'Mr Nutella' Chocolate Cupcakes | Weekend Bake Recipe

In honour of Ferrero Rocher chocolate tycoon Michele Ferrero, or 'Mr Nutella', who sadly died this week, I had fun developing these Nutella inspired treats. Warning: These cupcakes contain a combination of ingredients so indulgently sweet as to probably be capable of inducing a heart attack. Bon Appetit!

Ingredients (Makes 6):

2 eggs (room temperature)

2oz caster sugar

2oz self-raising flour, no need to sift (or plain flour and 1 teaspoon baking powder) 

2oz unsalted butter (room temperature)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Butter icing: icing sugar, unsalted butter, vanilla extract, 1 dessert spoon of Nutella

Method:

1) Preheat oven to Gas Mark 5

2) Cream together sugar and butter

3) Mix in eggs and vanilla extract

4) Fold the flour into the mixture

5) Spoon half of the mixture into 6 muffin cases

6) Add a teaspoon of Nutella in the middle of each case

7) Spoon the rest of the mixture into the cases, so that it covers the Nutella blob in the middle

8) Bake for 15-20 minutes in the preheated oven and allow to cool on a wire rack when baked

9) Decorate with a sprinkle of icing sugar or a dollop of Nutella butter icing

Terry's Chocolate Orange Christmas Leftover Muffins

The full title of this inventive recipe is 'Terry's-chocolate-orange-New-Year-sweet-Christmas-leftover-muffins'. By the time Boxing Day rolls in, as do Christmas' survivors, leftover turkey is usually seen as the order of the day. But surely too much credence is given to our seasonal savoury companions - turkeys, geese, duck, pork, usually the preserve of stodgy sandwiches - what of leftover sweets? In the spirit of New Year celebratory baking, and clutching some of the remaining Christmas Terry's chocolate orange, I decided to turn my sweet leftovers into a muffin recipe. As the saying goes, adversity is the mother of invention. And so leftover chocolate was the mother of this invention.

Ingredients (Makes 12)

3/4 Terry's Dark Chocolate Orange

2 large eggs

4oz self-raising flour (or baking powder and plain flour)

4oz caster sugar

4oz soft butter

For decoration (see below)

Method

Preheat oven to Gas Mark 5 (or equivalent)

Cream together the butter and sugar until soft

Add the beaten eggs to the mixture gradually, a bit at a time

Fold in the flour until combined

Chop the chocolate orange segments into chunks

Stir chocolate chunks into the mixture

Bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes

Decoration

For decoration I went (again) with leftovers - in the form of glace cherries, mini meringues, chocolate chunks, chocolate stars - so go wild and dangerously and experiment with whatever you happen to have to hand!

Good luck and comment below or tweet your progress!