Self Frosted Nutella Cupcakes

I love Nutella. On pretty much anything. I was eating it straight out of the jar with a spoon the other day when it donned on me to combine my two favorite things in the world. So I found a recipe for Nutella Cupcakes.

Now, I love icing. To me, a cupcake isn't really a cupcake with the icing... but I thought I'd give this "self frosted" recipe a try anyway.

Pretty delicious. I loved the flavor of the cupcake, however, I was a little disappointed that I didn't get more of the hazelnut taste. When the cupcake bakes, the Nutella hardens and isn't so rich and creamy anymore. What to do? Why, just ice with more Nutella, of course! That addition really helped (photo taken before I iced them).

Overall, these cupcakes were fun to make, but I probably won't make them again. I might try to make some kind of frosting using the Nutella next time instead, and forget the swirls altogether.

Self Frosted Nutella Cupcakes - Adapted from Baking Bites

10 Tbsp butter, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cups flour, sifted
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
Nutella, approx. 1/3 cup (abt 1.5 tsp per cupcake)

Preheat oven to 325*F. Line 12 muffin tins with paper liners.

Cream together butter and sugar until light, 2 minutes. Add in eggs one at a time, until fully incorporated. Don’t worry if the batter doesn’t look smooth. Add vanilla. Stir in flour, salt and baking powder until batter is uniform and no flour remains.

Using an ice cream scoop, fill each muffin liner with batter. They should be 3/4 full, if you’re not using a scoop. Top each cake with 1 1/2 tsp Nutella. Swirl Nutella in with a toothpick, making sure to fold a bit of batter up over the nutella.

Bake for 20 minutes.Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 12.