nutella cupcakes

 

So a few weeks ago, I discovered a (quite large) jar of Nutella hanging out in the depths of the kitchen cabinets of home-home.  Lately when I'm there, I've been eating it by the spoonful for dessert or putting a spoonful in a little bowl along with a spoonful of peanut butter.  And yes, just eating the two of them together.  Straight up.

And, yes, it is quite delicious. :)

 

However, I decided to get a little more creative this time.  So off to foodgawker.com I went, typed in "Nutella", and feasted my eyes upon delicious Nutella-y things that I wished were right there in front of me so I could devour them without shame.

Have I mentioned that I've been in a ten year love affair with desserts?

Now the strange things about these cuppy cakes is that there is zero frosting.  Yes, you heard me right.  Zero, zip!  Usually, I would be strongly against this, but the Nutella actually bakes right into the cupcake and kind of makes its own frosting.  However....I am fairly confident that if you chose to frost these puppies, that you would make friends for life with whomever ate them.

And by fairly confident I mean very confident.

Mmmmmm, so here is the recipe.  They're actually not too sweet.  And...I'm feeling an epiphany coming...I have a sneaking feeling that these would be downright delicious with some peanut butter chips stirred into the batter.  Note to self: Must try this next time.

Make them!  You'll love them!  I promise. :)

Nutella Cupcakes

Taken from daily doses of sugar, who took it from Baking Bites

1 stick butter

3/4 cup white sugar

3 eggs

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour (sifted)

1/4 salt

2 tsp. baking powder

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Spray 12 muffin tins with non-stick cooking spray, or line then with paper liners.

With mixer, cream together butter and sugar until light.  Add in eggs one at a time.  Beat the mixture after each egg until fully incorporated.  Add vanilla.

Mix in flour, salt, and baking powder until batter is uniformly mixed.  Divide batter evenly among 12 tins.

Now...this is the fun part.  Top each cake with a spoonful of Nutella.  The original says 1 tsp, but I think that is ridiculously ungenerous, but I heaped my Nutella up and slathered it on.  Swirl Nutella in with a toothpick, and be sure to fold a bit of batter over the Nutella.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.  Cool and devour.

Nutella