Easy Black Forest Cupcakes Recipe

So good that people will swear you've been taking culinary classes but so easy that you can finish them in time for dinner!

Table of Contents

• 🗝️ Key takeaways
• 🧾 Ingredients
• 🥫 How to store
• 📚 Related recipes
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

🗝️ Key takeaways

This is so good!

• All the flavor of Black Forest cake in an easy cupcake recipe!
• So pretty!
• Looks fancy but is super easy.

In this recipe the butter is melted and browned, then cooled. This adds a discreet, nutty flavor to the chocolate -- you can't really taste it but you just know there's something really good about the chocolate flavor.

🧾 Ingredients

For the recipe you'll need:

• All-purpose flour
• Dark cocoa
• Baking soda
• Baking powder
• Salt
• Butter
• Sugar
• Oil
• Egg
• Vanilla
• Milk
• Vinegar
• Coffee
• Kirsch
• Cherry pie filling
• Heavy cream
• Confectioner's sugar
• Bittersweet chocolate

Note: This is an overview of the instructions. The full instructions are in the green recipe card below. Click on the image to see it full size.

Step one

1. Preheat oven to 400F.

Step two

1. Mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
2. Set aside.
3. Melt the butter over low heat.
4. Allow to turn golden brown. Cool.

Step three

1. Beat the egg, oil, and sugar until fluffy.
2. Add the vanilla and vinegar.
3. Continue beating on low and add the cooled butter and milk.
4. Mix the Kirsch with the hot coffee and add alternately with the flour mixture, beginning and ending with flour.
5. Spoon into 12 cupcake liners in a cupcake tin. Don't over fill - you want them to be about ¾ of the way full.
6. Bake at 400F for 12-15 minutes, or until done.
7. Cool before continuing.

Step four

1. Mix the canned cherry pie filling, the rum, and the cherry balsamic vinegar.
2. Set aside.

Step five

1. Beat the cream until foamy.
2. Add the vanilla.
3. Add the confectioner's sugar a little at a time while beating on high speed.
4. Beat until the cream is thick and has peaks.

Step five

1. Cut the centers out of the cupcakes, leaving a layer of cake at the bottom.
2. Fill with pie filling.
3. Pipe on the frosting.
4. Grate a bar of bittersweet chocolate over the top if desired.
5. Refrigerate until serving.

How to fill Black Forest cupcakes

Or any cupcakes for that matter.

You don't need a special gadget - in fact I think the special gadgets actually make it more time consuming. Just grab a sharp paring knife and you're ready to go.

1.  Hold the cupcake in your hand gently.
2. Push it into the top of the cupcake, slightly off center and about halfway down to the bottom.
3. Rotate your knife so that you create a crater in the cupcake and pull off the top.
4. trim the cut edge of the top of that until it's flat.
5. Spoon in your filling.
6. Add the trimmed top of the cupcake and gently push down. If you haven't trimmed it enough it will squish your filling out.
7. Add your frosting as directed in your recipe and you are ready to roll!

🥫 How to store

You'll want to store these Black Forest cupcakes in the refrigerator because of the cherry filling and the whipped cream topping. These are best eaten the day they are made.

You can freeze the cupcakes before you've added the filling and frosting. They'll be fine for up to three months.

Expert tip: If you don't want to use the Kirsch or rum in this recipe just leave it out of the cherries. No need to substitute anything else. To leave it out of the cake substitute hot water or coffee for the alcohol.

• Don't overmix, don't overbake, and you should get a perfect, chocolatey result!
• You'll have some cherry filling left so plan to bake a couple of tarts or something.
• When browning the butter watch it carefully. You want a nice, light golden brown.
• Extra dark cocoa is the secret to the flavor in this Black Forest cupcake recipe!

Here are the questions I am most frequently asked about this recipe.

📚 Related recipes

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• French Vanilla Cupcakes have a delicious, deep vanilla flavor.
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The first time I ever had Black Forest Cake I was out to dinner with my dad. He was an adventurous eater and I got a lot of my love of food from him.

My mom didn't like to go out to eat much, she preferred simple foods, and pizza from Pizza Hut.

So, on occasion Dad and I would head out for an evening of food experimentation. This particular time we were at some restaurant in Dallas -- it's always fuzzy when I try to remember where we'd go -- maybe it was the Old Warsaw?

Anyway after a sumptuous meal we split a Black Forest Cake for dessert and, because of that, this is one of my favorites.

Dark chocolate, cherries, booze, and whipped cream... what's not to like?

When it's in an easy cupcake form it's even better!

This is seriously one of my favorite homemade cupcake recipes. They always come out tender, moist, and chocolatey and it's easy to make them Pinterest-pretty. 

📖 Recipe

First published Aug 24, 2015. Last updated April 6, 2021 to simplify the instructions and make them more clear.