These white chocolate cupcakes have a stunning appearance and a subtle sweetness. The white chocolate flavor isn’t incredibly assertive—if anything, it’s a delicate and lovely vanilla undertone that goes perfectly with the fine-crumbed texture to create a spare sophistication that’ll appease kids as well as adults.–Renee Schettler Rossi
White Chocolate Cupcakes
Equipment
- Pastry bag (optional)
Ingredients
- 5 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped
- 1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup cake flour, preferably unbleached
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 4 tablespoons (2 oz) salted butter, at room temperature
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (176°C). Position an oven rack in the center position and line a pan of twelve 3-by-1 1/2-inch muffin cups with paper liners.
- In a heatproof bowl, dump the chocolate. Bring a wide saucepan of water to a simmer over medium heat. Turn off the heat and place the bowl in the hot water. Let it stand, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate is completely melted and smooth. Be careful not to let any water get in the bowl or the chocolate will seize and clump. Remove the bowl from the water and let cool until tepid.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, cake flour, baking powder, and salt.
- In a glass measuring cup, stir together the milk and vanilla.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl with a handheld electric mixer on high speed, beat the sugar and butter until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the tepid chocolate.
- Reduce the speed to low and beat in the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the milk mixture in 2 additions, and mix until smooth.
- Using a 2-inch diameter ice cream scoop or a 1/3 cup measuring cup, scoop the batter into the prepared cups. The cups shouldn’t be more than 2/3 full. (If you overfill the cups, they’ll end up flat rather than domed.)
- Bake the white chocolate cupcakes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Do not overbake. Don’t be alarmed if the cupcakes don’t rise appreciably or if they fail to turn golden brown.
- Let the cupcakes cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the cupcakes from the pan, place them on the wire rack, and cool completely.
- Just before serving, frost your white chocolate cupcakes with the white chocolate cream cheese frosting. (For an especially professional look, use an ice-cream scoop to top each cupcake with the frosting, then use a small spatula to smooth each portion of frosting into a dome.)
Notes
White Chocolate Cupcake Variation
White Chocolate Layer Cake To make a white chocolate layer cake instead of white chocolate cupcakes, double the recipe, use two 9-inch pans instead of cupcake tins, and bake for about 40 minutes. White Chocolate Cupcakes Filled With Jam A tart jam filling contrasts nicely with the sweetness of these white chocolate cupcakes and cream cheese frosting—raspberry, strawberry, currant, or just about anything would be lovely. If filling the cupcakes, place about 3/4 cup jam in a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip about 1/2 inch wide. Insert the tip about 1/2-inch deep into a cooled cupcake and squeeze to pipe about a tablespoon jam deep into the heart of the cupcake. Repeat with the remaining cupcakes and jam.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe Testers’ Reviews
The white chocolate flavor was delicate and delicious. Once filled with the raspberry jam and topped generously with the rich White Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing, each flavor component complimented the whole.
This recipe produced exactly 12 cupcakes, as promised. The use of cake flour resulted in a soft and fine crumb.
These white chocolate cupcakes are truly an inspiration! The cupcakes are moist and flavorful. They’re a bit dense, like pound cake. The white chocolate taste is undetectable to me, even though I knew white chocolate was in there. They have a very vanilla flavor to me. The frosting is out-of-this-world scrumptious. The recipe allowed for a very generous dollop atop the cupcake, which was incredible because I truly couldn’t get enough of it.
The contrast of the raspberry with the sweet cupcake was perfect; do not skip the raspberry jam or disappointment will be had! These cupcakes also came together easily.
If you love white chocolate, and I do, you will love these wonderfully moist white chocolate cupcakes.
The recipe says it makes 12 and to fill the cups very full, but I still ended up with 15. I only put raspberry jam in a few, and they were received with mixed reviews. No one thought the jam was a great addition.
I topped the cupcakes with the white chocolate cream cheese icing. I’m not a huge cream cheese fan, and this is very cream cheesy, so next time I may try adding some orange zest to the icing or a dark chocolate drizzle with a sprinkle of sea salt.
This cupcake was good. It had a nice flavor and I really liked the texture. I think that vanilla was the more pronounced flavor rather than the white chocolate. I thought that the frosting really adds to the white chocolate flavoring and makes for a very nice cupcake to frosting combo. I liked that this frosting was cream cheese-based. I think regular buttercream would have been way too sweet and taken away from the white chocolate flavor. I thought that the density of the cake was good—not quite pound cake dense, but firm enough to handle a good filling. I used a mixed berry jam.
The recipe made exactly 12 cupcakes and the frosting was more than enough to frost the 12 cupcakes using a piping bag and making a nice size swirl of frosting on top.
These cupcakes are good and easy to make. I filled a cupcake with Nutella. The Nutella is great with the cupcake. I suspect that a dark chocolate frosting or a Nutella-based frosting would be better than the white chocolate frosting.
These are honestly some of the best cupcakes I have ever eaten. The texture is perfect and the are not overly sweet. Pair with a peanut butter butter cream icing for an amazing experience.
Bill M., thank you for your tip. And thanks, too, for the kudos on this recipe. I love it, too.
Is there a way to substantiate eggs in this recipe? My nephew is allergic to eggs but wants the white chocolate flavour…
Hi, Lita. We didn’t test it with any kind of an egg substitute, and we don’t want to guess as to how to make it come out perfectly. You’d be best served by searching for an eggless white chocolate cupcake recipe on the Internet.
I believe that in every house there is a child who does not like to eat what is prepared here, the house has one, but this cupcake meal saves any housewife who has little time but needs to feed herself and the family is very practical and quick to do. I loved the recipe.
Kelley, oh, that kid was me. When my tried to feed me kale soup or calf’s liver…well, let’s just say it wasn’t pretty. Glad your little one liked the cupcakes.