OK. EPIC FAIL.
Hahaha, my first time making cupcakes. I could not resist it when a friend showed me this recipe from Baking Bites. I mean, who can say no to "Self-Frosting Nutella Cupcakes"? It's adapted from a Donna Hay recipe (originally using peanut butter). Baking Bites reduced the amount of butter, but the recipe still yielded extravagantly buttery cupcakes. I also got too greedy with the Nutella, which turns out achingly sweet when baked.
I decided to boldly slash the amount of butter in a second batch. Less Nutella, and I also experimented with some cupcakes using chunky peanut butter, and some that are just plain unadorned.
These turned out less heavy but were still a bit too dense and crumbly.
This is my revised recipe - maybe baking experts can advise me on how to get softer and fluffier cupcakes. I think next time I'll try something from Martha Stewart instead.
NUTELLA FROSTED CUPCAKES - with Less Butter
100 grams softened butter (reduced from 140g)
3/4 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
200 grams (about 1.75 cups) sifted all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
Nutella or Peanut Butter
Preheat oven to 325F. Line 12 muffin tins with paper liners.
Cream together butter and sugar until light, 2 minutes. Add in eggs one at a time, until fully incorporated. Don’t worry if the batter doesn’t look smooth. Add vanilla. Stir in flour, salt and baking powder until batter is uniform and no flour remains.
Fill each muffin liner with batter. They should be 3/4 full. Top each cake with 1 tsp Nutella. Swirl Nutella in with a toothpick, making sure to fold a bit of batter up over the nutella.
Bake for 20 minutes. (Somehow I needed 5 mins more for the batch that has less butter).
Remove to a wire rack to cool completely. Makes 12.
Muffin recipes
Hey, I tried Baking Bite's recipe once. I like the self-frosting idea, and I also prefer Nutella over peanut butter. :) But yah, the texture of the cake is rather dense and heavy. I think our local tastebuds are more used to a light and fluffy sponge-cake like texture.
ReplyDeleteLove the combination of nutella & peanut butter! It was totally awesome! If you wish to make better peanut butter cupcake, try adding milk to the peanut butter before mixing it to the flour. Cupcake will be lighter and more fluffy. We do use the recipe from baking bites too but sometimes got to try out a few times before we get the right texture and taste. Try allrecipe.com! They got pretty good cupcake recipe there too! :)
ReplyDeletelooks great leh cath! i think the texture is more like butter/pound cake and what i didn't like about the self frosting was that i wish the nutella swirls were more obvious.
ReplyDeleteusually to yield a softer cake, u can either separate the yolks & whites to whisk separately, or replace the butter with oil. coz oil won't harden like butter, so they usually stay soft (like carrot cake) :)
I think that Evan is right....half oil and butter make for a good combi for softer cakes although I don't see how adding a splash of milk to the mixture will harm it.
ReplyDeleteThe milk makes cakes in general yield a more tender crumb...
Oh myyyy.. it looks really yummy!! =D
ReplyDeletehaha anything with nutella is good stuff! :) try again! but i came to accept the fact that I've no talents in baking, so I'm better off eating other people lovely creations! hee
ReplyDeleteThanks, everyone, for comments and tips! Looks like I'll be experimenting more to get the texture I'm looking for. I'm still a baking noob!
ReplyDeleteOh for me, I'll take anything with Nutella on top/in it! I totally welcome your experimenting more and more with my favourite spread! :D
ReplyDeletehello,
ReplyDeleteJust curious, how strong was the Nutella flavour in your cupcakes?
I've made these cupcakes before, but was disappointed by the way the Nutella turned out. I found that the Nutella didn't taste "nutella-ey" anymore after baking - it became no more than a simple chocolate substance :( I don't think my oven heat was too high or anything, and other than the lack of a Nutella flavour the cupcakes were fine - but it just wasn't ideal, not to have the expected flavour!
Am wondering if there is a self-saucing Nutella cupcake recipe somewhere out there.. haa.
LFB: Kenny, yes, we know you love Nutella! But I think it tastes better straight from the bottle than in my baking! lol
ReplyDeleteQuirky: You're right - the Nutella kinda loses its hazelnut flavour after baking. I got a semi-crusty (like sugar crystals) chocolatey topping too. I'm going to try embedding it inside the cupcake instead, and see if it can ooze out like a Nutella fondant!
That sounds fantastic! good luck - i hope it works!!
ReplyDeleteNot sure if it's the case here, but one common mistake is overbeating the batter. This results in dense cakes. Most people cannot resist the urge to eliminate all lumps, when in fact a just barely mixed, lumpy batter yields fluffier muffins/cupcakes.
ReplyDeletestill looks good lah! good attempt!
ReplyDeletefor cupcakes, i usually wack the whole slab (250 gm). don't wanna keep excess...hehe. hmmm, peanut butter sounds good. must try making some next time.
gambatte, camemberu!
Looks good. Bring some back on yr next trip to BP. :D
ReplyDeleteI hope I don't sound like an idiot here but whenever they state put butter - do they mean unsalted butter or just old good plain butter i use for breakfast??
ReplyDeleteQuirky: thanks, me too!
ReplyDeleteBaking Nerd: oh I see! Yes, my batter was quite smooth, like a mousse. LUMPY does it, eh!
Nic: wow whole slab of butter! I guess you must be making 24 muffins then. Mine's just 12. I cannot make too much, tak laku lah! :P
Mun: haha, ok. Actually they taste better when chilled, like mini pound cakes.
Anon: That's a valid question. Personally I still use salted butter anyway, cos I like things salty, even my desserts!
You could also try incorporating some sour cream into the batter -- that is what I always use to make my cakes nice a moist. I randomly stumbled upon this blog while looking up sushi platter pictures and let me tell you, this is an awesome site. I just spent the last 3 hours looking at all your wonderful food pictures and descriptions. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteHey thanks, Joy! I'm really glad you like the site!
ReplyDeleteI'll remember the sour cream tip! I also learned from Grab Your Fork that it's important to thoroughly cream butter and sugar, until the sugar's fully dissolved and the mixture almost white!
Making that looks easy. Tell you frankly, I really love to make cupcakes-the simple way. Trying to make heavily decorated enriched ones takes a lot of time and effort which kills the enthusiasm at the end.
ReplyDelete