Cupcakes! I made these a couple of weeks ago.
I was feeling like I hadn’t baked anything in ages. And when I did bake, it was a failure (like forgetting half the flour in the filling for a chocolate chip cookie pie. How does that even happen?). Or it was something I had already made before and couldn’t really blog about again, like these cookies.
So it was time to get baking, and I decided to combine a few of my favourite things. Brownies, but in cupcake form. Nutella ganache. That whole chocolate hazelnut thing gets me excited. And so I made cupcakes.
Since I scoop, bake and ice dozens of cupcakes at work in the mornings, the last thing I really want to do when I come home is bake a cupcake. Or ice a cupcake. Or eat a cupcake. Or even look at a cupcake, really. I have had cupcakes up to here (holds hand high above head).
But these are different. They are brownie cupcakes, so they are dense and moist rather than being light and fluffy. And they have messy, delicious Nutella ganache spread all over them, rather than perfectly piped coils of buttercream on top.
So here are some chocolate hazelnut brownie cupcakes. Hope you enjoy them!
- FOR THE BROWNIE CUPCAKES
- 110g unsalted butter (1/2 cup)
- ¾ cup brown sugar, packed
- ½ cup cocoa
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¾ cup plain flour
- FOR THE CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT GANACHE FROSTING
- 190g milk chocolate, chopped (1 cup)
- 210g Nutella (3/4 cup)
- To make the brownie cupcakes, preheat the oven to 180 C (375 F) and line a 12 hole muffin pan with cupcake liners.
- In a microwave safe bowl, melt the butter in the microwave.
- Stir in the brown sugar until well combined. Microwave for a further minute. It will smell amazing. Stir well until completely combined again.
- Whisk in the vanilla and the eggs, one at a time.
- Stir in the cocoa, baking powder and salt until incorporated. The stir in the flour until just cleared.
- Fill the cupcake liners ⅔ full and bake until a skewer inserted comes out almost clean. The original recipe said 8 - 10 minutes, but mine took closer to 20. Allow the cupcakes to cool.
- To make the frosting, melt the chocolate in the microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring between each burst. Once the chocolate is melted and smooth, stir in the Nutella.
- Allow it to cool to a spreading consistency, then frost the cupcakes roughly with a palette knife.
- Sink your teeth deep into the chocolate hazelnut goodness. Makes 12 cupcakes.
- Happy baking!
Adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction.