Enjoy a homemade version of the classic packaged treat! These dreamy cream-filled chocolate cupcakes start with a moist and deeply chocolatey cupcake, which is filled with fluffy whipped vanilla buttercream, and topped with a rich 2-ingredient chocolate ganache. Truly one of the best desserts I’ve ever baked and every single taste tester has RAVED about them.
I feel like I’ve said this before, but this is truly my new favorite cupcake recipe. Honestly. I close my eyes in delight every time I bite into one. They are that good.
Why You’ll Love These Cream-Filled Chocolate Cupcakes
- The cupcakes are basically this popular chocolate cake, but halved
- Extra soft & moist, not dense or dry at all
- Extreme chocolate flavor; hot liquid “blooms” the cocoa
- Sweet, fluffy vanilla cream in the center
- Chocolate topping is just 2 ingredients and sets into a soft fudge-like texture
- Like the packaged American treat, but fresh & homemade
Even for an assembled/decorated cupcake, the process is still pretty straightforward. Make the cupcakes, carve a little hole in the center of the cooled cupcakes, fill with an easy whipped buttercream, and spread ganache on top. Use any extra filling to pipe on a squiggly loopy-loop (technical terms). Let me explain some key ingredients and show you this process in photos.
Make the Chocolate Cupcakes First
I decided to use my very favorite (and reader-loved!) chocolate cake as the base for today’s cupcake recipe. I practically halved all of the ingredients. My regular super moist chocolate cupcakes are great, but they can be quite fragile. I love this newer cupcake recipe below, and even use it for these chocolate covered strawberry cupcakes and these Easter cupcakes.
For the BEST texture and flavor, you need these key ingredients:
- Natural Cocoa Powder: Use unsweetened, natural cocoa powder (not Dutch-process). You can read about the difference in this post: Dutch-process vs. Natural Cocoa Powder. I typically use Hershey’s (the regular kind, not the Special Dark) or Ghirardelli brand cocoa powder. (Not affiliated with these brands, just a fan of the products.)
- Oil: Cocoa powder is a very drying ingredient, so you’ll usually find it paired with oil in cake and cupcake recipes. Oil provides moisture and doesn’t weigh down a baked good. Vegetable oil is ideal, but melted coconut oil or even light olive oil may be used instead.
- Buttermilk: The team and I tested these cupcakes with buttermilk and with sour cream. Made with buttermilk, they have the best flavor, but can be a little soft and sticky, so slightly more difficult to cut and fill. Made with sour cream, they have a sturdier crumb, but the chocolate flavor isn’t as strong. We liked the buttermilk cupcakes best, and a quick chill in the refrigerator after they’ve fully cooled helps make the filling/assembly process easier.
- Hot Coffee or Hot Water: Hot liquid enhances the cocoa powder’s flavor. It also encourages it to bloom and dissolve appropriately. I promise these cupcakes don’t taste like coffee at all! If you don’t drink coffee, you can use hot water. For deeper and richer flavor, though, use coffee. You can either brew it in a coffee maker or make instant coffee. Decaf coffee works!
You also need all-purpose flour (cake flour is too light when paired with cocoa powder), baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar, egg, & vanilla extract.
Spoon/pour the thin batter into muffin pan lined with cupcake liners—you should have enough batter to make 15 cupcakes, so you will either need 2 muffin pans or you can divide and bake them in 2 batches. Fill the liners about 2/3 full. If you use the batter to make fewer than 15 cupcakes, you are overfilling the lined cups and your cupcakes will spill over the sides.
Optional (but recommended) step: When the cupcakes are completely—or nearly completely—cool, place them in the refrigerator for 20–30 minutes to make them a bit easier to carve into and fill.
The cupcakes bake up nice and flat on top:
And now… is there any topping more rich and indulgent-tasting than chocolate ganache?
Make the Chocolate Ganache
Even though it’s the topping, I recommend making the chocolate ganache before you make the filling and while the cupcakes cool. This is because the ganache also needs to cool and thicken.
You need just 2 ingredients to make chocolate ganache:
- Pure Chocolate: Make sure you use real, quality chocolate. I typically use the 4-ounce baking bars found in the grocery store baking aisle, by Ghirardelli or Baker’s. You can use quality chocolate chips instead, but the ganache won’t be as smooth, as chocolate chips have stabilizers in them. You need 6 ounces, which is 1.5 bars (170g). 8 ounces proved to be too much and 4 ounces wasn’t enough.
