These Salted Chocolate Cupcakes have the perfect salty twist on regular chocolate cupcakes! Imagine smooth creamy chocolate frosting with a little salty crunch from the pretzels. It's a sweet and salty dream combination!
What's in Salted Chocolate Cupcakes?
Salted Chocolate Cupcakes start off with my favorite chocolate cupcake recipe! It's a super easy cupcake recipe that is so soft and moist! Then swirled with a dollop of smooth, creamy chocolate frosting!
To make these salted chocolate, I crush up pretzels and sprinkle them around the edge. Not only does the saltiness of the pretzel cut through the sweetness of the cupcake, it also gives these cupcakes the perfect little crunch!
It's a wonderful balance of sweetness and texture in these cupcakes!
Dark Chocolate Cupcakes
The main chocolate flavor in these cupcakes comes from unsweetened cocoa powder. I like to use unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder because I believe that it gives the perfect chocolate flavor.
If you use dark chocolate chips, or even semi-sweet, it's going to add sweetness along with other ingredients to the cupcake batter. This could throw off the texture of the cupcake. Baking is a science after all, so you have to be careful about the extra ingredients you add in!
Using cocoa powder allows you to get the perfect chocolate flavor without any additional ingredients being added in!
If you do want more chocolate flavor, I recommend just sprinkling in chocolate chips to the batter before baking!
Other Cupcakes to Love
Chai Cupcakes with Cinnamon Buttercream - These Chai Cupcakes with Cinnamon Buttercream are a warm and spicy cupcake dream! With all the spicy flavors of chai combined in a soft cupcake with smooth and creamy buttercream, these cupcakes are the new flavor of fall!
Peppermint Mocha Cupcakes - A delicious spin on our favorite drink of the winter: Peppermint Mocha Cupcakes! These cupcakes are infused with a slight coffee flavor that enhances the chocolatey cupcake topped off with a chocolate mint frosting, a drizzle of chocolate syrup, and some crushed peppermint candies! It’s a two-in-one dessert that I can’t get enough of!
Cookies and Cream Cupcakes - Why keep cookies and cupcakes separate when you can combine them into these delicious Cookies and Cream Cupcakes! A soft, airy chocolate cupcake topped with cloud-like cookies and cream whipped frosting creates the ultimate cookies and cream dream!
Ingredient List:
- Flour
- Cornstarch
- Sugar
- Brown Sugar
- Baking Soda
- Baking Powder
- Salt
- Cocoa Powder
- Oil
- Eggs
- Milk
- Vinegar
- Vanilla Extract
- Butter
- Heavy Cream
- Powdered Sugar
I know this might seem like a loaded (and maybe slightly unusual) cupcake recipe, but trust that it's worth it for the softest, velvet cupcakes!
The salty sweet combination of these Salted Chocolate Cupcakes is my absolute dream! The crunchy pretzels with the soft frosting is perfection!
Cheers!
-Holly Michelle
Salted Chocolate Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups Flour
- 2 tablespoons Cornstarch
- ½ cup Sugar
- ½ cup Brown Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- ½ teaspoon Baking Powder
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- ½ cup Cocoa Powder
- ½ cup Oil
- 2 Eggs
- ½ cup Milk
- 2 tablespoons Vinegar
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
Frosting:
- 2 sticks Butter softened
- 3 tablespoons Heavy Cream
- 1 ½ cups Powdered Sugar
- ⅔ cup Cocoa Powder
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- ½ cup Pretzels crushed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Pour milk in a measuring cup. Remove two tablespoons of milk and add in two tablespoons of vinegar. Mix together and let set for three minutes.½ cup Milk, 2 tablespoons Vinegar
- In a bowl, add flour, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa powder, salt, and cornstarch. Stir everything together.1 ½ cups Flour, 2 tablespoons Cornstarch, 1 teaspoon Baking Soda, ½ teaspoon Baking Powder, ½ cup Cocoa Powder, ¼ teaspoon Salt
- In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, brown sugar, oil, and vanilla extract.½ cup Sugar, ½ cup Brown Sugar, ½ cup Oil, 2 Eggs, 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
- Once everything is mixed together, add the milk mixture to the wet ingredients.
- Then, add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.
- Once everything is fully mixed, use a medium sized cookie scoop to scoop the batter into cupcake liners, about ⅔’s of the way full.
- Bake for about 18-22 minutes, then let cool.
- While the cupcakes cool, make the frosting.
Making the Frosting:
- Add room temperature butter to the bowl of a mixer, and whip for about a minute on medium speed.2 sticks Butter softened
- Add in vanilla, powdered sugar, and cocoa powder, mix together.1 ½ cups Powdered Sugar, ⅔ cup Cocoa Powder, 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- Add in heavy cream, then whip on medium speed for 5-6 minutes until light and fluffy.3 tablespoons Heavy Cream
- Add frosting to a large piping bag and pipe a large dollop on top of the cupcakes.
To Garnish:
- Crush up pretzels using a rolling pin and a plastic bag, then sprinkle some around the edges of the frosting.½ cup Pretzels
- Serve and enjoy!
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