Chocolate Hazelnut Cupcakes

These are from Rachel Lane's Wild About Cupcakes. All her chocolate cakes are quite dense and crumbly and this one is no different. I really like the chopped hazelnuts in the cake and the frosting (just melted dark chocolate and Nutella) was nice, not too sweet.

He's Six!

Yes, my firstborn turned six last Sunday. Although he was having a party on Saturday (the party venue on the actual day was fully-booked), he wanted me to bake him some cupcakes to bring to school on Friday, so that he can share them with his other friends and teachers. It so happened that my mother came to Singapore a few days before that and I had asked my sister to get me some sheets of edible icing images.

And of course, he wanted Thomas. I had plans to make the buttercream frosting and pipe stars round the rim. But I........er, overslept and was in a mad rush. I definitely did not have time to make the buttercream frosting, much less pipe stars on it. So, I slapped on Nutella on the cupcakes and stuck the icing images on top. Yes, Nutella straight out of the jar. And yes, it was a shoddy job done. I know, I know I'm a terrible mother. But hey, he still loved it and the kids didn't notice any different and enjoyed it. So it all worked out :p

He had another birthday cake at his party - one which I did not make, so I will not post it here. Why didn't I make the cake? Well, because 1. they have a 20% discount if you order the cake from them, 2. they charge you SGD30 if you want to bring your own cake and 3. I could do without the stress. I did plan to make him one on the actual day itself. But we were out the whole day and I was dead tired when we got home. Also, we had some leftover cake from the party. In the end, he had a birthday milkshake! An Oreo milkshake, which he absolutely loved. So that worked out too :)

Nutty Over Nutella!

A neighbour/friend came over with her sons for a playdate today. And I decided to make these Nutella cupcakes. Do you remember when you were young, you used to spread Nutella on your bread? Or perhaps you still do? I know I do. And I do it for my sons too :)

These are actually vanilla cupcakes with a spoonful of Nutella added into the batter. Before, I would just spread Nutella onto the cupcakes straight from the jar (very yummy!). But today, I decided to make a proper frosting. I just used a normal buttercream recipe and added spoonfuls of Nutella into it, until I was satisfied with the taste. And they turned out absolutely delicious! I topped the cupcake with a Ferrero Rocher and some chopped hazelnuts. Heaven!

GK, this is for you as I know you love Nutella and because your nephew misses you!