Just like you, we love cupcakes – especially chocolate cupcakes! We could eat a large bowl of chocolate cupcakes on a daily basis. But for the average man or average woman, it’s simply not healthy. Too much fat, powdered sugar, canola oil… Let’s just say it’s not one of the most healthy foods.
It doesn’t mean that eating a regular cupcake with chocolate frosting every now and then is going to make you gain an unhealthy amount of weight. But if you want to figure outhow many calories are in a chocolate cupcake, keep reading!
We’ve made articles in the past talking about the nutrition and calories of cupcakes (no matter how high is the number, we’ll continue baking & buying them!), but if you’ve ever wondered how many calories a chocolate cupcake has, you’re in the right place. Enjoy!
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How many calories are in a homemade chocolate cupcake?
Finding the nutrition facts of homemade cupcakes is a bit trickier as the ingredients can be customized. They can have natural flavors, use whole grain, almond milk, and no eggs. These cupcakes normally don’t have large amounts of calories. These are especially good if you are on a weight loss journey, as you don’t need to restrict your sweet tooth – you just need to tweak the ingredients a little bit to get a flavorful cupcake with less calories, sugars and artificial trans fat.
But if we are talking about a regular-size chocolate cupcake made of regular ingredients, such as flour, eggs, butter, cocoa powder and sugar, it’s a bit easier to figure out the calories. If you follow a simple chocolate cupcake recipe for a serving size of 12, you can expect the breakdown to look something like this**:
- Serving: 75g
- Calories: 292
- Total Fat: 15g
- Total Carbohydrates: 40g
- Dietary Fiber: 1.7g
- Protein: 2.6g
** Information taken from Nutritionix.
However, this information may change depending on the ingredients you use. Some flours are more caloric than others, for example. Another important thing to consider is the % daily values, as this varies from person to person. Let’s take a look at the Daily Value first, also known as DVs, which are the recommended amounts of nutrients to consume (or not to exceed) every day. Then, the % daily values, or %DV, is how much a nutrient in a single serving of a food contributes to your daily diet. This percentage depends on your current height, weight, age, as well as specific needs. For the numbers we mentioned below, they might look something like this:
% Daily Value based on a 2000 calorie diet:
- Total Fat: 23%
- Total Carbohydrates: 13%
- Dietary Fiber: 7%
Again, these numbers are based on a 2000 calorie diet, and your specific needs might be different from these numbers.
The good thing about homemade cupcakes, just like we mentioned before, is that you can customize the ingredients to be less-calorie dense, less sugary, or anything you prefer. Besides, since you are most likely using fresh ingredients, it is easier to make “cleaner” cupcakes thant he ones you’d find in a store. Plus, they won’t have any additives or preservatives that aren’t always the best for your health.
A good and simple way to figure out the calories in your homemade cupcake is using apps like MyFitnessPal, where you can write down the ingredients and the amount of total servings, and it will break down how many calories each cupcake has.
How many calories in a chocolate cupcake cake mix?
When it comes to figuring the calories in chocolate cupcakes made out of box, things get simpler. As long as you follow the instructions and ingredients list, all you have to do is look at the nutritional facts on the back of the box, and divide the calorie number into the number of cupcakes you made. One of the most popular brands, Betty Crocker, has these nutritional facts on their box:
Betty Crocker’s Hershey’s Chocolate Cupcake Mix calories
- Serving size: 35g
- Serving per container: 12
- Calories per serving: 130
- Calories from fat: 20
- Total fat: 2.5g
- Total carbohydrate: 25g
- Dietary fiber: 1g
- Sugars: 15g
- Protein: 2g
The nutrition box has other important information as well, such as vitamins and minerals, fatty acids and amino acids, sodium, potassium, and calcium. If you are trying to increase or decrease, or simply keep an eye on these levels, it will all be detailed in your box.
Final thoughts
Although cupcakes aren’t considered part of the food group and aren’t exactly what one would call “healthy”, you can definitely fit a regular-sized chocolate cupcake with a delicious chocolate buttercream frosting in your diet safely as long as you make sure not to overdo it. In general, more than the amounts of calories, the quality and type of calories are more important.
Cupcakes, both vanilla cupcakes, chocolate cupcakes, or any other flavors, are high in sugar and saturated fat, ingredients that should be consumed in moderation. According to Medical News Today, it is recommended that women use no more than 100 calories on sugar per day, which is around 25g. For men, no more than 150 calories of sugar per day is recommended, an equivalent to 38g of sugar. When it comes to children between the ages of 2 and 18, they should not consume more than 25g of added sugar daily. People with diabetes should be especially careful with their blood sugar levels. In any case, it is best to consult with your health care professional to make sure you are eating a healthy amount of foods and nutrients.
Lastly, if cupcakes make you happy and they fit into your health and dietary limits – enjoy them! That’s what they are there for. A small chocolate cupcake will not have a big impact on the number of calories you ingest every day, but it will increase your happiness levels.
We hope this information was useful to you, and if you have any questions, don’t doubt to message us or leave a comment below!
Fun Facts About Cupcakes
- National Cupcake Day is December 15th!
- The Food Network UK cupcake dress, inspired by Marie Antoinette, is made from 300 cupcakes, and is worth $1,257!
- The world’s largest cupcake mosaic measures 1,492 sq ft and was made in South Africa in 2015. It consisted of 33,660 cupcakes and was created to raise funds during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.
- National Vanilla Cupcake Day is November 10th.
- National Chocolate Cupcake Day is October 18th.
What is your favorite chocolate cupcake? Do you know how many calories they have, and do you care? We want to know!