- Heavy Cream: This may be called by another name where you are, like heavy whipping cream or double cream. Just make sure it has a minimum of 36% fat content, otherwise it won’t set up as well. Usually you should use 6 ounces of cream per 6 ounces of chocolate, but I recently reduced it down to 2/3 cup (just over 5 ounces), so the ganache is a little thicker.
Heat the cream on the stovetop, pour over finely chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl, let sit for a few minutes, and then slowly stir until the chocolate has all melted. The ganache will be very thin at first, but since chocolate is solid at room temperature, the ganache will thicken as it cools:
Whipped Vanilla Buttercream
For the cream portion of these cream-filled chocolate cupcakes, use fluffy whipped vanilla buttercream. This is the same whipped buttercream frosting I use for vanilla sheet cake, but with the ingredient ratios adjusted to yield less. You need just enough to fill 15 cupcakes, with a little leftover to pipe the squiggly loops on top. LOL.
You’re basically making a regular vanilla buttercream frosting, but whipping it on high speed for a few minutes to make it extra light, fluffy, and almost marshmallow-tasting. Many homemade Hostess-style cupcake recipes use shortening or store-bought marshmallow creme (fluff) in the filling, but this one uses just 5 simple ingredients: butter, confectioners’ sugar, heavy cream, vanilla, and salt. Feel free to use this marshmallow meringue as the filling instead, if you’d like. Some readers have also filled them with raspberry cake filling—YUM!
Fill & Assemble the Cream-Filled Chocolate Cupcakes
Alright, let’s do this! With a sharp knife, cut a circle in the cupcake, and remove the center, which will be roughly the shape of a cone. Using a small spoon, fill the middle of the cupcake with as much whipped buttercream as you can. (Usually between 1–2 teaspoons.) Slice/tear off the pointed tip of the cone-shaped piece of cupcake, and gently press the round piece back on top of the filling.
This can get messy because the cupcakes are oh-so-soft and moist. That’s fine, you’re covering up the mess with ganache.
With a knife or small icing spatula, spread the thickened chocolate ganache on top of the cupcakes.
Let’s see all of that come together:
Optional: Pipe the Squiggly Loopy Loops
For the finishing touch, fit a small round piping tip (I use Wilton #6) to a piping bag and fill with the remaining whipped buttercream. I went for the signature Hostess cupcake look by piping the loopy loops across the top of each cupcake, but feel free to get creative with your design. An initial, a heart, smiley face, birthday age/number, etc. You could even decorate them as Halloween cupcakes. Or skip this decorating step entirely.
How about a cake version? I thought some might ask! See recipe Note below.
See Your Cream-Filled Chocolate Cupcakes!
Many readers tried this recipe as part of a baking challenge! Feel free to email or share your recipe photos with us on social media. 🙂
PrintCream-Filled Chocolate Cupcakes
- Prep Time: 40 minutes
- Cook Time: 22 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours (includes cooling)
- Yield: 15 cupcakes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Fill these deeply chocolatey cupcakes with fluffy whipped vanilla buttercream and top with a rich 2-ingredient chocolate ganache. See the step-by-step photos above or use the video tutorial below as your guide.
Ingredients
Chocolate Cupcakes
- 1 cup (125g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1/2 cup (42g) unsweetened natural cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup (80ml) vegetable oil
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (120ml) buttermilk*, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup (120ml) hot coffee or hot water
Chocolate Ganache Topping
- 6 ounces (170g) semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped
- 2/3 cup (160ml or 5.3 ounces) heavy cream
Whipped Vanilla Buttercream Filling
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 2 cups (240g) confectioners’ sugar
- 3 Tablespoons (45ml) heavy cream
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- salt, to taste
Instructions
- Make the cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Line a 12-cup muffin pan with cupcake liners. This recipe yields about 15 cupcakes, so line a second muffin pan with 3 cupcake liners or bake in batches.
- Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside. Whisk the oil, sugar, egg, vanilla, and buttermilk together until combined. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, add the hot coffee/water, and whisk until the batter is completely combined. Batter is thin.
- Pour/spoon the batter into the liners, filling only 2/3 full to avoid spilling over the sides. You should have enough batter for 15 cupcakes.
- Bake for 20–22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Allow cupcakes to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Cupcakes must be completely cooled—and even chilled for 20–30 minutes in the refrigerator if they’re particularly sticky on top—before assembling.
- Make the chocolate ganache: Place finely chopped chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl. Heat the cream in a small saucepan over medium heat until it begins to gently simmer. (Do not let it come to a rapid boil—that’s too hot!) Pour over chocolate, then let it sit for 2–3 minutes to gently soften the chocolate. With a metal spoon or small rubber spatula, very slowly stir until chocolate has melted and mixture is smooth. Ganache is thin. The finer you chopped the chocolate, the quicker it will melt with the cream. If it’s not melting, do not microwave it. If needed, see Troubleshooting Chocolate Ganache. Once ganache mixture is smooth, transfer it to the refrigerator and let it chill for at least 30 minutes to thicken before spreading on cooled and filled cupcakes.
- Make the whipped vanilla buttercream filling: With a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add confectioners’ sugar, heavy cream, and vanilla extract. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds, then increase to medium-high speed and beat for 3 full minutes. Add up to 1/4 cup (30g) more confectioners’ sugar if frosting is too thin or another 1 Tablespoon (15ml) of cream if frosting is too thick. Add a pinch of salt if frosting is too sweet. (I add a very tiny pinch of salt.) Frosting should be extra fluffy.
- Fill the cupcakes: Using a sharp knife, cut a circle into the center of the cooled cupcakes to create a little pocket about 1 inch deep. The piece you removed will be sort of cone-shaped. Spoon or pipe whipped buttercream inside each carved-out cupcake—use however much frosting will fit. (I use either a teaspoon measuring spoon or Wilton piping tip #12 to fill cupcakes. Usually you can fit between 1–2 teaspoons of frosting in each.) Slice/tear off the pointy end of the “cone” piece of cupcake you removed, and gently press the round piece back on top of the filling.
- Top with ganache: With a knife or small icing spatula, spread the thickened chocolate ganache on top of each cupcake. Spread on a thick layer, so it sets as a thick fudge-like topping.
- (Optional) Pipe icing swirl/loops on top: Fill a piping bag with the remaining vanilla buttercream. Pipe a looping swirl, or any design you prefer, on top of the ganache-covered cupcake. (No need to chill ganache-topped cupcakes before doing this.) I use Wilton piping tip #6 for piping.
- Serve immediately or store covered at room temperature or in the refrigerator for up to 1 day before serving. Cover and store leftover cupcakes in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. I recommend a cupcake carrier for storing and transporting decorated cupcakes.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Bake the cupcakes 1 day in advance. Keep cupcakes covered tightly at room temperature and fill/frost the day of serving. Whipped buttercream and chocolate ganache can be prepared the day before too. Cover each and refrigerate overnight. The ganache will be nice and thick. If needed to thin out, spoon ganache into heatproof bowl and place over a pot of simmering water. Stir constantly until thinned out. Unfrosted, unfilled cupcakes can be frozen up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and bring to room temperature before assembling and serving.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Cupcake Liners | USA Pan Cupcake Pan or Wilton Cupcake Pan| Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand Mixer) | Small Icing Spatula | Piping Bag (Reusable or Disposable) | Wilton Piping Tip #6 | Wilton Piping Tip #12 | Cupcake Carrier
- Cupcakes Sinking: The cupcakes may look like they’re sinking in the center while they’re baking, but they should pop back up by the time baking is finished. It doesn’t matter all that much if they sink a bit in the center, though, because you’re cutting out the middles and filling them with cream.
- Buttermilk vs. Sour Cream: I tested these cupcakes both ways. Made with buttermilk, they have the best flavor, but can be a little soft and sticky, so slightly more difficult to cut and fill (I recommend a quick chill in the refrigerator before cutting and filling, to make them a bit easier to work with). Made with sour cream, they have a sturdier crumb, but the chocolate flavor isn’t as strong. You can also try using half of each, if you happen to have both!
- Buttermilk: Buttermilk is required for this recipe. You can make your own DIY version of buttermilk if needed. Add 1 teaspoon of white vinegar or lemon juice to a liquid measuring cup. Then add enough whole milk to the same measuring cup until it reaches 1/2 cup. (In a pinch, lower fat or nondairy milks work for this soured milk, but the cupcakes won’t taste as moist or rich.) Stir it around and let sit for 5 minutes. The homemade “buttermilk” will be somewhat curdled and ready to use in the recipe.
- Hot Coffee or Hot Water: Hot liquid enhances the cocoa powder’s flavor. It also encourages it to bloom and dissolve appropriately. I promise these cupcakes don’t taste like coffee at all! If you don’t drink coffee, you can use hot water. For deeper and richer flavor, though, use coffee (regular or decaf, but make sure it’s black with no sugar or cream). You can either brew it in a coffee maker or make instant coffee.
