Ferrero Rocher Cupcakes

At last year's holiday dinner for work we did a gift exchange. I didn't like my original gift (it was two kitchen tools I knew I wouldn't use) so I asked to switch. My new gift was a tin of 4 dozen Kirkland Signature-brand chocolate-hazelnut candies (AKA Ferrero Rocher). I took them to Christmas Eve dinner to put them out as one of many offerings for dessert but we only ended up using 1 dozen. The rest sat in their original tin on the floor beneath my kitchen table for almost a year.

Which is why I finally decided to bake with them recently. I focused on cupcakes because I rarely make them (and I randomly bought a cupcake carrier/holder with a coupon at Michael's a while back and had yet to use it). Most of the recipes I found had the candy inside the cupcake but I wasn't sure about doing that (my overthinking brain kept going back to the idea that they'd be too hard to bite into). I finally settled on a recipe from Dixie Crystals (a cane sugar company) that sets the candy on top of the frosting. And since the frosting is Nutella (to go with the chocolate and hazelnut flavors of the candy), I decided to add some Nutella to the cupcake as well, using an idea I found on a food site from the UK.

Ferrero Rocher Cupcakes (source)

Ingredients

Cupcakes

• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water
• Chocolate hazelnut spread

Frosting

• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup chocolate hazelnut spread
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 6 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup milk or heavy cream
• 24 Ferrero Rocher chocolates

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300ºF. Prepare a cupcake tin with liners. Set aside.
2. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. (I used the paddle attachment for the cupcakes so I could use the whisk attachment for the frosting.)
3. Next add in eggs, milk, and oil. Mix well. Stir in vanilla. Carefully mix in boiling water. (Batter will be liquid like.)
4. Fill cupcake tins 3/4 full. (This was where I put in the chocolate hazelnut spread using the idea from the UK site. Just a teaspoon in the middle of each cupcake. I tried to swirl it around with the cake tester but I'm not sure it worked. Was probably still fine but I forgot to do a cross-section pic to see for sure.)
5. Bake for 30 minutes or until done. Let cool.
6. To make chocolate hazelnut frosting, use an electric mixer to whisk together butter and chocolate hazelnut spread until smooth.
7. Mix in vanilla.
8. Mix frosting while alternating powdered sugar and milk until desired consistency is reached.
9. Pipe frosting onto each cupcake and top with a Ferrero Rocher chocolate.

The main problem I had was the frosting (but what's new?). There were two main problems: first, I don't think I piped enough frosting onto each cupcake as I had a ton left. The second problem was that even though I piped the frosting in a nice(ish) spiral, you couldn't really tell because it melted after a few minutes. Which is weird because I let the cupcakes cool completely and I had stuck the frosting in the fridge for a couple hours. Still, they were a big hit at work. Now I just need to figure out what to do with the extra frosting.