Double Chocolate Cupcakes with Nutella Buttercream

After making macarons earlier in the week with Nutella Buttercream filling, I had a ton of the filling left over.  It was 10pm and instead of storing the Nutella frosting like a sane person, I reheated the oven to 350F and started mixing a double chocolate cake.  The cupcakes were baked, frosted and sprinkled by 10:45pm.  The great thing about this fluffy Nutella filling is

that it can be used as a cake filling or as a light mousse frosting.

See those pretty white cupcake liners?  They are Reynolds StayBrite baking cups and they are necessary for baking chocolate cupcakes or muffins.  These double layer cupcake liners stay bright because they are lined with foil on the inside.  They are much prettier than just foil. Look for them in the baking asile- there a several really cute patterns.  Here are the cupcakes out of the oven (in late night light):

 And frosted:

The recipe for the Nutella Buttercream is:

Cream the Nutella and butter until smooth.  You could also add a splash of vanilla (I'll probably to that the next time I make this recipe).  Add a pinch of salt.  Sift in the powdered sugar and mix on high until light and fluffy.  Be patient and keep mixing until fluffy.

Pipe the frosting and then add sprinkles.  This Easter sprinkle from Wilton was perfect with the whimsy candy design of the cupcake liner:

The liners peel right away from the cupcakes.  The frosting is mousse-like in texture and not overly sweet like a lot of frosting recipes- including the one I use with most of my baking.

My kids split a cupcake the next night after dinner.  Rather than sliding off half the frosting, they ate the whole thing.