Chocolate Hazelnut Cupcake

I LOVE Nutella!  It's delicious!  I also LOVE cream cheese icing.  So of course I had to combine my two loves into a cupcake!  If you're like me, you'll want to double the icing recipe so that you can add as much as possible on top of you cupcake and maybe even have some extra icing left over for later...mmmmm.  For this yummy recipe you'll need...   

• White Cake Mix (plus ingredients to make the cake...usually eggs, oil, and water
• 1 cup of Nutella split between the batter AND Cream Cheese Icing (PLUS more for the top of your cupcake cuz you can never have too much Nutella)
• 1 - 8oz package of Cream Cheese (room temperature)
• 1/4 cup of Butter (room temperature)
• 2 teaspoons of Vanilla
• Icing Sugar 
• Garnish: Whole Hazelnut

On to the recipe...

Step 1: Follow the directions of your White Cake Mix - from preheating your oven through to adding the eggs, oil, water, etc.  You'll notice that your White Cake Mix (most likely) calls for egg whites only and not the whole egg.  I don't bother with that and add the whole egg.  Mix together the batter until smooth. 

Step 2: Now let's add the best creation ever to go on your sliced bread - or what ever really.  Add 1/2 cup of Nutella and mix it into the batter until fully incorporated. Spoon your batter into the cupcake liners and bake as directed on the package.  Once they are done baking, let them cool completely.

Step 3: Time to make my FAVOURITE  icing...cream cheese!  Beat the Cream Cheese, 1/2 cup of Nutella, and Butter together until fully incorporated.  Add in the vanilla and slowly add in icing sugar until it tastes the way you like it.  Make sure that your icing is mixed well and is smooth.  You may want to double this depending on how much icing you want to top your cupcakes with.   

Step 4: Take your cooled cupcakes and spread some Nutella over the top.  Place you icing into a piping bag.  You could spoon or spread it on, but it's tricky with the layer of Nutella.  Pipe on as much icing as you want!  I garnished my cupcake with a whole hazelnut, but you really don't need anything to top this yummy cupcake off.  Remember, you should refrigerate these if you don't plan to eat them that day or if it's really warm out.

Happy Faking!