Nutella Chocolate Cupcakes

"Nutella," "Chocolate" and "Cupcakes." Three words that bring me infinite amounts of joy! 

I've seen lots of Nutella cupcake recipes that incorporate the Nutella into the cake mix, and while I love the moist, fudgey result that this gives, I think that you lose a lot of the flavour when it bakes. So instead, I've decided to share with you my all time favourite chocolate cupcake recipe, stuffed full of Nutella just before decorating, so every bite oozes with that delicious Nutella flavour!

Ingredients

(Makes 12 big cupcakes)

6 tbsp freshly brewed coffee*

160g self raising flour

160g golden caster sugar

175g unsalted butter (at room temperature)

3 eggs

50g cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

200g Nutella**

Hazelnuts to decorate (optional)
Chocolate buttercream to decorate (optional)

*coffee is optional, you could use 4tbsp boiling water instead (ala Mary Berry). But, even if you're not a big coffee fan, I think it really makes these cupcakes tastes amazing, there's something about coffee that makes chocolate taste so much better!

**You can use shop bought or home made Nutella for this recipe. Home made Nutella gives a much nuttier taste to the cupcakes, click here for my recipe.

Method

- Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/400F/Gas 6 and line a cupcake tin with 12 paper cases.

- Sift in the cocoa powder into the coffee and mix until smooth (this bit will smell amazing!)

- Sift the flour into a separate bowl, then add the sugar, butter, eggs, salt and baking powder and combine (this will be a lot easier with an electric whisk).

- Add the coffee and chocolate mix and beat everything together to make a smooth cake batter.

- Divide the mix equally between the 12 cupcake cases (this is around about that time that I lick the spatula...), and bake for 15 minutes, or until they are risen and cooked through (they should spring back when you touch them). Remove them from the tin and leave them to cool completely, preferably on a wire rack.

- Once cool, use a knife or apple corer to remove the centre of the cake, so you have a small well in the top of the cupcakes.

- Use a spoon or piping bag to fill the hole to the brim with a big dollop of Nutella.

- To decorate I made a chocolate butter cream (let me know if you'd like me to upload a recipe for this) and topped with hazelnuts. But you could also spread over a bit more Nutella, and top with anything you like! Ferrero Rochers are delicious in place of hazelnuts for a more decadent treat.

Let me know how yours turn out!

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