A Hummingbird Bakery adaptation…

Like a lot of people, I love cakes. But, I don’t actually like baking for the simple reasons of laziness and impatience. In my opinion, following recipes and measuring ingredients take the fun away from cooking. Having said that, I love to cook and I love my sweet treats. I figured there has to some quick, simple and tasty baking recipes out there for lazy people like me 🙂

I got given this little Hummingbird Bakery recipe book as a present many moons ago. I like what I read and I found a quick, simple recipe that I can adapt and simplify even further!

So, here is my adaptation of the Hazelnut and Chocolate (Nutella) Cupcakes:

Chocolate cupcakes fresh from the oven

(Warning: Seasoned bakers please look away…)

Makes 12 cupcakes

INGREDIENTS:

• 100g all purpose flour
• 2 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 140g caster sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• a pinch of salt
• 40g unsalted butter (at room temperature)
• 120ml whole milk
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons Betty Crocker Vanilla Icing (depends on how much you like your icing)
• 3-4 teaspoons Nutella, or any other hazelnut and chocolate spread (again, depends on how you like the flavour)
• Optional: Dark cocoa powder (for dusting)

METHOD:

1. Preheat oven – 170 degree celsius
2. Add flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, salt and the room temperature butter into the mixer ( be it fancy pants free standing mixers or just a handheld electric whisk). Beat on slow speed to mix everything together evenly.
3. Add the milk into the flour mixture. Mix well.
4. Then add the egg. Beat well to form a slightly runnier than expected paste (as I would describe it).
5. Spoon the mixture into the paper cupcake cases (which should already be sitting in your cupcake tray), filling only 1/2 of each case.
6. Shove it in the oven for about 18-20 mins (resist the temptation of checking it every 5 mins).
7. Once they are done, leave them in the tray to cool before transferring them on to the wire rack to cool completely (resist the temptation to poke the cakes or eat them while they are hot).

The Hummingbird recipe instructs that you hollow out part of your cupcakes to fill them with the chocolate / Nutella spread before spreading the icing on top. It also provides a recipe for making your own icing.

HOWEVER, as with all of my recipes, I aim to please through minimum effort + maximum flavour (namely, shortcuts).

Chocolate cupcakes cooling on the wire rack

So, for the icing:

1. Mix the Betty Crocker Icing of your choice (vanilla in this case) with the Nutella to form the Hazelnut and Chocolate icing for your cupcakes 🙂
2. Spread the icing over the now completely cooled down cupcakes with a flat spatula in a circular motion to create some sort of pattern. You may choose to pipe the icing with an icing bag for a more sophisticated finish.
3. And finally, dust dark cocoa powder over the cupcakes or sprinkle over decorations of your choice.

The finished product: Nutella Cupcakes

There you have it – my shortcut to Nutella Cupcakes 🙂