- Chocolate for Ganache: Real, quality chocolate is ideal for ganache to set properly. I use the 4-ounce baking bars found in the grocery store baking aisle, such as Ghirardelli or Baker’s brands. You’ll need 1.5 of the 4-ounce bars to yield 6 ounces. If you can’t find those, you can use 170g (about 1 cup) of high-quality semi-sweet chocolate chips.
- Can I Make This Into a Cake? Absolutely. Use my chocolate cake recipe for 2 cake layers, spread the whipped buttercream on one cooled cake, top with 2nd cake, and top entire cake with ganache.
- More Success Tips: Be sure to check out my How to Use Piping Tips post for instructions on how to fill a piping bag, and my How to Make Chocolate Ganache post for any ganache questions. And you can also read my 10 Tips for Baking the BEST Cupcakes.
Review from my boyfriend/primary taste tester: “I could eat a lot of these.” They were delicious and the flavors get even better after a day or so. I made a half batch which produced 9 cupcakes and used half & half instead of heavy cream for the ganache. It came out perfectly. Definitely recommend!
These cupcakes were soooo good!!! I absolutely love the chocolate ganache and the filling!!
Great recipe. It was nostalgic making these. Growing up, my mother bought boxes of Hostess cakes to celebrate my birthday when I was in preschool and kindergarten. These taste much better. I decreased the sugar by a quarter cup and they tasted great, not too sweet. Shared them with my neighbor. She and her son devoured them. Thanks for a great recipe.
This was unexpectedly fun! I also really liked the balance of the very sweet cupcake and frosting being cut by the pretty (relatively) bitter ganache. I don’t know if I’d make this exact recipe again just because they are very indulgent, but it gave me confidence that I can make filled cupcakes! I used a piping bag and a mid-sized round tip, which worked great.
However, the recipe doesn’t mention sifting your powdered sugar, which I thought was a deliberate omission so I didn’t sift mine…won’t make that mistake again! Definitely would recommend doing that.
I made these for the October baking challenge and it was definitely worth it! These are rich, moist, and the ganache and icing are the perfect toppings! Definitely would make these again.
All your recipes are perfection, this one included! I’ve been making “surprise” cupcakes for years and have found that using a piping bag with a larger tip and squirting the cream into the cupcake eliminates the step and mess of removing little cones of cake. An added gun thing – it makes the cupcake puff up. The kids love to watch!
I made these for the monthly challenge and they came out absolutely delicious! I halved my ganache and frosting but still had leftovers. Going to make some more cupcakes in a couple of days n use it up. Definitely a keeper recipe!
Delicious! These are so good that they make Joe Louis’ taste like the cardboard box that they are packed in! 🙂 Very easy to follow recipe. My 6 year old daughter made these…with a little bit of help from her 3 year brother…and her mommy!
This recipe was easy to follow and so delicious!
Not being a fan of chocolate, I wasn’t super excited for the October challenge. My kids were though! This recipe was fun and learned how to fill cupcakes and make ganache. Not being a chocolate fan, I still found the cupcakes to be good. The layers of flavor (cake, icing, ganache) all worked great together. Overall, these cupcakes were a hit for my family. I enjoyed making them and the chocolate lovers in my family enjoyed eating them! Thanks for another great baking challenge Sally and team. We look forward to next months.
Delicious!! Another fantastic recipe from Sally. I’m so happy with how my ganache turned out. I used what I had on hand – semi-sweet chips (100g) and 60% bittersweet chips (70g).
Love this! They were so easy to make, yet impressive looking.
Love this recipe! One batch left us wanting more, so two weeks later we made a repeat batch. Delicious!
This recipe stirred up so much nostalgia! They were easy and delicious! The whipped buttercream vanilla frosting was divine! The chocolate ganache is so easy to make and use.
I didn’t have the high quality chocolate or heavy cream this recipe called for, but used the chocolate chips suggested in the recipe, and half the amount of whole milk. I am so pleased with the overall result. Thank you for another great recipe!
These were a huge hit! The cupcakes did sink in the oven, but as Sally said, it didn’t matter too much since they were being filled anyway. I personally found the ganache to be too bitter with the semisweet chocolate, but everyone else loved them. They were so much fun to make!
Really enjoyed this recipe! I’ve never made filled cupcakes before but this was a lot easier and less messy than I expected it to be. The recipe did make significant extra ganache, so I might make a bit less if I make this again, but otherwise great.
