Cook’s notes
For you who find that an inch or more of frosting on your cupcake is simply too much, for you who haven’t perfected the art of piping frosting, and for you who simply love chocolate.
These cupcakes are quite easy to make and they will look fantastic if you apply the Nutella frosting well. There’s a technique that never fails but, first, a few tips.
Not all cake and cupcake recipes require sifted flour but this one does. Sifting incorporates air into the flour and that makes the baked cake lighter and fluffier.
You don’t need an electric mixer to make these cupcakes because the batter can be easily mixed by hand with a wire whisk. But I really do not like creaming butter and sugar by hand. The first stage is especially difficult when chunks of butter get stuck in the wire whisk so I use a mixer.
Use an ice cream scoop to drop the batter into the cupcake liners so your cupcakes will be of the same size. If the batter is distributed unevenly, some will get overbaked.
You’ll need a skewer to swirl the Nutella on top of the cupcake batter. A wooden toothpick will do. Don’t use a knife or anything sharp because you don’t want to tear the cupcake liners. The detailed process is described in the recipe below.
The amount of Nutella you will need and the exact length of baking time depends on the capacity of the holes of the cupcake / muffin pan.
We’ve experimented using other brands of chocolate spread. Nothing else worked as the “frosting” sank to the bottom. So, we’re sticking with Nutella for making self-frosting cupcakes.
Self-frosting Nutella cupcakes
Ingredients
- 140 grams butter (4.9 oz)
- ¾ cup sugar
- 3 large eggs
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 9 heaping teaspoons Nutella
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325F.
- Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- Place the sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl. With a wire whisk or a mixer, beat the butter and sugar together. Just keep beating until the mixture is light and creamy.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.
- Add the flour mixture and mix. The mixture may appear lumpy at first but keep right on mixing until you have a smooth batter. Note that the batter will be heavy and hardly pourable.
- Stir in the vanilla.
- Meanwhile, line the muffin pan with paper cups. Use an ice cream scoop (very practical) to fill the pans until about ¾ full.
- Top with a heaping teaspoonful of Nutella.
- Take a toothpick, dip into the unbaked cupcake until the tip hits the bottom of the pan. Using a scooping motion, swirl the Nutella with the batter so that some of the batter comes up on top of the Nutella.
- Bake in a preheated 325F oven for 18 to 20 minutes.
- Serve the self-frosting Nutella cupcakes warm.
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