Marble cupcakes & Nutella Frosting

Okay so, who here loves nutella?! My guess is a lot of people visiting this page probably do. 🙂

So one fine saturday I woke up and wanted to make a nutella flavored frosting. I hadn’t thought of what cupcake flavor would go with that. I originally wanted to make mocha cupcakes and nutella frosting (I am definitely going to try making those next). But since I was carrying these to a friends house, I was not sure if everyone would find a coffee flavored cupcake agreeable. Anyhow, I thus settled on a vanilla – chocolate marble cupcake with nutella flavored frosting. And I am glad I did! Because these were so wonderfully delicious. The frosting was light and creamy, and of course tasted of nutella! what could be better! 🙂

Here goes the recipe! (makes 12-14 cupcakes).

Ingredients:

1 and 2/3 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, room temperature (preferably unsalted)
1/4 cup yoghurt
1 large egg
3/4 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup cocoa powder

For the frosting:

1 cup softened room temperature butter (unsalted)
1 and 3/4 cups confectioners sugar
3/4 cup nutella
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp heavy cream
pinch of salt

Making the cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 350. Line cupcake baking pan with cupcake liners.
Mix together all the dry ingredients: flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In a separate bowl melt the butter in a microwave or double boiler a little bit, mix the sugar to this melted butter and let it cool for about 3 – 5 mins.
Mix the wet ingredients in the butter-sugar mixture, yogurt, egg, vanilla extract and milk.
Mix the dry ingredients and wet ingredients together. Make sure to beat or whisk this mixture pretty well so that there are no lumps in the batter.
separate about 3/4 of the batter into a separate bowl and mix in the cocoa powder into this. This batter will become thick. Add a tablespoon of milk to this to make the consistency a little similar to the vanilla batter. Mix well to remove lumps.
start by putting one spoon of vanilla batter into each cupcake liner, then one spoon of chocolate. Top this off with one more spoon of vanilla batter. Fill the liners only 2/3 of the way full because the cupcakes will rise. Swirl the cupcakes with a toothpick if you want a lovely swirled marble effect!
Bake at 350 for 20 – 25 minutes. Poke with a toothpick at about 22 minutes, and when it comes out clean, that is when the cupcakes are ready!

Making the frosting:

Now the key to making this frosting, is having the butter be nice and soft at room temperature and very well whipped/creamed. This does not mean it should be melted! It should just be soft to touch, for example if you poke the butter with your finger, it would be easy to dent, but the butter should still hold its shape and not just break.

Beat the butter on medium with a hand mixer or stand mixer for 3 – 4 minutes. This will make the butter very nicely creamed and soft.
Add the confectioners sugar 1/2 cup at a time, beating for a minute after each addition. After adding the final sugar, beat for about 2 – 3 minutes till you feel it is completely mixed. Make sure to use a spatula and pick up unmixed sugar from the bottom of your bowl at regular intervals.
Add the nutella and vanilla extract. beat for 3 – 4 minutes. add the heavy cream and beat for about 2 more minutes.
Add a pinch of salt to cut through the sweetness if you feel like the frosting is too soft.
If you feel the buttercream is too thick add more heavy cream, one tablespoon at a time. If you think it’s too soft add a little more sugar. Don’t add too much more sugar, else your frosting will become too sweet! Again, add a pinch of salt to cut through the sweetness.

Warning: This buttercream is so decadent and delicious, be cautious and make sure it reaches the cupcakes 🙂 There is a danger of this going straight from the mixing bowl to your mouth! 😀

I used wilton disposable piping bags and a wilton 2D tip to frost the cupcakes with a rose swirl. Topped them with sugar pearls for decoration. I am so glad these turned out to be a hit with everyone at home and with the friends whose home I took them to as a gift! 🙂

I wish I had taken pictures along the way of making these. But I was so engrossed in the process, I completely forgot to take pictures. However, hope you enjoy these pictures of the final results! 🙂

As always, please feel free to send a message or comment with any questions and comments!