Friday Food: Nutella Cupcakes

Wednesday was Sewing night and I wanted something delicious to bake for my friends. Nothing appropriate caught my eye in any of this month's magazines and so I turned to Cupcake Jemma and her Nutella Cupcakes. They were perfect: perfect and easy to make. The recipe makes 12 small cupcakes, rather than large muffins and I did fill the paper cases with a spoon and not an ice-cream scoop. Still, I always think a cupcake is a cupcake, regardless of the size.

I didn't have any hazelnuts so I used some hazelnut meal I already had. Otherwise, I followed the recipe faithfully. I couldn't find the largest diameter piping tip and so I used a smaller one, which didn't give the nicest plumpest swirls. Hey ho, they tasted fine and if you don't have a piping bag and tips use a ziplock bag. That is what I always did until MrsDrWho bought me a piping present!!

NB Rather sensibly, an Australian tablespoon is 20ml, or 4 teaspoons.

 

Nutella Cupcakes      makes 12

• 50g hazelnuts, roasted, skinned, pulverised (or hazelnut meal)
• 100g self raising flour
• 25g cocoa (Dutch processed is very cocoa-y)
• 125g caster sugar
• 1/4 tspn bicarbonate of soda
• pinch of salt
• 125g softened butter
• 2 eggs
• 2-3 tbspn milk
• 1 tspn vanilla extract

For the buttercream

• 100g softened butter
• 150g Nutella
• 225g icing sugar sifted
• 2-3 tbspn milk

Preheat the oven to 170*C and line a muffin try with cupcake papers.

Put the ingredients for the cupcake batter, bar the milk and vanilla, into the bowl and then beat with an electric mixer for 30 seconds. Then add as much milk and vanilla extract as needed to make the batter smooth and beat again for another minute. And honestly I don't think it a terrible catastrophe if you put everything in at once and beat for 90 seconds. I always give the bowl a few stirs with a spoon, just to make sure there is nothing sticking to the bottom of the bowl.

Spoon into the 12 cupcake paper cases and then bake for 20-22 minutes. The cakes will slightly come away from the edges, spring back when lightly pressed in the centre and if you poke a toothpick into the centre it will come out clean. My cupcakes needed the full 22 minutes and I turned the tray half way through.

Allow the cakes to cool for a few minutes and then place on a rack. Allow them to become completely cooled before you even think of icing them!!

To make the buttercream, whip the butter and Nutella on a high speed for 4-5 minutes. It should be a pale colour and very light and silky.

Add half the icing sugar and beat well, and then add the rest of the icing sugar. My buttercream did not combine very well and so I needed to add half the milk and then a little more again until it came together nicely.

I followed Jemma's instructions and put some Nutella 'stripes' down the inside of the piping bag before I filled it with the Nutella buttercream. It works in the same way as striped toothpaste, and whether you pipe swirls, or splodges, you have lovely two-tone frosting.

I sprinkled some nuts on top and they were finished.

The cupcakes are quite moist and there is an excellent cake-to-icing ratio happening.

The Nutella Cupcakes would keep for a few days, un-iced, in an airtight container, but once the buttercream is piped on top I think they should be eaten sooner rather than later.

Comments

[mrspao]

They look very good indeed!

[Cakelaw]

Yum! Nutella in cupcake form - I am so there. Your sewing friends are very lucky.