Submitted by nicole on Mon, 10/03/2022 - 02:00

Chocolate Explosion cupcakes are decadent, delicious, and the ultimate chocolate treat to make for a serious chocolate lover. It's also a great way to use up leftover fun-sized Halloween candy!

Three chocolate explosion cupcakes on a white background, with chocolates scattered around, and text overlay reading "How to Make Chocolate Explosion Cupcakes."

It's time once again for the Taste Creations Blog Hop, and our theme this month is CHOCOLATE.

Have you seen Chocolate Explosion cakes? I love this trend in cake decorating. It's controlled sugar chaos, over-the-top decadent fun, and really easy to do.

I made this chocolate explosion cake for my daughter's friend's birthday party (the only guidance she gave me was "chocolate," so she got CHOCOLATE!), and I had leftover decorating materials, so I decided that I had to make a miniature, cupcake version of this chocolate behemoth.

How to Make Chocolate Explosion Cupcakes

Materials for making Chocolate Explosion Cupcakes on a white marble surface.

Materials for Decorating Chocolate Explosion Cupcakes

Feel free to improvise, of course, but to make chocolate explosion cupcakes I used:

chocolate cupcakes
chocolate frosting
chocolate ganache
a selection of small chocolate candies
assorted chocolate sprinkles
chocolate chips
chocolate melts (Ghirardelli is my favorite brand)
mini candy bar chocolate molds
star chocolate molds

Chocolate Explosion Cupcake surrounded by all of the materials used to make it.

Decorating chocolate explosion cupcakes couldn't be easier. The video tutorial shows all of the steps, but it really is as easy as topping a chocolate cupcake with a swirl of chocolate icing, poking a bunch of small chocolate candies in the fresh frosting, and sprinkling liberally with chocolate sprinkles.

On big chocolate explosion cakes, I love it when an entire candy bar is part of the topper, and I wanted to get that same kind of look for my cupcake version, but didn't find any suitable candies I could buy. I did find these absolutely perfect tiny chocolate bar molds, though! I just melted some chocolate melts, filled the chocolate mold, let it cool, and popped out the perfect chocolate embellishments for my cupcakes.

I had leftover ganache from making the drip on the chocolate explosion cake. When it cools to room temperature, it hardens into a smooth, pipeable ganache. I loaded up a piping bag with a small star tip, cut out a well in the center of my chocolate cupcakes, and made a surprise ganache filling in the center of each cupcake. That's what's in the darker of the two piping bags in the video tutorial.

Four chocolate explosion cupcakes on a white marble surface, with chocolate candies and sprinkles scattered around the cupcakes.

I also piped small stars and swirls of the ganache on some of the cupcakes as decorations, filling in space between the candies. If you're not a fan of buttercream frosting, you can certainly use ganache to frost the entire cupcake.

Two chocolate explosion cupcakes surrounded by scattered chocolate candies and chocolate sprinkles on a white marble surface.