Vanilla Cupcakes With Nutella Buttercream

This weekend I was in the mood for some proper baking, the snow is still hanging around and the thought of baking made me feel a bit warmer! I love baking for others but sometimes it's nice to have something to gorge on yourself, and it's what sundays are made for isn't it. 

We've been talking about baking with Nutella at work the last week or so, and we all looooove Nutella so I literally couldn't shift it from my mind and just knew I had to do something about it. I think it was the thought of eating a cupcake that tasted like a Ferrero Rocher was too much of a good idea to ignore.

I also thought it would be a great excuse to try out a new cupcake recipe, I was getting a bit bored of my standard one as it wasn't coming out as moist as I wanted and whenever I've seen Cake Boss I've noticed that the batter is a lot runnier than mine so thought I should experiment with a batter that was more wet. Whenever I think of amazing cupcakes I think Hummingbird Bakery, I bought the Cake Days book last year and hadn't got round to trying any of the cupcake recipes yet so I decided to try of their bog standard Vanilla Cupcakes recipe. As you can see I decorate them in two ways...mainly because I realised I was running out of the buttercream when I did the big style above, but I think the ones underneath do actually look like a Ferrero Rocher...

I thought it would be better to keep the cupcake vanilla and have the buttercream as the Nutella part, but I couldn't resist adding some Norwegian chocolate with pieces of hazlenuts to it, which I stumbled upon this morning so thought it was fate! I was fully in the baking zone today I even made a point of using some of my super girly baking accessories, pink cupcake spoon measures and heart cup measures too.  I got some really funky cupcakes cases as part of my secret santa present at work, animal print ones! Love them, so thought leopard was the natural choice for this session, of course.

 

I've kept most of the cakes for work but we did have to test one or two at home...to make sure they were baked properly naturally...my brother even said it was the best cupcake he's ever had so that wasn't a bad compliment after my first go with the new recipe. Mondays are never brilliant either are they...so a completely indulgent cupcake should help start the day off.

Ingredients

240g plain flour
280g caster sugar
1tbsp baking powder (yep a whole tablespoon...I was scared too)
pinch of salt
80g unsalted butter, softened
240ml milk
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large family bar of chocolate with hazelnuts



Method

1. Using a hand-held or free-standing mixer with paddle attachments, slowly beat together the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder and salt until the ingredients are well mixed in and resemble fine breadcrumbs.
2. Mix together the milk, vanilla essence and eggs by hand in a measuring jug.  With the mixer still on a low speed, pour three-quarters of the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and mix well, scraping down the sides of the bowl to make sure all ingredients are fully incorporated.  Add the rest of the milk mixture and beat again, now on a medium speeds, until the batter is smooth.
3. Spoon the batter into the cases, up to about two-thirds full.  If there is any batter left over, it can be used to fill up more cases, mine made 24 in the end.
4. Drop in a cube of the chocolate on top of the cake, or a dollop of Nutella if you prefer.
5. Pop into the oven and bake for 18-20 minutes or until the sponges feel springy when you touch them.  Leave to cool slightly before removing from the tin and placing on a wire rack to cool completely.

Nutella Buttercream Ingredients

¾ cup Nutella

¼ cup butter, softened

2-3 cups icing sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 tablespoons whipping cream

1/2 bag chopped roasted hazelnuts

Method

1. Beat Nutella and butter.  Add icing sugar, vanilla and whipping cream.
You can adjust the thickness with the cream or icing sugar.  
2. Fill into a piping bag and pipe high onto the cupcakes and top with the chopped hazelnuts
3. Eat! Nom!

I also got to use my new cupcake carrier that I got for Christmas finally! Of course I made so many I had to put some in a normal tin as well but they're so convenient I'm tempted to get another one :)

On a side note, as much as I love the snow I can't wait for spring to come, it always makes me want to make scones and cakes with cream! I know you can make them all year...but it just tastes nicer in the spring doesn't it :)

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