Nutella Filled Cupcakes

This past weekend we had some friends over and I needed to make a dessert for after dinner.  After looking through the cupboards I realized we had a left over box of vanilla cake mix and vanilla frosting from my husband's birthday.  I wanted to use that up, but needed something to jazz up the boring all-vanilla dessert.  I saw a jar of Nutella and thought filling the cupcakes with that would be an awesome idea!  This "recipe" can be super easy by using a box mix and ready-made frosting like I did, but if you have a great from-scratch recipe for cupcakes and frosting you can definitely use that instead!  

At first I debated whether I should pipe Nutella into already cooked and cooled cupcakes, or put it straight into the batter before baking.  I decided to go with adding the Nutella in before baking and other than it sinking towards the bottom half of the cupcake (some more than others), it worked great!  Putting the Nutella in pre-baking also means a little less clean-up in the end, which is just fine by me.  

Nutella Filled Cupcakes

Prep time 15 mins*  |  Cook time 20 mins*  |  Makes up to 24 cupcakes 
*additional time needed to cool and decorate.  

Ingredients  

• vanilla cake mix

• wet ingredients needed for the cake mix (varies depending on brand, but you usually need eggs, water, vegetable oil)

• vanilla ready-made frosting

• Nutella

• cupcake liners

• sprinkles (optional)

Directions

1. Make cake batter according to package directions and fill muffin tin, lined with cupcake liners, with the batter.

2. Put a heaping teaspooon (or a little more) of Nutella on top of the batter.

3. Bake according to package directions (make sure cupcakes are thoroughly cooked).

4. Cool and decorate.

5. Enjoy!

Now wasn't that easy? :)

Tip: In the past I have used straight Nutella as frosting when I was short. It worked great, but keep in mind it stays very "goopy" and doesn't firm up or get that thin crust like most frostings do.