Gluten-Free Nutella Cupcakes

I made these fun fall cupcakes for a bachelorette weekend in Hocking Hills. I had asked the bride-to-be if there was anything specific that she wanted me to make for her and she said that her all-time favorite thing that I made was nutella cupcakes – but that she WASN’T asking me to make something difficult like that – so anything that I wanted to make would be fine.

Initially I thought – yeah, I’m probably not going to make the cupcakes. I knew I’d be limited on time towards the end of the week and I knew I hadn’t made them since I went gluten-free so I didn’t know how hard the recipe conversion would be (though honestly, I have pretty good luck just substituting in GF flour for all-purpose). Later that day I had a thought that I had previously made the Nutella Cupcakes using a cake mix – AND I happened to have a devils food cake mix in my pantry!

I decided I’d make these as a surprise. I rushed to make the cupcakes and the frosting before I went to the winery for beverages (better before than after!) and I had to frost them the next day before I hit the road for the trip because we spent a lot of time at the winery.

I am not a fancy froster. I don’t have the patience or the skill or the desire to find my real pastry bags and tips, so I used a ziploc bag with a hole cut in the corner. That is why it looked like dog poo. I decided the only way to make them look palatable was to add candy corn mix on top. Incidentally, Ash loves candy corn pumpkins. I think they turned out pretty cute, considering.

The first time when I used a gluten-ful cake mix, the nutella filling stayed in the middle of the cupcakes. With the gluten-free cake mix, the filling sunk to the bottom, but it was still good – and a small price to pay for me to be able to eat a cupcake without getting sick.

Nutella Cupcakes

Devil’s Food Cake Mix
ingredients for cake mix
24 teaspoons Nutella (1 per cupcake)

Nutella Buttercream

¾ cup Nutella
¼ cup butter, softened
2 -2 ½ cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3-4 tablespoons heavy whipping cream (milk may work but will be thinner)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 24 muffins tins. In a large bowl, whisk eggs, oil, milk, water and vanilla. Sift in cake mix and stir in sour cream. Fill cupcake liners 1/2 full and then place a teaspoon of Nutella on top of each one. Put another spoonful of batter on top to full the liner 3/4 full (so the Nutella is in the middle).

Bake for 14-18 minutes or until the sides spring back. Remove the cupcakes from the oven and place directly into airtight containers to seal in moisture (I just realized I forgot this step this time).

Buttercream Frosting:
Beat the Nutella and butter until combined. Add vanilla, then alternate between adding powdered sugar and heavy whipping cream. Taste the buttercream until you reach your desired sweetness/thickness, adding more powdered sugar or cream as needed. If you are good at piping frosting on cupcakes, you may want to refrigerate this for a bit before piping. I just placed the frosting in a ziploc bag and snipped off the corner to pipe it on the cupcakes.

Also, if you like thick frosting, you’ll want to double the frosting recipe. The first time I made these I didn’t frost them very thick and still had to leave 4 or so unfrosted. This time I just kept adding extra milk and powdered sugar to make more. I ended up making it too sweet because I was in a hurry, so I wouldn’t recommend that method. Just double it or make 1 1/2 times as much. I’m bad at math, so I’m not going to do the calculations for you…sorry!

These would be super-cute for a Halloween party or for Thanksgiving!