This was the day when nothing, and I mean NOTHING, was going right for me in the kitchen. Since we’ve just moved I had never used this oven before. Little did I know that for the first 10 minutes after I tried to bake these delicious guys the oven was on grill instead of bake. Because in the UK instead of having actual WORDS or LABELS on appliance knobs they have pictures. But the pictures aren’t universal. Every brand/model uses a different picture for its own settings…
When I finally sorted myself out and averted a cupcake nightmare and was about to mix my frosting my hand mixer just stopped. So after beating about 2 sticks of butter, sugar and chocolate by hand I have biceps of steel and a healthy appreciation for modern conveniences.
Drama aside, these cupcakes were heavenly. I made a dozen and two days later all of them were gone. Sam and I didn’t share them. We each ate 6 cupcakes. In two days. Disgusting.
Chocolate Cupcakes with Whipped Nutella Frosting
Adapted from Sweetapolita
Ingredients:
Cupcakes:
3/4 cup flour (90g)
3/4 cup sugar (150 g)
1/4 cup cocoa powder (30 g)
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup buttermilk (60 mL)
1/4 cup strong brewed coffee, hot (60 mL)
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
Frosting:
1 cup butter (227 g)
1 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar (royal icing 190 g)
2 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup bittersweet chocolate, melted (125 g)
1/3 cup Nutella (100 g)
1 tablespoon milk
pinch of salt
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C). Mix together your dry cake ingredients. In another bowl whisk together all your wet ones. Add the liquid mixture to the dry one and mix together. Pour your batter into your cupcake tin. The batter will be really liquidy. Bake 15-17 minutes and set them aside to cool.
While your cupcakes are cooling make your frosting. Beat together your butter and sugar. Next add you vanilla and beat until well combined. Then mix in the melted chocolate. Lastly add your Nutella, milk and salt then beat until smooth. (My beater broke so I had to do this all by hand. It was horrible. I kept asking myself how people used to make cakes before electricity and modern appliances. I never would have.)
*Note- you can almost halve the amount of frosting. I had almost a full piping bag’s worth left over. When I went to throw it away Sam stopped me and demanded that we keep it. When I asked what on earth we were going to do with it he said, “Eat it like some sort of Nutella mousse.” And then we both did. But only a tablespoon or two each…
