Nutella Cupcakes

There's a little less than 2 hours left of my birthday, so why not post a blog about my incredible birthday cupcakes. :) Unfortunately, this year my mother did not bake me a cake, but I wasn't going to let a birthday go by without one. So, I decided to bake my very own birthday cake. I opened a couple cookbooks and perused several recipes before deciding to open up my Pinterest account. As soon as I saw one of the pictures I pinned; I knew I wanted to make these nutella cupcakes. If you know me then you know I love nutella. And, why wouldn't I make this for my birthday? So, I did. Sigh. The cupcake is simply heaven. I loooove them. I have to thank My Baking Addiction for her chocolate cake and nutella frosting recipes. Soooo good!!! I'm so happy I came across her blog. Both of these recipes are deeeelicious. I'm sorry if I posted too many pictures, but that's how much I loved these cupcakes. Enjoy and here's to many more birthdays!

Chocolate Cup Cake Ingredients (Makes 24):
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cups good cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup buttermilk, shaken
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 cupcake pans with cupcake liners. Set aside.
Take the bowl from your standing mixture and add in the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix together to combine. Take a medium sized bowl and add in your buttermilk, vegetable oil (I used canola oil), eggs, and vanilla. Stir. Slowly add the liquids to the dry ingredients while the speed of the mixture is on low. Once combined; slowly add in the coffee. Now, I was pretty concerned because the mixture was very liquidy (sorry, just made up a new word). Have no fear; just pour the mixture directly into your prepared cupcake liners. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle of a couple cupcakes. Remove from oven and cool completely.  The fun part; either use an apple core to hollow out a circle into the cupcake and add in about 1/2 tsp to a teaspoon of nutella. Put the cake that you scooped out back on top. I ended up using a sharp paring knife to cut a circle in the cupcake instead of the apple core. I guess you can use a piping bag to pipe in the nutella directly into the cupcake, but I didn't care to try this since I can barely pipe frosting onto a cupcake.

Nutella Frosting Ingredients:
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 13-ounce jar of Nutella
pinch of fine grain sea salt
1 tablespoon clear vanilla extract
2 pounds confectioners’ sugar, sifted
6-8 tablespoons heavy cream or milk

 Add the nutella and butter into the bowl of your standing mixture. Stir to combine. Add in confectioner's sugar. I ended up using about 3/4 of the 2 lb bag. Add in the salt. I used regular vanilla extract and used about 1/2 tbsp of it. Pour that in. Pour in your heavy cream. Stir well.You may need to add a couple more drops of the heavy cream to get it to the right consistency. Either spread the frosting onto your cupcakes using a butter knife or use a piping bag. As you can tell from my pictures I attempted the piping bag and wasn't all that successful at it. My dad thought they looked like fettuccine noodles. Ha! Store cupcakes in an airtight container and enjoy!