Cupcakes with Nutella Frosting

My friend Melissa posted these Banana Cupcakes with Nutella Frosting recently and it seemed like the universe was trying to tell me something when SP found our missing jar of Nutella the same night. My aunt was in town this past weekend and had offered to make dinner, so I thought I'd bring these cupcakes over for dessert.


I asked SP and my mom and they both agreed that regular cupcakes with Nutella frosting would be more to their liking, so I just whipped up a batch of cupcakes using a boxed mix I had on hand. The frosting couldn't have been easier and the slice of banana on top was a nice touch. Just a word of warning, though - if you use the sliced banana only slice and top as many cupcakes as you plan to eat. The banana got slimy and ruined the last few cupcakes we had saved.

Nutella Frosting
I Was Born to Cook

1/2 cup Nutella
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
5 tablespoons heavy cream

Mix all ingredients together until fluffy. Add a bit more cream if necessary. Frost cupcakes once they are completely cool. Garnish with a banana slice, if desired.

Recipe Swap - Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Dark Chocolate Frosting

Want to see what other Dessert recipes were made during the swap? Here is the link to the Dessert Recipe Swap Roundup

This week's recipe swap theme was dessert. I've been avoiding this one for a long time because, as many of you know, I'm not a baker. I don't particularly enjoy baking and I certainly don't like having the sweet stuff around the house to tempt me. But dessert is a popular thing on my cooking board and I knew I'd have to cave eventually. There were a lot of excellent recipes submitted for this swap so if you aren't like me and actually enjoy baking, you're going to want to check this one out.


Luckily I ended up with my friend Jaida's recipe for Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Dark Chocolate Frosting. Cake is my one weakness when it comes to dessert. Ice cream, cookies, chocolate bars, etc. I can take or leave but I'm powerless when it comes to cake.


In the interest of full disclosure, I didn't make the frosting on these cupcakes. We were out of town the weekend I made these and I simply ran out of time. I do plan to make it someday, though, since Jaida assures me it's amazing and worth the time and effort.



Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Dark Chocolate Frosting
Sweet Beginnings
Makes 30 cupcakes

Note: If you can't find cake flour use this easy method - to make 2 cups cake flour, combine 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour with 1/4 cup cornstarch.

3 1/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon sifted cake flour, divided
4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk
1 stick plus 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar
5 large egg whites, room temperature
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Line muffin tins with paper liners (recipe makes approx. 30 cupcakes). Whisk together 3 1/4 cups cake flour, salt and baking powder. In a separate bowl combine the milk and vanilla.

With a mixer on medium-high speed, cream the butter until smooth, and then add the sugar in a steady stream until pale and fluffy. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of the milk mixture, beating until combined after each addition.

In another bowl, whisk the egg whites with a mixer on medium speed until stiff peaks form. You can also do this by hand with a whisk, which is what I did. Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the batter to lighten. Gently fold the remaining egg whites until just combined. Toss chocolate chips with remaining tablespoon cake flour and gently fold into batter.

Divide the batter evenly among the lined cups, about 3/4 full. Bake about 22 minutes for standard size, 12 minutes for miniature, until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool before removing cupcakes and cooling to room temperature.

Dark Chocolate Frosting
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon boiling water
2 1/4 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 lbs semi-sweet chocolate, melted and cooled

Combine cocoa and boiling water, stirring until cocoa is dissolved. With a mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter, confectioners’ sugar and salt until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low and add the melted, cooled chocolate, beating until combined and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in the cocoa mixture. Frost cooled cupcakes with a frosting spatula.

Funfetti Cupcakes

I wanted to bake something fun a few weekends ago, so I asked SP to pick up a box of Funfetti cake mix and frosting at the store. It's just so fun with the colorful sprinkles both in the cake and as a colorful finish.


I know I've said here many times that I'm not a baker, so forgive me for using such a shortcut. I have to say, though, I really love the flavor of boxed mix and canned frosting. It's the stuff of my childhood and while homemade is good, for me there's nothing like this stuff.

Nutella Cupcakes

Someone on my cooking board recently posted a recipe for self-frosting Nutella cupcakes that sounded so good I knew I had to make them.


Unfortunately they didn't turn out quite the way I had hoped. I cheated and used boxed cake mix and I think the batter was too thin because the Nutella sank like a stone to the bottom of each cupcake. They still tasted great, but the self-frosting quality was missing. I guess next time I'll have to bite the bullet and actually make my own batter.

Ina's Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Our friends T & C enjoyed the peanut butter cupcakes I made the last time they came over so much that when T was at the store and saw this:


... she decided to buy a box for me to try. Sunday is usually my baking day so I opened the box this afternoon to see what was involved. The contents:


... seemed rather straight forward. Everything is included except butter, eggs and heavy cream. The packet on the left contained the cake mix, the packet in the middle was peanut butter and the packet on the right was confectioner's sugar (as far as I could tell). All you do is mix room temperature butter with the cake mix, add the eggs, pour into cupcake tins and bake until done. The frosting is the sugar mixed with more butter and the peanut butter, along with some heavy cream. Not hard to do at all, especially since it seems like there isn't much in the way of additives. The results:


... looked and tasted pretty much exactly like the ones I made from scratch (save for the crushed peanuts on top). Thanks T & C for thinking of us. And yes, SP has already had a cupcake and I plan to share more with him.

Sunday Roast

I consider myself a good cook, but even I have an albatross - roast beef. I think in all my years of cooking I've only attempted roast beef once before and I don't remember it being anything special. But then Cook's Country came into my life and with it a recipe for garlic roast beef. Unfortunately for me, I couldn't find the recommended cut of beef in my supermarket. To make matters worse, when I looked at the recipe yesterday morning I saw that I'd actually purchased the cut they say to steer clear of because of it's "sour, livery taste." Great.

But I soldiered on, spending upwards of an hour dutifully toasting, peeling and slicing garlic to stuff into the roast, boiling oil, seasonings and a full head of garlic for the garlic paste and mincing even more garlic and seasonings for the garlic rub. My hands smelled fantastic. I did everything according to the recipe, but I knew as soon as I cut into the meat that it wasn't going to be good. For starters, it was overcooked. And there was no discernible garlic flavor. Instead I was met with...shock of all shocks...livery, sour meat. SP, being the product of Depression-era parents that he is, ate his serving and mine and refused to throw any of it away.


The only good things about the meal were the potato gratin and the steamed green beans. The gratin was perfect:


... with it's delectable garlic-infused cream and milk, the soft, creamy layers of sliced potato and the generous sprinkling of grated pecorino cheese that forms a nice crust.

But never fear, all was not lost. We had cupcakes for dessert: