Nutella Cupcakes

It's that time of year again when it's my best friends birthday, meaning one thing - cake! Scarlett is an avid fan of Nutella which meant that Nutella cupcakes were the only option for this bake. These are so easy to make and the icing is to die for - I think I ended up eating more than I put on the cakes. With a few different decorations, you can make these look really special and so perfect for a birthday.

To make the cupcakes, I just used my usual chocolate cake recipe - you can find that here http://icingonthecakes.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/essential-cake-recipes.html - and I ended up making 16 cupcakes which left a few spare for me to use as testers.

The icing was also just my regular butter cream recipe, with a whole lot of Nutella added to it.

Ingredients;

• 100g unsalted butter
• 250g icing sugar
• 60ml milk
• 4 large tbsp Nutella 

Method; 

1. Beat the butter until smooth and soft
2. Mix in a little of the milk
3. Add the icing sugar a little at a time (slowly!!) and beat until all incorporated. 
4. Beat in the remainder of the milk and then add in the Nutella! Turn up the speed on the mixer and beat for around 5 minutes to ensure the icing is as light and smooth as possible. 
5. Now, level off your cupcakes so they're flat and spoon the icing into a piping bag. 
6. Pipe the icing onto your cupcakes (it should do all 16 cakes). I iced mine in a rose pattern but let your imagination run wild. 
7. Finish with some extra decorations - gold shimmer spray, Ferrero Rocher and Kinder Bueno were my choice - and you're set to go! 

Perfect for any birthday or just a treat for yourself! 

(Turns out that my garden makes a great backdrop for cake photos)

Enjoy!