Chocolate marshmallow peanut butter Nutella cupcakes!

The finished product!

When I bake, I usually follow a recipe I found on Pinterest or modify an existing recipe to suit my needs, but I do eventually want to get to the point when I can make up my own stuff. This is my first attempt at doing that - cupcakes for my housewarming party! Basically my starting point for making these cupcakes was What are things people like to eat? Then I put those things into one cupcake. Hence, the chocolate/marshmallow/peanut butter/Nutella creation that resulted!


These were relatively simple to make - I basically baked a batch of chocolate cupcakes from a box mix and then stuffed a marshmallow into the center. The plan was to let the marshmallows melt as the cupcakes cooled, but that wasn't enough to melt them, so I ended up putting them back into the oven and let the residual heat take care of it.

I then whipped up a buttercream frosting that was loaded with peanut butter and Nutella. I've made so much buttercream frosting these past few months that I don't need a recipe to follow anymore - I simply throw butter and powdered sugar together, with whatever flavors I want, and blend it together, adding milk if necessary to get the right consistency. There wasn't a lot of Nutella flavor in the resulting frosting, so I added a dollop of Nutella to each cupcake before topping it off with the frosting. The cupcakes didn't really go with our housewarming party theme (which was toga), so I added a little mint leaf to each cupcake for decoration to go with the Greek-inspired decorations we had.

As a side note, I will be out of town for the next week, so no baking updates for awhile!

Marshmallow center!

with the peanut butter Nutella frosting!

Awesome Cupcakes (makes 2 dozen)

Cupcakes: 

• 1 box of devil's food cake mix (I used Duncan Hines)
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup milk (instead of water in the box's instructions)
• 1/3 cup canola oil

Frosting: 

• 1/2 cup of unsalted butter
• 2-3 cups of powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup of peanut butter
• 1/2 cup of Nutella
• ~1/2 cup of milk
• Extra Nutella (~1/2 cup)
• Mint leaves for garnish

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. 
2. Mix the cake mix with the eggs, milk, and oil and combine until smooth. Pour into prepared cupcake liners (about 1/2 full) and bake for 20 minutes. 
3. When the cupcakes come out, immediately scoop out the center to make a little (I used my special cupcake corer tool) and insert a marshmallow into the hole. Turn off the oven and stick the cupcakes back in to let the marshmallows melt from the leftover heat (takes about 5 minutes). 
4. Add a dollop of Nutella to the top of each marshmallow.
5. Combine butter and sugar, and then add the vanilla, peanut butter, and Nutella. Blend until smooth and fluffy. 
6. Pipe frosting onto cupcakes and add mint leaf for decoration! Enjoy!