Vanilla Cupcakes with Nutella Mousse Frosting

My son Jesse just made these for a potluck. The Nutella Mousse Frosting is a recipe introduced to him in Austin, Texas by Becky Sumsion and he has used it on other occasions to ice a cake. Not good for the waistline but delicious. The vanilla cupcakes are a pretty standard recipe, this one from BBC on-line.

Vanilla Cupcakes

110 grams / 4 ounces butter or margarine, softened at room temperature

110 grams / 4 ounces caster (or superfine granulated) sugar

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

110 grams / 4 ounces self-raising flour

1-2 tablespoons milk

• Preheat Oven to 180° C / 350°F.
• Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper cases.

 Note: The cupcakes can be mixed in a bowl by hand or with a mixer.

• Cream together butter and sugar until the mixture is pale in colour. 
• Beat in eggs one at a time. 
• Stir in vanilla extract. 
• Fold in the flour. 
• Add the milk a little at a time until the mixture is of a dropping consistency. 
• Spoon mixture into paper cases until they are half full. 
• Bake in the middle of the oven for 10-15 minutes, until top is golden brown and a skewer inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. 
• Set aside to cool for 10 minutes. 
• Remove paper cups from tin and leave to cool on a wire rack. 
• When the cupcakes are cool, ice them.

  

Nutella Mousse Frosting

This makes a lot of icing, enough to frost a large cake or 24 cupcakes. So if you are only making 12, you can halve the recipe.

1½ cups nutella

8 ounce package cream cheese

1 cup heavy whipping  cream

• Cream together the nutella and the cream cheese. 
• Beat whipping cream until medium peaks. 
• Take a tablespoon of whipped cream and mix into cream cheese mixture. 
• The fold the rest of the whipped cream into the mixture. 
• Frost the cool cupcakes.