How many calories are in a cupcake?
One regular bakery cupcake weighs 90 g and carries 323 calories. Per 100 g the frosted cake runs 359 calories, which puts a single cupcake somewhere between a candy bar and a light meal. Sugar does most of the work: 37.1 g of the 49.5 g of carbohydrate in that cupcake.
You'd need to walk about 65 minutes to burn the 323 calories in one regular cupcake (90 g).
How long does it take to burn off a cupcake?
One regular cupcake (90 g) is 323 kcal. Enter your weight and the amount you ate to see how long it takes you to burn that off:
lb
| Activity | Time to burn 323 kcal |
|---|---|
| Walking, brisk | 1 hr 5 min |
| Cycling, moderate | 40 min |
| Swimming, moderate | 46 min |
| Jogging | 38 min |
| Weight training, moderate | 1 hr 12 min |
Times are for a 155 lb adult at a steady pace; change the weight to see yours. The amount is set to the portion in the text (90 g); change it to what you actually ate. BodyPal works this out from your steps automatically.
On this page
- Cupcake quick facts
- US servings, from one mini to two on a plate
- Chocolate, red velvet, unfrosted and box mix
- Sodium is the row nobody checks
- How does a cupcake compare?
- Most popular cupcake brands
- Cupcake FAQs
Cupcake quick facts
The row used here is FNDDS 2707891, "Cake or cupcake, white with white icing, bakery", from the USDA's 2021-2023 survey food data. It matches what a person is actually holding when they search this: a finished vanilla cupcake with a frosting swirl, bought from a bakery counter or a grocery case, not a batter or a boxed mix. It also comes with a real USDA household measure, "1 regular cupcake," at 90 g, so the serving column below is not an invention.
| Nutrient | Per 100 g | Per 1 regular cupcake (90 g) | % Daily Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 359 | 323 | — |
| Total fat | 14.33 g | 12.9 g | 17% |
| Saturated fat | 2.82 g | 2.5 g | 13% |
| Carbohydrate | 54.95 g | 49.5 g | 18% |
| Dietary fiber | 0.4 g | 0.4 g | 1% |
| Total sugars | 41.26 g | 37.1 g | — |
| Protein | 2.4 g | 2.2 g | 4% |
| Sodium | 313 mg | 282 mg | 12% |
% Daily Value is based on a 2,000-calorie diet.
Verified nutrition data
Numbers on this page come from USDA FoodData Central, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s food composition database, and from manufacturer labels where a branded product is named. Last verified September 2026. How we verify our data →
Two rows you would see on a wrapper are missing here on purpose. USDA does not publish added sugars or trans fat for this record, so listing either would mean guessing, and the total sugars line already answers the question people are asking. Cholesterol works out to 39 mg per cupcake, 13% of the Daily Value, and potassium to 39 mg, about 1%. The Daily Values themselves come from FDA.
US servings, from one mini to two on a plate
| Serving | Weight | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| 1 mini, bite-size cupcake | 30 g | 108 kcal |
| 1 oz | 28 g | 102 kcal |
| One regular cupcake | 90 g | 323 kcal |
| Two regular cupcakes | 180 g | 646 kcal |
| 1 cup, crumbled | 100 g | 359 kcal |
| Per 100 g | 100 g | 359 kcal |
The mini and the regular cupcake are both USDA household measures, and so is the crumbled cup, which is useful when a cupcake is broken into a trifle or a bowl of ice cream. The ounce line and the two-cupcake line are our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figure, not USDA servings.
Notice how small the mini really is. At 30 g it is a third of a regular cupcake, which is exactly why three of them go down without a thought and land at 324 calories, effectively the same as the full-size one you were trying to avoid. The other trap is the jumbo bakery cupcake sold in cafés: USDA has no serving weight for it, so if yours clearly dwarfs a standard one, scale from the 359 per 100 g figure and weigh it once.
Chocolate, red velvet, unfrosted and box mix
| Version | Per 100 g | Typical piece | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vanilla with white frosting | 359 kcal | 1 cupcake (90 g) | 323 kcal |
| Chocolate with chocolate frosting | 345 kcal | 1 cupcake (90 g) | 311 kcal |
| Chocolate with vanilla frosting | 355 kcal | 1 cupcake (90 g) | 320 kcal |
| Red velvet | 355 kcal | 1 cupcake (90 g) | 320 kcal |
| Vanilla, no frosting | 310 kcal | 1 cupcake (90 g) | 279 kcal |
| From a box mix | 353 kcal | 1 regular cupcake (75 g) | 265 kcal |
| Gluten-free | 410 kcal | 1 cupcake (90 g) | 369 kcal |
The whole family sits inside a 100-calorie band, and the flavor barely moves it. Chocolate with chocolate frosting is the lightest frosted cupcake at the same 90 g weight, 311, because cocoa displaces some sugar; it also brings 1.6 g of fiber per 100 g against 0.4 g for the white cake. Red velvet carries the same numbers as chocolate with white frosting in the USDA files, 355 per 100 g, which is worth saying out loud rather than pretending it has a profile of its own.
Two entries break the pattern. The box-mix cupcake looks lighter at 265 calories, but that is a weight story, not a recipe story: USDA's regular cupcake from a mix is 75 g rather than 90 g, and per 100 g it is 353, right in the middle of the pack. The gluten-free cupcake is the genuine outlier at 410 per 100 g and 369 per cupcake, since rice and starch blends usually need more fat and sugar to stay moist.
Packaged snack cupcakes are a different animal again. A single-wrapped Hostess cupcake is 45 g and 170 calories on the label, and the familiar twin pack is 90 g and 340 calories, slightly above a bakery cupcake of the same weight because the snack cake runs 378 per 100 g.
Sodium is the row nobody checks
Nobody logs a cupcake worrying about salt, and that is the surprise on this label. One cupcake is 282 mg of sodium, 12% of the Daily Value, from a food you finish in four bites. Baking powder, baking soda and salted butter do that, not the frosting. The Dietary Guidelines cap is 2,300 mg a day, so two cupcakes at a birthday party quietly use a quarter of it.
The unfrosted cupcake is the odd one here. Take the swirl off and calories fall to 279, but sodium climbs to 419 mg per 100 g, which works out to 377 mg for a 90 g cake, about 16% of the Daily Value by our own arithmetic. Frosting is mostly sugar and fat, so it dilutes the salty cake rather than adding to it.
Sugar is the other row worth a second look. A cupcake carries 37.1 g of total sugars, roughly nine teaspoons. FDA sets a Daily Value for added sugars at 50 g, but USDA does not publish added sugars for this record, so an honest page cannot give you a percentage for it; total sugars have no Daily Value at all, which is why that cell is a dash. What is clear is that a cupcake is a treat rather than a snack: with 2.2 g of protein and 0.4 g of fiber it does almost nothing for fullness, and MyPlate files it exactly where you would expect.
How does a cupcake compare?
| Cupcake | Per 100 g | US serving | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vanilla with white frosting | 359 kcal | 1 cupcake, 90 g | 323 kcal |
| Chocolate with chocolate frosting | 345 kcal | 1 cupcake, 90 g | 311 kcal |
| Red velvet | 355 kcal | 1 cupcake, 90 g | 320 kcal |
| Vanilla, no frosting | 310 kcal | 1 cupcake, 90 g | 279 kcal |
Serving weights for the last three are our own arithmetic, scaled to the 90 g USDA cupcake so the comparison is like for like.
Our take: choosing chocolate over vanilla saves 12 calories, which is noise. The only decision on this table that changes anything is the frosting, worth 44 calories a cupcake and 17.9 g of sugar per 100 g, and the mini, which is a real 108-calorie dessert instead of a 323-calorie one. If you are counting for weight loss, buy the mini or scrape half the swirl; if you want the cupcake to feel like it was worth the calories, take the full-size chocolate one and log it honestly.
Most popular cupcake brands in the United States
Ranked by how widely each product appears among foods sold in the United States, from the BodyPal food database of over 3.3 million products. Calories are the figures printed on each Nutrition Facts label, checked against USDA FoodData Central.
| Product | Calories (per 100 g) |
|---|---|
| Hostess Cupcakes (Chocolate) | 378 cal |
| Hostess Golden Cupcakes | 400 cal |
| Hostess Cupcakes, Single | 378 cal |
| Hostess Frosted Chocolate Cupcakes with Creamy Filling | 356 cal |
| Hostess Frosted Chocolate Cupcakes, Twin Pack | 367 cal |
| Hostess Frosted Chocolate Cake Cupcakes | 400 cal |
Brand popularity: BodyPal food database. Nutrition: manufacturer labels / USDA FoodData Central.
Cupcake FAQs
How many calories are in one cupcake?
323 calories in one regular bakery cupcake of 90 g, at 359 calories per 100 g. That is the frosted white-cake version USDA lists as a bakery product. A chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting is close behind at 311, and the same cupcake with no frosting drops to 279 at the same weight.
How many calories are in a mini cupcake?
108 calories in one bite-size cupcake of 30 g. USDA lists the miniature cupcake as its own household measure, so that figure is not our scaling. It is a third of the weight of a regular cupcake and a third of the calories, which also means three minis put you back at 324, right where you started.
How many calories in a cupcake without frosting?
279 calories for a 90 g unfrosted cupcake, against 323 with a white swirl on top. Gram for gram the plain cake is 310 calories per 100 g versus 359. The frosting is worth about 44 calories, and it carries most of the sweetness: 41.26 g of sugar per 100 g frosted, 23.39 g plain.
Are chocolate cupcakes higher in calories than vanilla?
No, chocolate is slightly lighter: 311 calories per 90 g cupcake with chocolate frosting, against 323 for vanilla with white frosting. Per 100 g that is 345 against 359. Cocoa displaces a little sugar and brings 1.6 g of fiber per 100 g instead of 0.4 g. The difference is small enough to ignore.
How much sugar is in a cupcake?
37.1 g of total sugars in one 90 g bakery cupcake, or 41.26 g per 100 g, which is roughly nine teaspoons. FDA sets a Daily Value for added sugars at 50 g, but USDA does not publish added sugars for this record, so no honest percentage can be given. Total sugars have no Daily Value.
How many carbs are in a cupcake?
49.5 g of carbohydrate in one 90 g cupcake, 18% of the Daily Value, and only 0.4 g of that is fiber. Per 100 g the figure is 54.95 g. Roughly three quarters of the carbohydrate is sugar, which is one reason a cupcake does so little for fullness at 2.2 g of protein.
How many calories in a Hostess cupcake?
170 calories in one single-wrapped Hostess cupcake of 45 g, and 340 calories for the standard two-cake pack of 90 g. Those are label figures from the branded USDA records rather than the bakery row. At 378 calories per 100 g the snack cake is a little denser than a bakery cupcake's 359.
Is a cupcake healthier than a slice of cake?
USDA files both under one record, "Cake or cupcake, white with white icing, bakery," at 359 calories per 100 g, so gram for gram they are identical. The cupcake wins only on portion control: it arrives pre-cut at 90 g and 323 calories, while a slice you cut yourself can easily weigh twice that.
Similar foods
- Garlic Bread — 143 cal per slice
- Cinnamon Roll — 335 cal plain, 407 frosted
- Mooncake — 469 cal per large round Moon Cake
- Scone — 267 cal per regular scone
- Pork Roll — 197 cal for 2 slices
- Bolillo — 372 cal per medium roll
Count it without the math
Point the camera at the plate and BodyPal counts the cupcake for you, frosting and all.
