These yellow cupcakes look like vanilla cupcakes, and it’s surprising that they aren’t. Because they are made with cocoa butter instead of regular butter, they have a light, chocolaty flavor.  If you weren’t told about their secret (as many of my tasters weren’t), you’d suspect there was more to these seemingly simply cupcakes than plain vanilla – but you might not be able to guess the familiar flavor that made you go back for seconds.  Once I told you, you’d nod and taste the chocolate immediately!

Because the chocolate flavor is so understated, these cocoa butter cupcakes would be an ideal compromise cupcake to make for a family with some vanilla and some chocolate lovers.  You could top some of the cocoa butter cupcakes with chocolate whipped cream (or my amazing chocolate cream cheese frosting) and some with vanilla whipped cream.

Cocoa Butter Cupcake Recipe

Take a look at the nice crumb of this cupcake.  I loved the texture.

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Cocoa Butter Cupcakes with Chocolate Whipped Cream and Homemade White Chocolate Toppers

These yellow cupcakes are made with cocoa butter instead of regular butter. They have a light, chocolaty flavor.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 30 minutes minutes

Servings 12 cupcakes

Calories 303kcal

Author Stefani

Ingredients

Cupcake Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 ounces cocoa butter melted and cooled until still warm but not scorching hot (Be sure to use edible cocoa butter. Read my post on white chocolate for more about the cocoa butter that I used.)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup baker's sugar You can use regular granulated sugar, but the baker's sugar makes the cupcakes a bit lighter.
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Chocolate Whipped Cream Ingredients

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 3 tablespoons powdered sugar

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Cupcake Instructions

• In a medium-sized mixing bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
• Mix in cocoa butter until fully combined.
• Mix in eggs one at a time until fully combined.
• Mix in sugar and heavy whipping cream. The batter will be thick - more like cookie dough than typical cupcake batter.
• Divide batter evenly between 12 cupcake liners.
• Bake at 350 F for twenty minutes or until the cupcakes bounce back when touched lightly.

Chocolate Whipped Cream Instructions

• Whip the heavy whipping cream until it looks like whipped cream.
• Mix in the vanilla, cocoa powder, and powdered sugar until just combined.
• Spread or pipe on cooled cupcakes

Notes

White Chocolate Disc

I topped my cocoa butter cupcakes with homemade white chocolate discs. White chocolate is easier to make than you might think (it takes less than five minutes in the microwave). Read my post on white chocolate to learn how.

Nutrition

Calories: 303kcal | Carbohydrates: 30g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 19g | Saturated Fat: 12g | Cholesterol: 88mg | Sodium: 161mg | Potassium: 75mg | Sugar: 18g | Vitamin A: 715IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 36mg | Iron: 0.8mg

Close your eyes and you’ll think you’re eating chocolate chip cookies.   Open them, and you’ll notice that there are no chocolate chips.  The cookie doesn’t show any signs of having chocolate – no cocoa powder, no chocolate chunks, nibs, or even melted chocolate topping.  The secret is that you’re eating a cocoa butter cookie – a cookie where the butter has been replaced one for one with cocoa butter!

Cocoa butter is way underutilized in baking.  My extensive Google search revealed only a handful of cocoa butter-based baked goods.  Sure, cocoa butter is pricey (the cocoa butter needed for my cocoa butter cookie recipe costs about $12), but you don’t have to bake with cocoa butter every day.  Try it for a special treat or any time you want to add pizazz to a classic recipe.

Baking with Cocoa Butter

 

Before sharing my cocoa butter cookie recipe, here are some basic tips on baking with cocoa butter that you can use if you want to try cocoa butter in one of your favorite recipes:

• Replace the butter in your recipe with cocoa butter (see my post on homemade white chocolate for more about what kind of cocoa butter to purchase and where to find it).
• Melt the cocoa butter so that you can mix it into the batter.
• Remove or decrease the amounts of any extracts or spices (if you want to make sure the the cocoa butter flavor doesn’t get overpowered), or go all-out with the chocolate flavor like this cocoa butter chocolate chunk brownie recipe from CuiZoo.
• Add a touch of milk to the recipe if the batter seems too thick.
• If making cookies, form the cookies quickly.  As the cocoa butter returns to room temperature, it will harden and make the batter difficult to work with.  To compensate for this, keep the batter in the mixing bowl and periodically mix it at high speed to warm it up.

Cocoa Butter Cookie Recipe

I used a basic butter cookie recipe from AllRecipes as a starting point for my cocoa butter cookies. The recipe uses powdered sugar instead of granulated sugar, giving the cookies the texture of Mexican wedding cookies.