Friday, May 4, 2007

I crave orange cranberry something

Despite today's title, I made nutella frosted cupcakes this morning due to the lack of cranberries about the house. The original plan was to have them for breakfast, but I didn't wake up quite early enough. It's hard to really incorporate the nutella into the entire cupcake though, it's awfully sticky and thick, so we'll just call it frosted. Maybe next time I'll fill the tin halfway with batter, add a teaspoon of nutella, then cover with more batter and then add the topping and swirl. But that said, the combination of crispy baked nutella and creamy soft nutella is really good! And once you get the hang of it, you can get quite pretty swirls! This cake is good for those who don't like things too sweet (alas, not me). Also, it's a good one for picnics, no messy sticky frostings since the nutella's been baked in. Give it a go if you have time, an easy recipe that you can't go wrong with.

Oh, but you might want to cut down a little bit on the flour, I found the cake slightly dry. The batter itself was stiffer than usual too, had a mini moment of panic as I wondered if she meant one and 3/4 cups flour, or one 3/4 cup flour.

Nutella Frosted Cupcakes
10 tbsp(140 grams) butter, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cups (200 grams) sifted all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
Nutella, approx. 1/3 cup

Preheat oven to 325F. 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.

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