Nutella Cupcakes and Wise Words

Nutella is the amazingly rich hazelnut spread made from hazelnuts and cocoa.  It is amazing on toast, Ritz crackers, etc.  My friend Becca loves it on animal crackers with milk.  Yum!  I am new to the Nutella phenomenon, but having tried it a few times, I had to find some more great uses for it.  Thus, Nutella Cupcakes.  Adapted from here.

Here is the recipe and process with pictures.

This makes 12 cupcakes!

1/4 cup butter softened
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup sugar (I used Truvia)
3 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4-1/2 cup Nutella, at room temperature

(If you have part of a jar in your pantry don’t go buy another one just for this recipe.  You will only need 12 tablespoons for the top of the batter of each of the cupcakes)

Preheat the oven to 325F

First: In a medium bowl, beat the butter, oil and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth.

Second: In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt; add to the butter mixture and beat on low speed just until combined.

The batter will be extremely thick.  Do not over mix!  The batter must be thick in order to swirl in the Nutella.

Third: Divide the batter between 12 paper-lined muffin cups.  I sprayed each cup with a light dusting of Pam.

Fourth: Drop a spoonful of Nutella on top of each, and swirl through the batter with the tip of a bamboo skewer, knife or other pointy object.

This part gets a tad bit tricky.  The Nutella gets stuck easily to the batter and the skewer.  Just be careful to lightly swirl the Nutella.

Fifth: Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until springy to the touch.

I took them out of the pan to allow them to cool.

Sixth: ENJOY!!

I forgot to take a picture of the finished product, and they were GONE in two days.

These are moist with just the right amount of sweetness. If you’re looking for a light, summery dessert then try these!

Just a final thought:

It made me think about how often I forget to be thankful, even for the bad things.  Sometimes being thankful is easy to forget because we get so busy enjoying life.  Here’s to having a more thankful attitude this week!