Both my brother-in-law, Dave, and my sister-in-law, Alex, answered with an emphatic “chocolate” when I asked them what flavour they wanted their birthday cupcakes to be.
After a little more thought, Alex added that she wouldn’t mind Nutella cupcakes either. Since I was delivering the cupcakes to both of them on the same weekend, I decided to cheat a little and bake them both chocolate Nutella cupcakes.
I never ended up eating any of these cupcakes, although I did have a few mini bites made with the leftover batter. I did, however, get lots of comments from the ones that did get to eat the cupcakes so I have a fairly good idea of how they turned out.
These cupcakes are moist and lighter than any other chocolate cupcake I’ve made to date (yay – I’m improving!) but the highlight was (apparently), the frosting. It was very light, not too sweet and full of Nutella goodness.
As I said, the cupcakes were a huge hit. I think the combination of a light, chocolate cupcake with Nutella frosting and a hidden dollop of Nutella inside the cupcake would be popular with any chocolate or Nutella lovers and I’ll definitely be making these again soon!
ingredients
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 and 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 3/4 cup Nutella
- 3-4 tablespoons heavy cream
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- salt to taste
- 12 teaspoons Nutella
directions
- Preheat oven to 375 F degrees. Line standard-sized cupcake pans with paper liners.
- In a small saucepan, bring the water and milk to a boil, stirring constantly. As soon as it starts to boil, remove from heat.
- Slowly pour the unsweetened cocoa powder into the milk and whisk until smooth. Pour the chocolate milk mixture into a large bowl and allow it to cool to room temperature (you can speed this up by placing the chocolate milk mixture into the refrigerator as you prepare the other ingredients.)
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the vanilla extract. Slowly add the flour mixture and beat only until just combined.
- In a steady stream, add the cooled cocoa mixture and stir until smooth.
- Fill each muffin tin 3/4 of the way full with batter.
- Bake for 16-19 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle came out clean (watch the cupcakes to make sure they don't burn). Remove cupcakes from the oven and place the pan on a wire rack.
- Allow cupcakes to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before removing the cupcakes from the pan and placing them onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- Cool completely before frosting.
- With a stand mixer, beat softened butter on medium speed for 2-3 minutes until smooth and very creamy.
- Add 2 cups of powdered sugar and continue to beat on medium speed.
- Add the Nutella and continue to beat on medium speed.
- Add the heavy cream and vanilla extract and beat until everything is well integrated.
- If the frosting is too thick, add more heavy cream (1 tablespoon measurements at a time). If the frosting is too thin, add more powdered sugar (1/4 cup measurements at a time).
- Make sure the cupcakes are completely cooled.
- Fill a pastry bag with Nutella and fit it with an injector tip (if you don't have an injector tip, you can use a medium, rounded tip)
- Insert the tip into the top centre of each cupcake and slowly pipe in approximately 1 teaspoon of Nutella (do this very slowly to avoid piping in too much Nutella and bursting the cupcake - it's okay if it cracks a little as you can cover the crack with frosting)
- Finish by frosting the cupcakes.
source: adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction’s Chocolate Cupcakes with Creamy Nutella Frosting
Wow my husband would love that! Thanks for the recipe!