Nutella Cupcakes and Jar Cake

A couple of weeks ago I saw a gorgeous food photograph featuring cakes baked in Nutella jars.  This looked like a fantastic idea and would make a nice gift.  However, the cake in the pictures was just a chocolate cake and really I thought it would be more fun to make a Nutella cake to go in the Nutella jar.  I could then give this jar to the fiancé's sister, because she is a Nutella fiend.

So off I went and found a recipe I thought would be good, and scooped out a Nutella jar to fill with cake.  However, I wasn't sure exactly how much mixture I would need for the jar cake, so I figured I would just make an entire batch of mixture, and turn the rest into cupcakes.  The recipe I picked said it would yield 24 cupcakes.  As it turned out, I got 24 cupcakes plus a jar cake.

The cake mixture is a really runny one and resulted in a really moist cake.  The buttercream is really nice!  I'm not the biggest fan of Nutella but even I liked the buttercream.  And it definitely tastes of Nutella, just a bit sweeter due to it being buttercream. 

Recipe - adapted from Chef in Training

Makes about 24 cupcakes 

Or about 8 x 400g Nutella jars worth (that's a rough guess)

• 55g/2oz unsweetened cocoa powder
• 250ml/8.8fl.oz hot water
• 250ml/8.8fl.oz buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 425g/15oz caster sugar
• 125ml/4.4fl.oz vegetable oil
• 1.5 tsp vanilla extract
• 300g/10.5oz plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 125ml/4.4fl.oz double cream
• 180g/6.3oz Nutella

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4 and either line two 12 hole muffin tins with muffin cases, or put sterilized jars on baking trays.
2. Sift the cocoa into a medium sized bowl and pour in the hot water.  Whisk until it is combined.
3. Add the buttermilk and the sugar and whisk until smooth.
4. Add the eggs, vanilla and oil and whisk again.
5. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
6. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and whisk together until it is smooth with no lumps.
7. Melt the Nutella in a saucepan, stirring it to prevent it burning.
8. Add this and the double cream to the cake batter and stir until evenly mixed together.
9. Fill the cases two thirds of the way up.  If using jars, fill them about a third of the way up.
10. Bake for 20-30 minutes until the sponge is springy and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
11. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack before icing.
12. If using jars and the sponge has risen a bit too high, use a knife to cut the top off.  It needs to be below where the lid would sit, and have enough room for buttercream to go on top.

Buttercream:

• 120g/4.2oz butter
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1.5 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 x 33g packet Bird's Dream Topping
• 90g/3oz Nutella
• 3 tbsp milk
• 400g/14oz icing sugar
• Chocolate sprinkles

1. Beat the butter, vanilla extract and salt together until smooth and creamy.
2. Add the Dream Topping and mix to combine.
3. Beat in the Nutella, milk and icing sugar until thoroughly combined.
4. Put into a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle and pipe a swirl on top of each cupcake.  If you have baked in jars, pipe a circular spiral from the outside edge to the centre, covering the cake completely.  I did a double layer so there was more buttercream to go with all the cake in the jar.
5. Decorate with the chocolate sprinkles.