Recipe: Chocolate Hazelnut Cupcakes

Anyone that knows me knows that I am a chocolate freak.
Seriously.
I’ve tried giving it up and all that does is make me cranky. So naturally I needed a really good chocolate cupcake recipe.
I think this one has it all – it’s chocolaty but not overly sweet, it’s squidgy but not too doughy and the addition of the roughly chopped hazelnuts gives the whole cake a lovely bite and texture.
When I made these I experimented with a coffee frosting that went really well with the rich chocolate flavor of the cupcakes. Unfortunately because it was an experiment I don’t have a recipe for the frosting, but next time I make these I will make sure to write down how I make it.
But just look at them…I had to draw on deep reserves of willpower to not eat the lot in one sitting.






1 ½ cups boiling water
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ½ cups sugar
6 tablespoons unsalted butter - softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 2/3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup hazelnuts – roughly chopped

• Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and place cupcake cases into a 12 cup muffin pan.
• Whisk together cocoa and boiling water and allow to cool completely.
• Beat together butter, sugar and vanilla extract until light and fluffy.
• Add in the eggs, one at a time, blending well after each addition.
• In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
• Sift half of the flour mixture into the batter and beat until just combined.
• Add the now cooled cocoa and mix well, sift in the rest of the flour and then fold in the hazelnuts.
• Pour a ¼ cup* of the cake batter into the cupcake cases and once they’re all filled sharply tap the pan once on a hard surface to make sure there are no air bubbles in the mixture.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes and cool completely before frosting.

*just as a side note here, be careful about over-filling the cupcake cases because when I was baking these I thought that there wasn’t enough mixture in each case and then my cupcakes turned into the Thing That Took Over The Oven:


But at least I got a bowl of muffin tops out of it for Mr. Vesta (which made him happy!)



Vesta xox