Nutella Cupcakes
Yield: 18 cupcakes
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook: 35 minutes
Nutella Cupcakes have a soft cake base with a creamy and smooth frosting.
Nutella Cupcakes
After watching Jamie from My Baking Addiction‘s lovely video tutorial on cupcake decorating I was inspired to make some cute cupcakes. There are endless flavor combinations when it comes to cupcakes and I think that’s why they have become such a pop-culture food phenomenon over the past few years. So what do you get when you combine cupcakes + nutella? A sugary, chocolaty, finger-licking marriage of flavor. Add adorable cupcake liners and decorating tips and this is one cute pair. These are perfect for birthdays and baby/bridal showers. Or when you realize that you don’t have to sneak spoonfuls of nutella straight from the jar to get your fix! Oh how I love nutella recipes.
Recipe Rundown
Taste: I liked this recipe because the nutella flavor was the star. And what’s tastier than nutella? I think if the cake base was chocolate the flavors would compete and the cupcakes would have fallen flat. Also, I greatly reduced the amount of sugar in the frosting as nutella is sweet enough.
Texture: The cake base was soft and light while the frosting was creamy and smooth.
Ease: Not too complicated however this recipe does dirty quite a few dishes but what cupcake recipe doesn’t? Great for special occasions.
Appearance: What dessert is cuter than a cupcake? Especially if you use a pretty decorating tip.
Cons: So much butter and sugar! Not an everyday treat.
Pros: Super delicious and crowd pleasing. The cupcakes will keep in the fridge for a few days (should be brought to room temperature before eating).
Would I make this again? Yes.
Nutella Cupcakes
Ingredients
Nutella Cupcakes
- 2 cups cake flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/4 sticks (10 Tbs) butter, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup whole milk (I used 2%)
Nutella Frosting
- 3/4 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 cup Nutella
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 Tbs milk
- 1 cup powdered sugar
Directions
-
Nutella Cupcakes
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 18 muffin cups with liners. Sift together the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
In a stand mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter until soft and creamy. Add the sugar and beat for another 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Beat in the vanilla.
With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the dry mixture. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Mix only enough for ingredients to become incorporated.
Spoon batter evenly into prepared muffin cups, filling until about 2/3 full. Bake for about 15-17 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the cupcakes comes clean. Remove from oven, and let cool for 10 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan and let cool completely before frosting.Nutella Frosting
Beat butter and nutella together in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or with a hand mixer until combined. Add the remaining ingredients and beat on low speed until powdered sugar is incorporated. Increase speed to medium-high and beat until frosting is smooth and stable.
Recipe Notes
If you make this recipe, be sure to snap a picture and share it on Instagram with #handletheheat so we can all see! 
About Tessa...
I share trusted baking recipes your friends will LOVE alongside insights into the science of sweets. I'm a professionally trained chef, cookbook author, and cookie queen. I love to write about all things sweet, carb-y, and homemade. I live in Phoenix, Arizona (hence the blog name!)
35 Responses to “Nutella Cupcakes”
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Your frosting looks amazing!!! I worry about having Nutella in the house since it's good straight out of the jar.
Wow… these look amazing. I wish i could have a bite.
thanks for the recipe.
wow, can u send me some for my next breakfast?
xx
I could NOT help but drool at these cupcakes. The photography is amazing, and I must say.. you're right! What's better than nutella?!
OMG, you had me at Nutella!!!! I'm so bookmarking these and making them asap. They look delicious! Thanks for sharing!
I just want to make the frosting and eat it!
I am so glad I was up late and saw your tweet. Now I wish I had a cupcake for a late night snack!
Soooo pretty! And I love the fact that you reduced the sugar. Now if only more folks would do that. 🙂
I just made cake mix cupcakes, but used your nutella frosting recipe…I added an extra 1/2 cup powdered sugar to make the frosting thicker, but it is really delicious anyways! Thanks for sharing.
