Little Darlings

Wow- what a whirlwind April was! Remember when I told you way back when that Gian Luca and I got some really great news? Well, it's time to share: we'll be moving to Texas! Gian Luca got his dream job there and we'll be relocating in two months. So between traveling to Denver

I was so happy last Saturday because I actually had the chance to spend the day in the kitchen baking, which is what I love best. We'll be leaving Minneapolis in a month and we have cabinets full of ingredients for baking which I won't be taking with me. The only reasonable thing to do was to spend the afternoon making 100 mini cupcakes to take to a pot-luck on Sunday. I'm a reasonable girl, so that's exactly what I did. for my conference and Texas to look for places to live, I barely had enough time to eat, let alone cook. But that seems to be the case with my life right now. It's all rush rush rush, and it's not going to stop for a few more months. But it's all good.


A gigantic tub of Nutella was among the ingredients that we needed to use up, and while I dreamed of eating a thick slabs of bread smeared with the creamy chocolate hazelnut spread for breakfast every day for the next month, I knew that was not going to happen. Instead, I used the entire tub to make Nutella Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache and Nutella Buttercream. The Nutella surfaced three-fold in these little darlings. It got mixed in the batter, squirted inside each baked cupcake, and piled high on top. The result: insanely rich chocolate goodness, similar to a Ferrero Rocher candy. Try them for yourself, but trust me, you'll be hooked.


Mini Nutella Cupcakes

adapted from How to Eat a Cupcake
Makes 24 minis and 6 regular

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs
3/4 cup Nutella
1/4 cup milk

Ganache
8 oz. semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips (or both)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup chopped, toasted hazelnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line mini muffin pan with paper or foil liners.
2. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt together and set aside.
3. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy (2-3 minutes) . Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add 3/4 cup of Nutella and blend thoroughly. Alternately add flour mixture and milk, blending well after each addition (Don't overmix! Blend only until no traces of flour remain.)
4. Using a tablespoon, fill each cup with batter. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool on wire racks.
5. When cupcakes are cool, fill them with the remaining Nutella.
6. Make the ganache. Put chocolate chips and cream in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high for 45 seconds to 1 minute, depending on your microwave. Stir gently with a rubber spatula. Heat for 15-20 more seconds. Stir until well blended. Stir in chopped hazelnuts and dip cupcakes into ganache. Let cool on a wire rack.


Buttercream


2 sticks of butter ( softened)
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cup Nutella

1) Cream butter. Add Powdered sugar and Nutella. Stir until combined.
2) Place buttercream into a pastry bag and pipe on top of cupcakes. Or spread buttercream on with a knife.