Buttermilk Cupcakes with Nutella Frosting

For my Valentine's Day Soiree I decided to make heart shaped Buttermilk cupcakes and Nutella frosting.  So many of my pins on pinterest were helpful tips for making them, and I will definitely be using these tips for all my cupcakes in the future.


First here's the recipe for the cupcakes and the frosting originally from Krissy's Creations.

Buttermilk Cupcakes
What you need:

4 Eggs

2 teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract

1 ¼ cups Buttermilk

3 cups Cake Flour

2 cups Sugar

3 ½ teaspoons Baking Powder

½ teaspoon Salt

1 cup (2 sticks) Unsalted Butter, softened

Nutella Frosting
What you need:

1 ½ cups (3 Sticks) Unsalted Butter (Softened)

3 cups Confectioners Sugar

1/8 tsp. Salt

2 tsp. Pure Vanilla Extract

1 cup Nutella

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line 2-3 cupcake pans with baking cups.  This recipe made a little bit more than 24 cupcakes, so you should have a third cupcake pan ready.

2.  In a small bowl whisk together the eggs, vanilla extract, and buttermilk.  Put it to the side for later.

3.  In a large bowl mix together the cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Add the butter and beat until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.  Add the egg mixture in 3 additions.  

4.  Put the batter in the cake liners, being careful not to fill them more than half full. It rises a lot and will overflow if its 2/3 full like normal cupcakes. 

5.  Place the cupcakes in the middle rack of the oven and bake until a toothpick inserted into a few cupcakes comes out clean. The original post said 25 minutes but with the high altitude of Colorado 20 minutes was enough.   

6.  While the cupcakes are baking, make the nutella buttercream.  Cream the butter in the bowl of stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, about 5 minutes.  

7.  Add the confectioners sugar and salt and mix until the sugar is fully incorporated.  Add the vanilla and whisk until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 5 minutes, scraping the edges of the bowl.  

8.  Then add the nutella.  Beat until the nutella is fully incorporated and the buttercream is light and fluffy again.

Another Blogger had an ingenious idea for getting the batter into the cake liners so I had to try it. 

After the batter is ready,  put it in a Ziploc bag and cut the corner, like a make shift frosting bag. Since my mom was in the kitchen with my I had her hold the Ziploc bag but it could also work by lining a bowl or large cup with it. That way it has support. 

Then it's easy from there filling up the liners. I saved SO much time!

I found another Pin to make heart shaped cupcakes and decided to give it a try. All you do is put a marble on the outside of the cupcake liner in each tin.  You can also try rolling aluminum foil instead. 

I do't think my marbles were big enough though because my cupcakes didn't look like hearts. 

I followed the same idea with the cup to hold the bag for the frosting. Again such a time saver I will always do this.