Ever since I published the recipe for the Hummingbird Bakery’s Chocolate Hazelnut cupcakes a few days ago, I’ve been receiving a lot of questions about one of the steps in the recipe. Specifically, the final step of the recipe instructs you to hollow out a small section of the center of cupcake and fill the resulting hole with a dollop of Nutella. Doing so results in a cupcake with a delicious surprise in the center:
As for frosting the cupcakes, I was worried that both would be difficult to frost for different reasons. The Cupcake Plunger Method results in giant cracks across the top of the cupcake — I was worried that crumbs from the cracks would get mixed with the frosting as I tried to spread it across the cake.
The Spatula Nub Method, on the other hand, leaves your cupcake top pretty smooth. But since the Nutella is kinda just sitting there not being covered by any cake, I was worried that it would mix with the frosting and leave weird Nutella streaks as I tried to frost the cupcake.
But thankfully, neither of these scenarios occurred: I was able to frost both cupcakes without any problem:
Sweet.
Anyway, if there’s anybody out there who has a better method for putting filling inside cupcakes, do share! I’d love to hear all about it.
MandyM says
Have you tried using an apple corer? (Just a cheap one like this http://goo.gl/Rorh9 )
It doesn't make as big a hole as the plunger, but in my experience it's big enough for filling, and you can also put the "cap" back on to plug the hole. (I never plug it, those are baker's taste testers ;))
An apple corer is also just the right size that you can pipe the filling into the cupcake with a large plain tip (or no tip at all) which is easier than spooning the filling in to the holes.
Not to plug my own site (you can delete these links if you like) but here's how they turn out
http://www.mandymortimer.com/apple-cupcakes/
http://www.mandymortimer.com/devils-food-cupcakes/
michelle lopez says
Oooh, an apple corer seems like a great idea. I also saw that Sur La Table and Crate&Barrel actually sell a cupcake corer that looks more stable than the Cupcake Plunger: http://www.surlatable.com/product/PRO-706044/Cuisipro-Cupcake-Corer;jsessionid=77AEF804D340B85C37DC84B530C25379
Your cupcakes look beautiful by the way. I love the way you piped the frosting in the two links above. They also look delicious!
MandyM says
That does look good. I guess it also depends how much of a hole you want to make. An apple corer is great for rich fillings like caramel or white choc ganache, but a larger corer would be nice for fruit fillings.
And thank you for the complement 🙂 Your baking looks good enough to eat, that's for sure!! 😀 You've got a great look blog here and I love the write ups you're doing on the Hummingbird recipes.
Muses44 says
America's Test Kitchen blog, AKA "The Feed," has a good pictorial on filling cupcakes that I used pretty successfully on their Boston Cream cupcake. I like it because you end up with a very nice "filling to cake" ratio :).
http://www.americastestkitchenfeed.com/bake-it-better/2012/05/boston-cream-cupcakes/
PS–I'm loving your blog even though I live very firmly at sea level!
michelle lopez says
Oh wow, thanks for sharing that link! I'll definitely have to give that a try the next time I make these cupcakes.
Also, thanks so much for the blog love — I actually moved back to Portland in June, so all my newer recipes are in sea-level format!