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White Chocolate Cupcakes!
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These heavenly white chocolate cupcakes combine a beautifully light, fluffy sponge loaded with pockets of white chocolate chips and crowned with a silky, melted white chocolate buttercream. Requiring just 30 minutes of combined prep and bake time, these elegant treats provide the ultimate crowd-pleasing luxury for Valentine’s Day or any sweet celebration.
Notes from The Patisserie
Whether you want to bake a romantic batch entirely for you and your loved one, surprise your closest friends, or treat your family on a cozy weekend, these cupcakes are guaranteed to satisfy. This recipe handles white chocolate beautifully, balancing its legendary sweetness against a perfectly textured crumb.
In fact, this specific bake is so incredibly delicious that it completely converted a self-proclaimed cake-hater during testing, proving that its rich, velvety profile can win over absolutely anyone.
Because white chocolate consists primarily of cocoa butter, milk solids, and sugar without any actual dry cocoa solids, it behaves entirely differently than milk or dark chocolate.
Ingredient notes and tips
During the development phase of this recipe, extensive testing revealed that folding 150g of white chocolate chips into the batter delivers a far superior cupcake than adding melted chocolate directly to the raw mixture of:
- Butter – unsalted butter or baking spread can be used for the sponge but only butter for the buttercream
- Sugar – caster sugar provides that rich sweet texture that compliments the white chocolate so well
- Eggs – I use medium eggs but you can use large – add 25g of each other ingredient if using large
- Flour – self raising flour gives the height and lift you’re looking for in a cupcake
- White Chocolate Chips – high quality white chocolate makes the difference, being mindful of the oil content
The perfect white chocolate buttercream
The absolute golden rule of this recipe concerns the temperature of your ingredients during the frosting stage. You must melt your 150g of white chocolate gently and leave it on the counter to cool down for at least 10 minutes before introducing it to your buttercream.
Temperature warning! If you pour hot, freshly melted chocolate directly into your creamed butter and icing sugar, the residual heat will instantly melt the fat crystals in the butter. This breaks the delicate emulsion, causing your gorgeous frosting to split into a greasy, runny liquid that no amount of whipping can save. Allowing the chocolate to cool ensures it blends seamlessly, creating a thick, glossy, and cloud-like frosting.
FAQs
Can I use milk chocolate or dark chocolate instead?
Yes, absolutely! You can swap the white chocolate chips in the sponge and the melted white chocolate in the buttercream for high-quality milk or dark chocolate alternatives using an exact 1:1 ratio.
Why is my buttercream way too stiff to pipe cleanly?
White chocolate contains a high percentage of fats that naturally firm up quite rigidly as they cool down. If your kitchen is cool or your icing sugar was particularly dry, the buttercream might tighten up significantly. Simply add boiling water or milk one tablespoon at a time while whipping on high speed until you reach a silky, pipeable consistency.
How do I prevent my white chocolate chips from sinking to the bottom of the cases?
Because this recipe uses a traditional creamed method, the raw cake batter is naturally thick, stable, and excellent at holding the chips suspended in mid-air. However, if your eggs were slightly large and made your batter loose, you can toss your chocolate chips in a single teaspoon of self-raising flour before folding them into the mixture to help them grip the sponge.
Why did my cupcakes come out really greasy?
This is likely to do with the type of white chocolate you used and the high-oil content within them. I use these white chocolate chips in my bakes.
White Chocolate Cupcake Recipe
Light & Fluffy Cupcakes with White Chocolate Chips, White Chocolate Buttercream, and sprinkles. HEAVENLY White Chocolate Cupcakes!
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Servings: 12 Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the Cupcakes
- 150 g unsalted butter/baking spread
- 150 g caster sugar
- 3 medium eggs
- 150 g self raising flour
- 150 g white chocolate chips
For the Buttercream
- 125 g unsalted butter
- 250 g icing sugar
- 150 g white chocolate
- 1-3 tbsp boiling water
For the Decoration
- sprinkles
- white chocolate bits
Instructions
- Heat your oven to 180ºc/160ºc fan / 350ªf and line a cupcake/muffin tin with 12 Large cupcakes cases/muffin cases.
- Beat the butter with the caster sugar until light and fluffy
- Combine the eggs and self-raising flour with the butter/sugar mix until well combined.
- Fold through the white chocolate chips until even
- Spoon the mix into the cupcake cases evenly and bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes or until a skewer poked into one of the cakes comes out clean and they are springy to touch
- Leave them to cool fully on a wire rack.
- Melt the white chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water, or in the microwave in short bursts – Leave to cool on the side for 10 minutes.
- Beat the butter for a couple of minutes to loosen it – gradually beat in the icing sugar until well combined
- Fold through the cooled and melted white chocolate – if its still really stiff, then add in a little milk/boiling water to loosen it and make it smooth.
