Tuesday 22 September 2009

Bring on the muffins!!

After making the apple crumble at the weekend I remembered that I quite liked this baking malarkey and stomped in to the kitchen to see what took my fancy.

I still hadn't tried anything from my Hummingbird Baking cookbook which I got for the rather bargainous price of £4 (it's about £12 in the shops so saved myself plenty of pennies). Everything in it looks so good and I would love to go and visit the bakery down in the London place but until then I decided to content myself with having a go at some muffins.

I went for the hazelnut & chocolate muffins, which I almost passed by until a quick glance down the list of ingredients revealed just what was in these bad boys. The one and only Nutella!! (Or if you're cheap like me, generic hazelnut and chocolate spread from your local supermarket.)

They came out so well, I was so pleased with myself. They are probably the finest looking muffins I have ever produced. Usually my muffins look like they've been hit by a car or that they've been made with the help of a 3 year old but these were great. Perfect shape and lovely neat icing. I should have got some hazelnuts to decorate the tops with but I was too lazy I'm afraid.
The recipe said it would make 12 cupcakes and a note in the front of the book says that they are based on American cupcake sizes so to use muffin cases. Now I did and I only got 6 muffins. Maybe I have super large cases?! Who knows. Either way it was probably for the best as this way there's only been 6 to scoff instead of 12!
I present to you - Hazelnut and chocolate cupcakes

Ingredients
100g plain flour
20g cocoa powder
140g caster sugar
1.5 tsps baking powder
pinch of salt
40g butter
120ml whole milk
1 egg
6 tbsps of Nutella
(whole, shelled hazelnuts to decorate)

Frosting
175g icing sugar
40g butter
30ml whole milk
80g Nutella

Method
- Preheat overn to 170c
- Put in flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter and beat until everything is combined
- Slowly pour the milk into the mixture, beating well until everything is combined. Add the egg and beat well.
- Spoon mixture into cases until two-thirds full and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until sponge bounces back when touched.
- When the cupcakes are cold, hollow out a small section in the centre of each one and fill with dollop of the Nutella, before placing the top back on (it will stick up a bit but don't worry, it's going to get covered in icing!)

For the frosting:
- Beat icing sugar and butter together (my god be careful, the whole kitchen was covered in icing sugar powder by the time I was finished!). Slowly pour in the milk and continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy. The longer you beat the lighter and fluffier it becomes.
- Stir in the Nutella by hand until evenly mixed into the frosting. Then spoon over the top and finish with the hazelnuts.

Et voila! Eat to your heart's content!!

7 comments:

Soph said...

These look de-lic-ious! I also would like to add that we have a jar of Nutella in the kitchen of our office and occasionally I'll just stick my finger in it when nobody is looking and stick a big gob in my mouth. I'm so gross. Ha.

hgh said...

Those look so good. Where did you get the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook so cheaply?
These would be amazing with a chocolate and hazelnut (yeah, OK, Nutella) milkshake from my favourite diner :D
My mum banned Nutella (well, the generic versions from Aldi) from our house since my sister and I would just scoop out a spoonful and eat it like a lollypop!

Trish said...

gosh...these do look good! Can you believe it, I have never had nutella. See....I am not the BEST mom for I refused him the luxury of having it and I certainly did not grow up with anything like that so in the end...I never had it. But I am seeing such great recipes with it I simply must try, right? Maybe to BRING TO THE BOY at University...grin. You are right by the way, I do kinda take pity on him....but you know...he is a great friend....I luv him dearly AND....well....wht is a mom to do!

The Curious Cat said...

oooooh! I'm having a week off the sweets...the blogosphere makes it sooooooooo hard!!!!!!!

je_suis_hannah said...

they look yummy! My mouth is salvating..not good when I still have 3 hrs to go until lunchtime

JennyMac said...

I love cupcakes..these look amazing.

Diane said...

I could eat one right now!!