Cookie Dough Stuffed Chocolate Cupcakes are every dessert lover's dream - rich, soft, creamy and delicious! They are filled with edible cookie dough and topped with a silky chocolate buttercream frosting. Every bite is soft, moist, and packed with flavor, making these cupcakes the ultimate treat for any occasion.
Cupcake lovers - unite! You might also like Dark Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes and Watermelon Cupcakes.
Learn how to make the absolute perfect cookie dough stuffed chocolate cupcakes at home with these easy to follow step by step photo instructions. Get them right first time and every time.
Easy Chocolate Cupcakes
These stuffed chocolate cupcakes are rich, fudgy and easy to make! There's a surprise inside - the vanilla cookie dough filling bursts out with chocolate chips like a sweet explosion.
You can easily customize them with different chocolate chips, add salt, or flavored frostings to match holidays or themes, so one base recipe turns into multiple fun variations.
Why You'll Love These
- Irresistible chocolate flavor. Chocolate upon chocolate layer, chocolate chips and cookie dough! The cupcake itself is made with chocolate, there is chocolate in the frosting and when you bite into a cupcake, Yes, cookie dough is full of chocolate chips!
- Easy to make ahead. The cupcakes, filling, and frosting can be prepared in stages, chilled, and assembled later, making them a practical choice for entertaining without last-minute stress.
Key Ingredients
- Cookie dough: I highly recommend to use this edible cookie dough recipe or you can also use the one I have in the instructions.
- Eggs - keep the cupcakes all together
- Vanilla Extract - creates contrast with chocolate and coffee.
- All-Purpose Flour - keeps it all together.
- Baking Powder - so it rises properly.
- Salt - A tiny pinch, about ¼ teaspoon. Salt enhances the chocolate flavors in the cupcakes. Without it, your cupcakes (or any other baked goodies) would be a bit bland.
- Sugar - Be sure to use a combination of granulated and light brown sugar to keep the cupcakes moist and flavorful.
- Butter Milk - smooths the batter.
- Baking soda - This leavening gives the cupcakes the most amazingly tender texture.
- White sugar and brown sugar. Two important ingredients in this cookie recipe are the right kinds of sugar!
- Unsalted butter. When baking, butter is a must-have ingredient. You can freeze butter, so stock up the next time you go to the store. You'll be glad you have lots of butter on hand for making chocolate cupcakes.
- Chocolate - This recipe calls for mini chocolate chips (for the cookie dough) and dark cocoa powder.
- Dark cocoa powder - Regular unsweetened cocoa is what I used in these cupcakes. You can used Dutch cocoa, but they might not rise quite as high, so you'd need to fill them a little more and you'd probably get one or two less cupcakes.
How to Make Chocolate Cupcakes
There are 3 distinct steps to making these chocolate cupcakes a reality. First, you will need to prepare Edible Cookie Dough (step 1) - this is the surprise inside. Then, make chocolate cupcake batter (step 2) and thirdly, whip up the Chocolate Butter Cream frosting (step 3) for a beautiful chocolate finish!
1. Make Edible Cookie Dough Filling
Mix wet ingredients: Cream the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together until smooth in a small bowl. Mix in vanilla and milk last.
Mix in dry ingredients: Now add cooled flour and blend until combined. Fold in chocolate chips. I used mini chocolate chips. I recommend to preheat flour to remove any harmful bacteria from the cookie dough. 1 minuted in the microwave is all you need.
Scoop and freeze: Now to the fun part! Scoop 12 small balls of dough (about 1 tablespoon each) onto a cutting board, or cookie sheet (or a large plate)and freeze for 30 minutes. I also used parchment paper.
2. Make Chocolate Cupcake Batter
Prep: Preheat the oven to 350°F. and line a 12-count muffin pan with cupcake liners.
Combine dry ingredients: In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
Combine wet ingredients: In a large bowl, whisk buttermilk, coffee, oil, eggs, both sugars, and vanilla until smooth.
Put it all together: Add the dry ingredients into the wet and stir just until combined. Fill cupcake liners 2⁄3 full (don't overfill, to avoid muffin tops).
Bake and cool: Bake for 17-19 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely.
3. Make Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Beat the cocoa powder and butter until creamy. Whisk through the cocoa powder in a large bowl to remove any lumps. Add the softened butter and cream together until well combined and creamy.
Add the sugar and mix. This is a key step and makes the frosting fluffy and delicious: add the confectioner's sugar and mix on HIGH speed for about a minute.
Add vanilla extract and heavy cream. Mix in vanilla and heavy cream until smooth and silky and well-combined..
4. Assemble the cupcakes
Remove the center of a cupcake: Use a cupcake corer, piping tip, or paring knife to remove the center of each cooled cupcake. Make the hole large enough to fit in the cookie dough balls you made.
Add cookie dough: Insert a chilled ball of cookie dough into each cupcake.
5. Pipe and Garnish
Pipe chocolate buttercream on top of each cookie dough stuffed cupcake. Garnish with mini chocolate chips or a drizzle of melted chocolate if desired.
