Nutella Cupcakes

So since starting this blog, I knew I had to make some nutella cupcakes. My sister and I love to go to cupcakeries and of course try thoes that claim to be "nutella cupcakes." However, we have been sadly disappointed to find that none of them actually taste like nutella. We both soon realized that if we want nutella cupcakes, we are just going to have to make it ourselves. Coincidentally we happened to make it on the same weekend (slightly different recipes)! I realized that the reason why cupcake stores, most likely do not have truly "nutella" cupcakes, is that its quite expensive buying all that nutella to mix in, probably not the most cost effective cupcake, but definitely yummy.

I decided to make these cupcakes,  because two senior graduate students matched on match day for internship! And they got their number one choices- amazing! So what better way to celebrate than cupcakes! I actually tried these since I love chocolate and nutella! I used a corer intead of a spoon to make a hole, and I definitely think the corer made too much Nutella filling than was needed. But I loved it!

Chocolate cake filled with Nutella and topped with Nutella buttercream

I bought these adorable cupcake boxes from Wal-mart that holds four cupcakes and then wrapped them with some ribbon. I think it came out quite cute and hopefully they enjoyed it.

NUTELLA CUPCAKES

Adapted from Your Cup of Cake

INGREDIENTS

CUPCAKES

1 box of devil's food chocolate cake

Nutella

BUTTERCREAM

¾ cup Nutella
¼ cup butter, softened
1 ½ -2 ½ cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3-4 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

DIRECTIONS

Bake the cupcakes according to package. I use an ice cream scoop to have each cupcake be about the same size (make sure each cup is filled no more than 3/4 of the way full). Let cool for several hours or overnight. Once cooled, use a cupcake corer to make holes in the center of the cupcake. Use piping bag to fill holes with Nutella

Beat the Nutella and butter for 5 minutes. Add vanilla, then alternate between adding powdered sugar and heavy whipping cream. Taste the buttercream until you reach your desired sweetness. You may need to refrigerate the buttercream before piping it onto cooled cupcakes. (1) I also added a bit more powdered sugar and (2) I used a wilton large cupcake open start decorating tip to frost and topped with some chocoalte sprinkles.

Enjoy,
Chika