- Pipe the buttercream onto the cupcakes however you want
- Once iced, sprinkle with your decorations and gobble them all up
Notes
- I used these white chocolate chips
- These cupcakes will last in an airtight container for 3 days at room temperature
- These cupcakes will freeze for 3+ months
Storage and freezing
These heavenly white chocolate cupcakes keep beautifully at room temperature for up to 3 days when stored inside an airtight container in a cool, dry place away from direct heat to ensure the sponge stays moist and the frosting remains velvety.
Avoid refrigerating these cupcakes, as cold air will instantly harden the cocoa butter within the buttercream and dry out the delicate crumb of the sponge.
If you are planning ahead, you can safely freeze the un-iced cupcakes for up to 3 months by wrapping the fully cooled sponges securely in plastic cling film and storing them inside a rigid container.
Related recipes
If you love the rich, creamy decadence of white chocolate, there are plenty of other incredible bakes on the blog to explore next. For a magnificent celebration masterpiece, try the striking white chocolate & pistachio cake, which pairs a velvety crumb with a wonderful nutty contrast.
Hi Jane, I’ve made these and they are absolutely delicious. Just wondering if I wanted to make a smaller batch of 6. How many eggs would you suggest using?
With cupcake mixes it’s better to make 1/3 of the mix (and make 4 cupcakes), or 2/3 of the mix (and make 8 cupcakes) – as the mixture uses three eggs!
I made these cupcakes this week and they were delicious! Thanks for creating such excellent recipes, I’ve used a few before and they’ve never failed to impress everyone that’s tried them from your cheesecakes, cupcakes to your fudge
Ahh yay! I’m so glad they were a hit!! Thank you!
How do I stop the top of the cupcakes going hard on top once cooled? Cooked in the oven for 18 minutes and springy on top when they came out.
They taste very good though! 😬
It depends – your oven may be running a bit hot, or it’s purely because the outside of a cupcake will be the ‘harder’ bit by default!
I would like to use the white chocolate buttercream on a three layer drip cake (going to use your oreo drip recipe for the sponge). Would this be enough to fill and cover the cake or do I need to double it?
Hiya! I would follow the recipe on my triple chocolate cake, but use all white chocolate – this won’t be enough and you’d probably need to triple it I’d say! x
Hi just wondered can you make these with stork margarine as well as you have just unsalted butter on your recip thanks
You can use stork for the cake, but not the frosting.
Could I add lemon zest to the cake mix alongside the white choc chips?
Hi Jane, do you use Stork or unsalted butter for the frosting?
Unsalted Butter – you should never use stork for frosting.
Wow. I tried these out as a tester for my sister in laws baby shower at the weekend and they are truly yummy. A hit with everyone. Only problem was the chips sank on me. I coated them in a bit of the flour beforehand but that didn’t do the trick. Any suggestions?
Sometimes that can happen – I don’t bother with flour on the chocolate chips as it doesn’t really do anything, but maybe leave them out and sprinkle on top before baking x
Made these last night ready for a cake sale a school today! (Saved a taster or two of course!) They taste delicious and I’m sure they’ll go down well today! Love your recipes, I’ve tried at least 5 different ones and they’ve all turned out perfectly!
Hello 🙂 if i was to make this in to a 3 layer cake, how many times would i times the ingredients by?
thank you xxxxxx
Three times! Or check out my White Chocolate and pistachio cake recipe, and just leave out the pistachios as that’s three layers!
Thank you very much 🙂
i would just like to ask a question, how come some cakes need baking powder but some do not?
thank you xxxx
Sometimes it’s personal preference – sometimes I like them denser, sometimes lighter! Sometimes something will need it to help, but depends on the recipe!
Hey these look amazing! For icing that is too stiff would you recommend milk or boiling water more?
Umm I use either to be honest.. but Boiling Water keeps better. You really don’t need much at all though when its a frosting with chocolate in, otherwise, it’ll be quite sloppy!
These are yum! I have made them before 🙂 I just wondered how you make your buttercream white?
Honestly just by following the recipe! I don’t do anything extra to make it especially white – but if yours aren’t white maybe its your butter? I use a supermarket own unsalted butter and just beat that and naturally through beating it enough it should whiten! 😊
Will this recipe be enough to cook in an 8inch cake tin. Also I don’t have any choc chips can I use grated or chopped up chocolate?
They might sink a bit, but chopped up chocolate could work. And yes, it will make one layer.
I really want to try these, but I can’t seem to figure out the measurements. I looked on your measurement conversion page but things just aren’t adding up. How many cups is 150g?
I don’t know I’m afraid as I work in grams.