Nutella-in You, I'm Hooked On Nutella!

I had the taste of Nutella in my mouth since last week....


Its funny, but if you stay at the same place enough times, you become acquainted with the surroundings more.  This last week in San Francisco, I stay where I always stay in Millbrae.  Theres a Walgreens and a shopping area down the road from the hotel that I've frequented before, but I guess I never probed this little cafe that much.  I always thought this place was an Italian restaurant and this time, I chanced to go in and find out that its a coffee shop!  Whats more, its a coffee shop that does this special latte - a NUTELLA LATTE!  I LOVE Nutella and so I tried this treat and found that I absolutely adored it.  I wound up going down during my remaining 3 days in Millbrae and I got almost two of these things a day.  I figured that I would stock up on it while I could as I don't know anyplace here thats creative enough to thing of a Nutella Latte.

So, with the taste of Nutella in my mouth, I've entered the weekend....


I can't remember if I posted it a week or so ago, but I did a Nutella cupcake recipe and I must say, I was sorely disappointed with the whole thing.  It was a vanilla cupcake (which I've not really found a good recipe for vanilla cupcakes - I've found one that I'm going to try sooner or later) with swirl of Nutella baked in and then topped with a Nutella buttercream frosting.  Yuck.... The cake was dry and the Nutella swirl was just heavy and gloppy and the buttercream was too textured and sweet.  Yuck yuck yuck.  And again - yuck.


I figured that it would be best to stick with a chocolate cupcake and maybe add Nutella.  I ended up doing my favorite chocolate cake recipe, only instead of the dark cocoa that I usually add, I did regular cocoa.  Then, once baked, I took a little glop of cake out of the middle and piped in some straight Nutella.  I topped it with this fabulous Nutrella frosting recipe that I found.  This one is NUTELLA-ICIOUS!

NUTELLA BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

1 STICK UNSALTED BUTTER, SOFTENED

1/2, 13 OZ JAR OF NUTELLA

Blend these two together until completely mixed

PINCH OF SEA SALT

1/2 TBS VANILLA EXTRACT

2 CUPS SIFTED POWDERED SUGAR

5-6 TBS HEAVY WHIPPING CREAM

Add these ingredients to the mixture above.

Will frost 12-15 cupcakes