in order. Cheers!! #teamArmyWife
Thank you so much, Jennifer!! Very happy he’s doing so well now. And I’m sure you’ve been through your fair share too in this sometimes crazy life too! <3
If chocolate cupcakes get points to get in heaven- you certainly earned more than a baker’s dozen with your steadfast determination to find what practitioner of medical care in possession the art as well as the science of what was needed to get little Henry on the road to wellness. And cupcakes.
Thank you so much, Lydia!! I really appreciate your sweet words ๐
Laura, Congratulations on your baby boy! So sorry to hear about Henry’s ailment but he is lucky he has a Mommy who listened to her instincts and was persistent. As I read through this blog post, I was very glad that Henry is feeling much better, his parents are sleeping, your husband is home and life is back to normal. If there ever was a reason to celebrate a 6-month birthday, this was it. Oh, I almost forgot…. the cupcakes look delicious and your swirls are perfection!
Thank you so much, Joan! It was a tough road, but I’m so happy we’re entering a new (much better!) phase. Loving 6-month babyhood so far. Happy to have you following along!!
So happy everyone is feeling better! 1/2 birthdays are totally worth celebrating. Can’t wait to bake up a batch of these!
Thank you, Barbara!! I totally agree! Hope you enjoy ๐
So happy youโre little boy is better! I am a certified health coach and tell people all the time to eliminate foods so they can know whatโs bothering them, then slowly add them back . Happy to see you back!
Thank you, Liza! It ended up definitely working for us, even though it was tough to cut out so many foods! Thank you for following along! ๐
Welcome back! It’s so good to hear that you and your little one are finally past what sounds like a positively horrible, distressing time. I’ve made the regular Hershey’s recipe and it is indeed delicious. I can’t wait to try your twists with the olive oil, extra vanilla and espresso ๐
Thank you so much, Louise! Things are so much better now. I hope you enjoy the little changes I’ve made!
Oh my gosh, you’ve really been through it! So glad your little guy is back to his normal, happy and healthy self! And so glad you guys are finally enjoying time as a family. Chocolate cupcakes are definitely in order!
Thank you so much, Nicole! I’m so happy to have our little family back together again ๐