I would love for you to share your favorite, no fail chocolate cupcake recipe. please, please, please!
i've come to the conclusion that it's the recipe i use...not so much my methods....i usually use the cake doctors "darn good chocolate cake" recipe but they always sink. and i always go back to it because it's so yummy and i have faith it will work!!! NEVER!!!
then a kind CC soul suggested i use the Hershey cake recipe...yep, they didn't sink and domed nicely but tasted .... not so great. even my 4 year old and DH said, "um.....yuck"...
SO, pass on your winner recipe and i will be very grateful! 
Mar
Are you using a box or scratch recipe? I know hershey's is scratch, but I don't know about the cake doctor recipe.
When you said your cupcake sink, what is the texture like inside, how long are you baking them and what temperature are you baking at?
I made some strawberry cupcakes yesterday and they domed so nicely, then after I took them out the oven, they collapsed without a care in the world. The texture inside was sort of gummy and I knew that was because I didn't cook them long enough.
ina garten has good chocolate recipe on food net work.
I'm curious--did you make any substitutions in the Hershey formula?
Were they uniced when they were taste tested?
Or what kind of icing was it?
Are you wanting a fudgier cupcake?
I make cupcakes with this one.
http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/08/chocolate-peanut-butter-cake/
Never did the frosting, just the cake recipe. I have the book.
This is the chocolate cake recipe I use. I found it posted here on CC by Cakepro. http://cakecentral.com/recipes/7367/amazing-chocolate-wasc-cake
Instead of 2 2/3 cup water and 1 tbsp instant coffee I make coffee (strong) in the coffee maker and use 2 2/3 cup (cooled) of it in place of the water and instant coffee. I have no problems with this cake and everyone loves it.
~Kim
This is the only chocolate cake recipe I use and Ive never had a fail with it. I looked at the one that is posted here in CC and its a little different:
2 cups sugar
· 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
· 3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
· 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
· 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
· 1 teaspoon salt
· 2 eggs
· 1 cup milk
· 1/2 cup vegetable oil
· 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
· 1 cup boiling water
· "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING(recipe follows)
Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.
2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost with "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING. 10 to 12 servings.
VARIATIONS:
ONE-PAN CAKE: Grease and flour 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Heat oven to 350° F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely. Frost.
THREE LAYER CAKE: Grease and flour three 8-inch round baking pans. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost.
BUNDT CAKE: Grease and flour 12-cup Bundt pan. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 50 to 55 minutes. Cool 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely. Frost.
CUPCAKES: Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Heat oven to 350°F. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely. Frost. About 30 cupcakes.
"PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
2/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.
Hope this helps!
Thanks so much everyone for your input...
the cake doctor recipe is made with a DH cake mix...works great as a cake but for some reason...cupcakes are a bomb.
i didn't substitute anything with the Hershey recipe....i don't know why it tasted so blah, but it wasn't good to us at all...
i baked my cupcakes at 350..i've tried them at 325. i've taken them right out of the pans...i've let them sit....no matter what i do...they sink.
i will check out all the recommended recipes you've shared and use one for sure!!! thank you all so much!
I've started baking my cupcakes at 400 for the first 5 minutes...then turning them down to 325 for the rest of the baking..around 13-15 minutes. I read that tip here on CC and it works great! They dome really nicely!
I use this recipe, it is a cake recipe but makes wonderfully moist and domed cupcakes.
Since it makes a lot of batter and I just bake for my family so I make the batter, pour it in 2 - 3 ziplocs, set the bags flat on a tray in the freezer, and let it be there for at least 24 hours.
Whenever I want cupcakes I takem out, and they defrost fast since they are flat. Cut a corner of the bag and pour it in cupcake liners and bake it.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/reviews/Double-Chocolate-Layer-Cake-101275
Hope if you make this recipe, it works for you.
