Jennifer's Birthday! Chocolate Hazelnut Cupcakes, Blackberry Lavender Cupcakes, and Mint Julep Cupcakes

A couple weekends ago was my dear friend Jennifer's birthday. She asked me to make some cupcakes for her backyard BBQ party and picked two past favorites: Lavender Raspberry Cupcakes and Mint Julep Cupcakes. She wasn't sure what she wanted for a third flavor, though, so she had me come up with suggestions. I thought a peanut butter chocolate would be good, but when I remembered a tupperware full of already peeled hazelnuts that had been waiting for me in the freezer, I knew it had to be chocolate hazelnut.

Side note: Hazelnuts are my absolute favorite nut flavor and they also happen to be ridiculously obnoxious to peel. That is where the freezer comes in handy; you can get all that peeling over with and freeze them to use in the future, when you want a hazelnut-y treat NOW.

As is my way, I poked around Pinterest to find a recipe that incorporated a lot of different hazelnut flavoring opportunities. I found this lovely recipe from the Food Network website, called Tall, Dark, and Handsome Chocolate Hazelnut Cupcakes. It included in its ingredients list Frangelico (hazelnut liquor), Nutella, and whole hazelnuts. I substituted hazelnut extract for vanilla extract and called it a day.

Chocolate Hazelnut Cupcakes

All my hazelnut products!

(makes about 28 cupcakes)

First, cream in the mixer:
1 cup butter
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar

Add, one at a time:
3 eggs

Then add:
1 cup buttermilk
1 tbsp hazelnut extract (or vanilla extract)






In a new bowl, whisk together until combined:
1 cup Frangelico
1 cup cocoa powder

In a third bowl, sift together:

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Alternate pouring the contents of these last two bowls into the mixer, beating each time until everything is just incorporated. You should begin and end with the flour. Set the bowl aside and prepare your filling.

I tried pouring a bit of batter in, then adding the filling, but
that burnt the filling slightly. Try filling the cupcake liners,
then pushing the filling balls in so they sit in the center.

For the filling, you want to run through the food processer:
1 1/2 cup whole hazelnuts (peeled)

Then, you want to mix the ground hazelnuts with
1/3 cup Nutella
2 tbsp Franglico

At this point, the filling should be a consistency that you can pick up and roll into a ball with your hands. Roll about 28 balls and they should be the perfect size. Feel free to make them bigger or smaller to your preference.

Prepare a cupcake tin and pour the batter 3/4 of the way to the top. Then place a ball in the middle of each cupcake tin. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.

I used my favorite vanilla cream frosting recipe, mixed with Nutella, to frost them.

Nutella Vanilla Cream Frosting 

(frosts ~24 cupcakes)

Beat until stiff:

3 cups heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup instand vanilla pudding mix

Then mix in: 

2/3 cup Nutella

Let cupcakes cool, then pipe on frosting. Refrigerate the cupcakes after frosting to ensure the frosting stays somewhat stiff.

Though you can find my recipe for Lavender Raspberry Cupcakes through the link above, I wanted to take some picture of the Lavender Blackberry Cupcakes I made for the party. Same recipe, just blackberries instead of raspberries.