Nutella self-frosting cupcakes...

So.  I'd been wanting to include Nutella in my baking ventures for quite some time now, purely because I think it is a food sent from heaven.  I'd say I developed a minor addiction to it at one point. Thankfully for my teeth and waistline I managed to get that under control.

I had read a few articles about these 'self-frosting' cakes and was waiting for the right opportunity.  The idea behind them is that you add the Nutella before baking so when you take them out the oven, they're already iced and ready to eat.

This weekend some friends and I went to the New Forest to celebrate our birthdays and had planned to have a winter picnic (yes. i know) so I thought, these would be perfect as it wouldn't matter if they got bashed around because there was no icing to spoil.

I used my trusted Primrose Bakery vanilla cupcake recipe and filled each case two thirds full.  My first attempt at swirling Nutella through the batter failed as it was too hard and the batter was quite thin, so I heated the Nutella for a few seconds and it was loads easier.

All you have to do is place a spoonful of the chocolatey goodness on top of the batter, then use a cocktail stick to swirl it.  To do this, push the cocktail stick down until it touches the bottom and then swoosh and swirl about until you think it looks pretty.

And that is IT. Well, apart from baking them in the oven.

I decorated mine with some little pink hearts because I couldn't resist.  They tasted delICIOUS.