Nutella Cupcakes

Let’s get this straight these Nutella Cupcakes are good for you.

Nutella Cupcakes

Here’s where it becomes good for you: Good eating equals good living. Profound, I know. Good thing I can inspire eating through baking and not through writing.

To keep a balance between the chocolate and the Nutella, I did not infuse the cupcake with Nutella but I did stuff it with a Ferrero Rocher. The frosting is where you will find your Nuttella bite of heaven.

Before I leave you with my inspirational quote of the day—I give you fair warning: Pipe your cupcakes quickly or else you may run the risk of piping the frosting straight into your mouth and end up with a few naked cupcakes.

A few notes:

• For the frosting I used a Swiss Merigue buttercream, but feel free to swap it out with your favorite frosting. For a visual tutorial and tips and tricks on how to make Swiss Meringue buttercream click here.
• The chocolate cupcake portion is an Alice Medrich recipe. The adaptations I made: I added a half cup of hot coffee in place of the hot water portions.
• As always, I highly recommend Scharffen Berger’s Unsweetened Natural Cocoa Powder. It’s the best on the market and will make a huge difference in your baking results in terms of flavor.

Nutella Cupcakes

Makes 12 cupcakes | Preparation: Position a rack in the lower third of the oven. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Ingredients:

Cupcake (adapted from Alice Medrich for Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker)

• •1 cup (4.5 ounces) all purpose flour
  •1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (7.3 ounces) sugar
  •1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1.5 ounces) SCHARFFEN BERGER Unsweetened Natural Cocoa Powder
  •1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  •1/4 teaspoon salt
  •1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and warm
  •2 large eggs
  •1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  •2 tablespoon instant coffee (recommended: Starbucks Via)
• 1/2 cup hot coffee
  • 12Ferrero Rochero

;

Nutella Buttercream Frosting:

•5 large egg whites
•11/2 cup sugar
•4 sticks unsalted butter, diced and softened
•1/4 teaspoon salt
•1 tablespoon vanilla
•1/2 cup of Nutella

Topping:

• 3 oz. chocolate, melted
• 6 Ferrero Rocher, halved

Instructions:

To make cupcakes:

1. Add flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a blow and mix thoroughly to combine. Add the butter, eggs, and vanilla and beat on medium speed for one minute. Add the butter and egg mixture and beat for 20 seconds. Scrape the sides of the bowl and addinstant coffee and the hot coffee. Beat for 20-30 seconds until the batter is smooth. The batter will be thin enough to pour. Divide it evenly among the lined cups. Place a whole Ferrero Rochero in the center of each well. Bake 18-22 minutes just until a toothpick inserted into a few of the cupcakes comes out clean. Set the pan on a rack to cool. Frost the cupcakes when they are completely cool.

To make frosting:

1. Combine egg whites and sugar in a stand mixer bowl and place it over (not on) simmering water. Heat mixture to 160 degrees F while whisking constantly.
2. Transfer mixer bowl to stand mixer, fitted with a whisk attachment and beat on medium high speed until mixture cools, doubles in volume and forms stiff peaks; about 10-12 minutes.
3. Add butter in one piece at a time, mixing to incorporate after each addition. The mixture may appear clumpy and almost curdled looking at first—this is normal. Keep mixing and it will become even and smooth again.
4. Add salt and vanilla mix to combine. Set aside 3/4 cup of frosting for the vanilla portion of the frosting.
5. Add Nutella remaining frosting and mix to combine

To assemble:

1. Fit first first pastry with a large round tip and fill with Nutella frosting. Hold Nutella filled pastry bag directly on top of cupcake and squeeze to cover cupcake. Place melted chocolate in a plastic bag and cut a small hole in the corner and squeeze and drizzle on top of Nutella frosting. Fill second pastry bag fitted with Wilton’s 1M tip and pipe in a circular motion. Top with halved Ferrero Rochero.