Self-Frosting Nutella Cupcakes

Self-Frosting Nutella Cupcakes

Yum!

Ingredients:


1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter
¼ cup canola oil
1 ½ cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp hazelnut liquor
2 ½ t baking powder
¼ t salt
2 ½ cups flour
1 ¼ cups milk


½ to ¾ cup Nutella


Preheat oven to 325 degrees. For best results have butter and eggs at room temperature before you start. 


Mix dry ingredients (baking powder, salt, and flour) in a bowl and set aside. Cream butter, oil, and sugar together in mixing bowl until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, beating at medium-high speed until smooth. Add hazelnut liquor (I used Frangelico) and mix well. Add milk and dry ingredients slowly, alternating between the two and mixing at medium-high speed until all ingredients have been added and batter is smooth.


Line a muffin tin with cupcake papers. Fill each cupcake paper only halfway with cupcake batter. In a separate bowl, microwave the Nutella for 20 seconds to soften it. Spoon about a tablespoon of Nutella into the center of each cupcake.

Using something thin (toothpick, chopstick, skewer… I used a meat thermometer), swirl the nutella throughout the cupcake.

Bake at 325 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Do not overcook, or the cupcakes will be too dry. Twenty minutes was enough in my oven.

Overfilling and overcooking = oops! The top fell off when I tried to pick up a cupcake from the first batch.

Let cool in muffin pan for 5 minutes before transferring cupcakes to a cooling rack. Makes 24-30 cupcakes.

These cupcakes should not need extra frosting; the Nutella acts as frosting.


References:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Amy-Sedariss-Vanilla-Cupcakes-236125 
http://blogs.babble.com/family-kitchen/2011/05/04/self-frosting-nutella-cupcakes/