Thanks so much everyone for your input...
the cake doctor recipe is made with a DH cake mix...works great as a cake but for some reason...cupcakes are a bomb.
i didn't substitute anything with the Hershey recipe....i don't know why it tasted so blah, but it wasn't good to us at all...
i baked my cupcakes at 350..i've tried them at 325. i've taken them right out of the pans...i've let them sit....no matter what i do...they sink.
i will check out all the recommended recipes you've shared and use one for sure!!! thank you all so much!
When cupcakes sink after coming out of the oven, it is usually a sign of being underbaked.
You have not mentioned how long you bake your cupcakes.
I have not tried the hershey recipe, so I cannot speculate on why they did not taste good for you.
I bake them for 18 mins...the toothpick always comes out clean...the insides are always perfectly baked...light, fluffy, moist....but.........they sink. it just drives me nuts!!!! they taste divine...but look awful.
Your toothpick can come out clean and they can still be undercooked. It all depends on the consistency of the batter. Try pressing on the top and see if it springs back, check for the smell (although hard to do in my home with cathedral ceilings).
And sometimes we sacrifice look for taste. Shirley Corriher said it best in her book Bakewise. A sad cake is a gook cake. Have you just tried icing them to see how they look? I had a batch like that I was selling to a customer. I refused to take the money, but he insisted. They said they were delicious. To him and his family, they looked fine. Sometimes we seek perfection in the wrong places. I have had some of the worse looking cupcakes that people have raved over in taste. I had one bad batch that I gave away to my DDs coworkers. Bad in looks because they keep asking for the same cupcakes now over and over. They are sunk in the middle, not flat and not peaked, but not deeply sunk either. And they are the one everybody likes the most.
Also I used to bake for 18 minutes too and get the same results, clean toothpick, light and fluffy and then they would sink as they cooled. So now I do it 21 minutes. Take a batch and try it for that amount of time and see what you get.
I have not tried this recipe for cupcakes, but it's really good. You would think it would be too chocolatey, but it's not.
8 oz cream cheese
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup coffee-flavored liqueur or water
2 eggs
1 chocolate cake mix
1 4-serving size instant chocolate pudding
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Mix cream cheese, sour cream, liqueur, and eggs on medium speed. Add cake mix and pudding mix until well blended. Fold in chips.
Bake at 325 for one hour (for bundt pan).
chocklit always said to preheat the oven to 400, put your cupcakes in then once they're in, lower the heat back to 350. The dome depends on the temperature but if your cupcakes sink like there's a sink hole in the middle, they might be under baked still.
I use Wicked Wanda's recipe. I tried the Black Magic Cake, The Hershey Cake and they both failed me so I'm sticking with Wicked Wanda.
For some reason it's not online anymore. I posted it here for the chocolate cake off. It is similar to both recipes I posted above but I don't know why this one works better for me. Never fails.
Wicked Wanda's Chocolate Cake
Sugar 2 cups
Flour 1 and 3/4 cups
Cocoa 3/4 cup
Baking soda 2 teaspoons
Baking Powder 1 teaspoon
Salt 1 teaspoon
Mix together well, then in same bowl, add the following:
Eggs 2 (just put them in, mix later)
Buttermilk 1 cup ( or 3/4 cup milk with 1/4 cup vinegar )
Strong Coffee 1 cup ( can be hot or cold, but cold is better because hot might scramble the eggs!)
Oil 1/3 cup
Vanilla 1 teaspoon
I can make 24 to 30 cupcakes with this.
No coffee taste at all. It enhances the chocolate flavor. When I baked this a couple of days ago for my mama's friend, she called me back with three more orders. But I only do cupcakes now. Cakes are so stressful LOL
AHHH, i get it!!!! I will give it a try! i'm going to have a baking day soon and try several recipes that were recommended! can't wait to try them all!!!
as for cakes...yes, very stressful at times but i tend to find cupcakes a bit taunting too!!! i love to do cookies i think the most and do those the least. LOL.
do you ever cover your cupcakes with fondant circles and decorations? i'm doing that for the first time soon...yikes!
I haven't tried fondant circles yet. But my New Year resolution is to brush up on decorating. I haven't baked much in over a year 
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