I also just made cupcakes before reading ur recipe and after searching the cupboards to make icing and found nothing but Nutella. I used it outta the jar as an icing and my kids loved it. I compared the calories afterward and it's not too bad. I used about 1 tbs of Nutella for each cup cake. 100 calories 50 fat. Why do you add more sugar and butter to the Nutella? I spread it over my cupcakes just after they came out of the oven… I pictured melty nutella everywhere but to my surprise it stayed wherever I spread it. I figure if wanted to use a fancy tip to decorate with the Nutella that I could chill it a bit then use it. Did you find you couldn't decorate with it without butter and more sugar? Thanks
Lisa- Spreading plain nutella on cupcakes is definitely something I've done before! The frosting recipe here is for “Nutella Buttercream”. Definitely not the healthiest option but delicious for a special occasion. Its lighter and airier than plain nutella and is easier to decorate. Plain nutella would get stuck in the decorating tip since its so thick and sticky.
Agh the internet ate my comment! These look awesome and I'm going to try them tomorrow. Do you think it would work to swirl some Nutella into the batter before baking or is this a thinner runny batter? Thanks! So looking forward to trying these 🙂
Julie- I think swirling nutella into the batter would work great! Let me know how it goes 🙂
I'm trying it this evening! I've come across some recipes with Nutella swirled in but the reviews are mixed on it being a drier cake. Hopefully this batter is strong enough to stand up to it but I won't know until I try! I'll let you know how it works out 🙂
LOVING THIS!
How have I not heard about a nutella frosting before?
Hoping to make this for a couple of holiday parties I've been invited to!
Thank you Thank you Thank you
ive never heard of Nutella frosting either!!?! i will definately be making these for Christmas day! THANK YOU 🙂
I made the Nutella frosting and used it to fill whoopie pies – it's fantastic, thanks!
Wow! These sound amazing! Do you think that it would be okay to put less milk in to make the frosting a little thicker?
Liz – Definitely! You might not be able to pipe the frosting out but you could totally use less milk.
i made these yesterday for the last day of school for my class (i'm in highschool), and the icing was amazing!!
just one thing about the cake itself though, it smelled/tasted very strongly of eggs, and it kind of overpowered any other flavour the cake had… so maybe for me i would put 1 less egg in? i dont know i'm not really a baker (i just love reading food blogs!) so i wouldn't know what that would do to the texture…
overall, they were delicious!! thanks so much for posting this!
I tried this frosting on some of my vanilla cupcakes, and they were so good. This nutella frosting can spruce up anyrecipe and make them so much more delicious!
Is the recipe for 18 mini cupcakes or regular sized cupcakes?
Same question as above!! Regular or Mini?!?
Regular
So i tried your nutella frosting recipe with my own vanilla cupcake recipe.
I subtracted half a tablespoon of milk. So i basically just put half tablespoon of milk.
And the nutella flavour wasnt strong enough for me. I had to add in ALOT more nutella. My nutella jar is almost empty now. I used up all for the frosting. So i just fell there was TOO much butter and not enough nutella.
Otherwise a nice creamy frosting that isnt too sugary so thats the plus point. I topped them with a ferrero rocher in the middle of the swirl top!
VERY easy to make (the frosting)
Hi.love yr recipes.can u also post a recipe for vanilla cupcakes using oil ..not butter.thanx
When you say cake flour, are you referring to self-rising flour?
No, just plain cake flour. No added leavening agents. Cake flour is milled from a softer variety of wheat and is milled more finely than AP flour. It’s also bleached. All those properties make for a really light, delicate, and tender crumb.
These are the most delicious cupcakes!
I have made these and loved them! Have you ever used this cupcake recipe for a layer cake? Wanting to make a naked cake with the frosting in between.
I have, it should work! It’s quite rich and moist, so it may sink slightly in the middle. I like to refrigerate the cake layers until firm then assemble the cake facing upside-down so the layers are nice and flat without having to do too much damage flattening them with a knife. Good luck!
Could I make them into mini cupcakes
Dear Tessa,
thank you for this recipe. It looks interesting and I would like to try it, but I have a hard time with conversion to grams and millilitres. If you would publish measures in metric system, that would be a great help.
Thank you
Katarina
Help! I baked the cupcakes, but they are very egg-y and spongey! Tops are doomed and still look wet, but they are cooked thru. All my ingredients were cool room temp, but my batter was lumpy. Where did I go wrong?