These Yellow Cupcakes with Milk Chocolate Buttercream are just the dessert for any type of celebration: birthdays, the first day of school, awards, promotions, or simply just because! The yellow cake is rich and tender, and the buttercream tastes just like fudge!
I call these “Celebration Cupcakes” because you don’t have to have a birthday to enjoy these amazing cupcakes! I personally like the whip these up when my little family has both major and small milestones.
Here’s what my little family is celebrating:
My return to blogging: I know, I know it’s been over a month since my last post…I have good excuses, I promise (like life is a little hectic while my hubby was away for 10 weeks, emergency eye surgery and a little complication with that, planning and re-planning our cross-country move {slowly learning the uncertainty of military life}, driving across country TWICE in a 3-week period, and unpacking, organizing and all that fun stuff that goes along with moving}.
My husband graduating from OCS: My hubs started Officer Candidate School with the Marine Corps in January and graduated at the end of March. I am SO proud of him and more importantly excited that our 10-week stint apart is now over! We’ll be in the Quantico, VA area while he attends TBS (The Basic School) until the end of the year, and we’re super excited to reconnect with old friends here in VA!
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| Curtis getting “pinned” by his dad and sister. |
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| Curtis receiving his first salute as an officer in the Marine Corps! |
Our cross-country move is FINALLY over: We knew our stay in Arizona was temporary, so we were almost always planning our move…we just didn’t know it would take almost 2 years for us to do so!
Mia’s 2nd Birthday: She’ll officially turn 2 on Saturday. I still can not believe our amazing little girl is going to be 2!
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| My little cutie, Mia. |
My blog will be moving: Sometime in the near future I will be making the switch from blogger to WordPress and I am doing the work all on my own! I figured to really learn the WordPress interface I might as well make the switch myself. I hope to have the new site up and running sometime in May, so stay tuned with more news on that front!
Here’s my little 4-year-old patiently waiting for me to be done photographing these yellow cupcakes. He especially loves the milk chocolate buttercream!
Cook’s Note – Yellow Cupcakes with Milk Chocolate Buttercream:
- ***While making the chocolate buttercream for this recipe it is crucial that you melt the chocolate and let it cool to room temperature; if you don’t your frosting won’t come together and you’ll have a gloppy mess on your hands. Also, note that once the melted and cooled chocolate is added to the frosting it will take a good 3-5 minutes with your mixer on medium-medium high speed for the mixture to come together—be patient and try not to freak out (like I did 😉 ), it will come together).
Disclosure: This post includes affiliate links.
Cook’s Tools – Yellow Cupcakes with Milk Chocolate Buttercream:
Yellow Cupcakes w/ Milk Chocolate Buttercream - Celebration Cupcakes
These Yellow Cupcakes with Milk Chocolate Buttercream are just the dessert for any type of celebration: birthdays, the first day of school, awards, promotions, or simply just because! The yellow cake is rich and tender, and the buttercream tastes just like fudge!
Print Pin RatePrep Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Cook Time: 18 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 48 minutes
Servings: 24 cupcakes
Calories: 421kcal
Ingredients
YELLOW CUPCAKES:
- 2 ¾ cups cake flour
- 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
- 2 LARGE eggs
- 1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 ¼ cups whole milk at room temperature
MILK CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM:
- 12 Tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
- 5 cups powdered sugar sifted
- 2/3 cup whole milk
- 1 ½ Tablespoons pure vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 ½ cups semisweet chocolate chips melted and then cooled
- jumbo rainbow nonpareils optional
Instructions
MAKE CUPCAKES:
- Move oven rack to middle position, and preheat to 350 degrees F. Line 2 standard cupcake tins with twelve baking papers each, and set aside.
- In medium bowl add flour, baking powder, and salt and whisk until combined, and set aside.
- In bowl of stand mixer add butter and sugar and beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy and pale yellow, about 4-5 minutes.
- Add eggs and vanilla and beat on low until combined.
- Add half of dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Add half of the milk and mix until combined. Repeat with remaining dry ingredients and milk and mix until combined.
- Using 4-Tablespoon scoop, scoop batter into prepared cupcake tins. Bake until inserted toothpick comes out clean, about 16-18 minutes. Let cupcakes cool 10 minutes, and then transfer cupcakes to wire rack to cool completely.
MAKE MILK CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM:
- Add butter to bowl of stand mixer and beat on medium speed for 30 seconds. Turn mixer off and add powdered sugar, milk, vanilla, and salt. Pulse mixer on lowest setting until combined, about 1 minute. Increase speed to high and beat until light and airy, about 4-5 minutes. Turn mixer to low and slowly drizzle in melted and cooled chocolate, and then increase speed to medium-high and mix until buttercream comes together about 2-4 minutes.
TO FINISH:
- Frost cupcakes and top with jumbo rainbow nonpareils (optional), and serve.
Nutrition
Serving: 1cupcake | Calories: 421kcal | Carbohydrates: 61g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 18g | Saturated Fat: 11g | Cholesterol: 46mg | Sodium: 92mg | Potassium: 197mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 47g | Vitamin A: 360IU | Calcium: 59mg | Iron: 1.4mg
Tried this recipe?Follow me @FoodFolksandFun
YIELD: 24 cupcakes
Source: Adapted from The Cupcake Diaries cookbook
I recently updated the pictures of this yellow cupcakes and milk chocolate buttercream recipe, here’s the original.
Jillian
Hi, I'm Jillian. I'm a teacher turned stay-at-home mom. I miss the creativity teaching provided so I'm always trying to find time to exercise my artistic abilities. Mostly that means cooking and baking. My blog is dedicated to providing restaurant-quality recipes for the home cook.
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Bridgette
Happy Birthday to Mia! The day got away from me. So sorry we didn’t call. We’ll have to Facetime Sunday.
Love this icing! Staying up to make it. Hope it tastes just like yours.
Allison - Celebrating Sweets
What great reasons to celebrate! These cupcakes look fabulous!
Luci's Morsels
Yummy! These look delicious! I love this classic recipe and I will have to try this one soon.
Ginny
Those are the prettiest cupcakes. I love yellow cupcakes and your soft frosting looks just perfect. Thanks for the recipe!
Marie | Yay! For Food
Sounds like you had a crazy month! Happy Birthday to Mia too! These cupcakes look amazing and the buttercream looks perfect on top!
jane @ littlesugarsnaps
I just love the fudgy buttercream on top of these cakes. That wins my heart straight away. Cupcakes never go out of fashion and, as you say, are perfect no matter what the occasion. Hope life is more settled now!