Cookie Dough Stuffed Chocolate Cupcakes
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Ingredients
Cookie Dough Filling
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened
- ⅓ cup light brown sugar packed
- 2 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoon milk
- ½ cup mini chocolate chips
Chocolate Cupcakes
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup dark cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup buttermilk
- ½ cup coffee brewed (or hot milk or water)
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Chocolate Buttercream
- ½ cup dark cocoa powder
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 2 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅔ teaspoon heavy cream
Instructions
Make the Cookie Dough Filling
- In a bowl, cream the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together until smooth.
- Mix in vanilla and milk.
- Add flour and blend until combined. Fold in chocolate chips.
- Scoop 12 small balls of dough (about 1 tablespoon each) onto a cookie sheet or a large plate; and freeze for 30 minutes.
Make the Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a 12-count muffin pan with cupcake liners.
- In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
- In a large bowl, whisk buttermilk, coffee, oil, eggs, both sugars, and vanilla until smooth.
- Add the dry ingredients and stir just until combined.
- Fill cupcake liners 2⁄3 full (don't overfill, to avoid muffin tops).
- Bake for 17-19 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely.
Make the Chocolate Buttercream
- Beat the cocoa powder and butter until creamy. Whisk through the cocoa powder in a large bowl to remove any lumps. Add the softened butter and cream together until well combined and creamy.
- Add the sugar and mix. This is a key step and makes the frosting fluffy and delicious: add the confectioner's sugar and mix on HIGH speed for about a minute.
- Add vanilla extract and heavy cream. Mix in vanilla and heavy cream until smooth and silky and well-combined..
Assemble the Cupcakes
- Use a cupcake corer, piping tip, or paring knife to remove the center of each cooled cupcake.
- Make the hole large enough to fit in the cookie dough balls you made. Insert a chilled ball of cookie dough into each cupcake.
- Pipe chocolate buttercream on top.
- Garnish with mini chocolate chips or a drizzle of melted chocolate if desired.
Tips for Baking Moist Chocolate Cupcakes
If you are looking for a chocolate cupcake recipe that's been tried and tested, I've been using this one for a long time and it hasn't failed me yet.
- Measure with care. For the flour in both the cookie dough and the cupcake batter, too much flour will result in a dry, cakey cupcake, while too little will produce overly dense, sunken results.
- Don't overmix. When combining the wet and dry ingredients for the cookie dough and the chocolate cupcake batter, mix just until everything is incorporated. Mixing past this point can cause the gluten in the flour to overdevelop, resulting in a tough, over-dense texture.
- Use hot coffee. While you can use cooler coffee in the batter for this recipe, I highly recommend using hot coffee. It allows the cocoa to bloom, bringing out its full, rich, fudgy flavor. Alternatively, you can use hot milk or hot water. Just make sure that whatever you choose to use - is hot.
- Bake at 350F. Most cupcakes bake well between 325°F and 375°F. I found that the optimal temperature for chocolate cupcakes specifically is 350 F.
- Cool completely. Wait to frost the cupcakes until they have cooled completely before removing them from the pan. Otherwise, the frosting will slide right off.
- Frosting consistency. If the buttercream is too thick, mix in some extra heavy cream, one tablespoon at a time, until you reach the right consistency. If it's too thin, add more powdered sugar, one tablespoon at a time..
- Chocolate chips. If you'd like to add chocolate chips to the frosting, you can. Just sprinkle about ½ cup of mini chocolate chips on top of the frosting.
Chocolate Cupcakes FAQ
- My chocolate batter is too thin. The cupcake batter should be very thin. It's because they are loaded with moisture. However soupy batter bakes up crazy moist and airy. It really just trust the process issue.
- Why is my butter cream light in color? After beating so much air into the mixture, chocolate buttercream can lighten up in color. Of course this doesn't change the flavor at all.
- Why use coffee and chocolate together? Coffee can lend additional depth and punch to the chocolate. I don't really understand why it works, and as a non-coffee drinker I don't have a taste for it (but it doesn't register in the finished product as coffee) but you'll find that it really boosts flavor without tasting like coffee.
- Coffee does enhance the taste of chocolate while dairy tends to mellow it. That's why a lot of chocolate cakes are made with oil instead of butter, and water or coffee instead of milk. It's so good and chocolatey.
Equipment to make stuffed chocolate cupcakes
- Microwave: To heat up the flour for cookie dough.
- Spatulas, 1 piping bag for the topping and a whisk.
- 12 count cupcake pan.
Storage Tips
- Refrigerator: Place frosted cupcakes in an airtight container. Refrigerate for up to 5 days. Once ready to use, remove from the refrigerator and allow to reach room temperature, the enjoy with a cup of coffee or tea.
- Freeze: Place frosted chocolate cupcakes on a cookie sheet and freeze individually. Transfer frozen cupcakes to ziplock bag and store in the freezer for up to 3 months. Once ready to use, place in refrigerator overnight to thaw, then remove from fridge for a short time prior to use.
Mike says
Yum! Made this with store bought cookie dough!
Olya says
Great hack, Mike!