What delicious cupcakes! The are easy to make but look so fancy! The cake is perfectly moist and the sweet buttercream is the perfect accompaniment. I will definitely be making these again. Thank you for the challenge Sally!
I made these for my husband’s birthday treats (also made Sally’s salted caramel turtle brownies). They were a hit with just the right amount of sweet/salty. There were no leftovers
I do have a cupcake corer that I use for ease of cutting/filling and it makes that step pretty quick.
I would suggest if you are going to be piping the topping, to go ahead and pile the filling too. That’s the part that always causes me stress, trying to get the filling off of the spoon and into the hole. And I did have extra filling and ganache at the end, but I’d rather have extra than not enough!
As usual, an easy-to-follow, delicious recipe!
I made these cupcakes last weekend. There’s a lot of steps but the recipe is very easy to follow. I made all the elements (cupcakes, ganache, buttercream) the night before and assembled the cupcakes the next morning. SO SO delicious!! I love that the ganache is not sweet and the wonderful chocolate flavor of the cupcakes. I colored my buttercream orange as I was bringing them to a friends Halloween themed lunch. They were enjoyed by everyone! And the two I took home somehow tasted even better the next day! Will definitely make again.
These were quite fun to make! Super moist cake and wonderful crème.
My ganache was a little runny, but I used a weird blend of chip morsels, instead of the high quality bars. ♂️
I also used silicone baking cups, which made peeling the cupcakes a little difficult. Paper would probably have been better. Will certainly do these again!
These were so good and much easier to make than I anticipated. Thanks for the delicious recipie Sally!
So good and the buttercream is light and sweet. I love all the tips and explanation of “blooming”, etc. this is my first challenge But it won’t be my last. My family thanks you in advance!
I loved the recipe and so easy to follow, thank you. I will no doubt bake them again but I might try using 1/2 Milk Chocolate & 1/2 Semi-Sweet for the ganache next time 🙂
I made these yesterday and filled some cupcakes with whipped vanilla buttercream filling and some with chocolate ganache and I used the instructions from Decorated Halloween Cupcake to design some fun cupcakes for my family and neighbors. It was beyond delicious that I could explain. It’s amazing to taste the moist chocolate cupcakes and the ganache I used was Guittard bittersweet chocolate bars so it balanced all sweetness from the filling and the frosting.
However, I just want to ask if I can use the same cupcake recipe but add some nuts to the cupcakes and fill with your chocolate peanut butter frosting? Because I want to do another batch for my neighbor kids but different filling this time. Thank you for your help.
Hi Elizabeth, we’re so glad the cupcakes were a hit! While you could add nuts to the batter, it may make the carving/filling a bit tricky. If you decide to try, we’d recommend chopping the nuts up rather small. Or how about adding the nuts to the filling frosting? Yes, you can use the chocolate peanut butter frosting as a filling instead.
I’ll make these again! Don’t be a goob like me and think maybe, just maybe, half and half would work for the ganache instead of heavy cream because the heavy cream in your fridge smells funny. It doesn’t! So my ganache was too runny to work out this time, but all the elements (even the runny ganache) were delicious and I found out these are also really good using the vanilla buttercream on alone on top!
This is a super fun recipe if you’re looking for a dessert with that “it factor” but don’t want to go through a million and one steps with ingredients you’ve never heard of. My family loved them!
I’ve seen a few people mention that they have a lot of ganache left over, and I did too. I used the rest of it to make some easy truffles by just getting it very cold and rolling the ganache into small balls (your hands will get a little messy!) and then rolling them in some cocoa powder. Two desserts in one!
Biting into these cupcakes struck me with the memory of eating Hostess cupcakes as a child, but they taste a lot better! I recommend filling the cupcakes while waiting for the ganache to cool; I didn’t account for how long it would take me to carefully cut into & fill the cupcakes, and my ganache was a little thick by the time I was ready to cover the cupcakes.
My kids really enjoyed these cupcakes and they looked fantastic. The cupcakes were moist and delicious. The only thing I would do differently is use milk chocolate in the ganache rather than semi-sweet chocolate bars.
I made these cupcakes for the October Challenge. I also entered them in my county fair & received 2nd place. Even with the multiple steps, this recipe was still easy to follow along & make. I made half a recipe (9) & even with half of the ganache topping there was still too much, so keep that in mind.
I made these with my kids and they loved them. There are a lot of steps which worked well to split between my two kids, but I don’t think I would make these unless I had ample time and energy to wash dishes! We were worried about the thin batter, but they baked up nicely. We used a thinner layer of ganache and added a ghost meringue to make them halloween themed.