Happy Hippo Cupcakes & Nutella Buttercream Icing

If possible I love to spend my Sunday evenings baking, it’s relaxing and there’s nothing better than the scent of baking which fills the room. Recently I’ve been enjoying baking cupcakes with the aim to perfect my buttercream icing and it been successful. Gone are the days of thin buttercream, I can now create fluffy buttercream which pipes onto cupcakes perfectly.

These chocolate cupcakes with Nutella filling and topped with Nutella buttercream icing and Happy Hippos have become a firm favourite of mine. If I ever have people coming for a tea or fancy something sweet, I always bake these as they’re delicious! The Nutella filling is optional however if you love it as much as I do, you’ll be glad you added it to the middle of the cupcakes. So, are you reading to get baking these Happy Hippo Cupcakes?

Ingredients

Chocolate Cupcakes:
2 large eggs
90g caster sugar
115g butter
115g self-raising flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
½ tsp baking powder

Nutella Buttercream Icing:
190g icing sugar
125g butter
4 large tbsp of Nutella

Decoration:
6 Happy Hippos

Now you’ve made sure that you have all the ingredients, it’s time to start baking!

To Make the Happy Hippo Cupcakes

1. Whisk together the butter and sugar until it’s pale and fluffy.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl and continue to whisk together until fully combined. If you’re not using an electric mixer then you’ll want to add the eggs first a little at a time, then add a small amount of flour if you think it’s going to start to curdle, before adding the remaining ingredients and the rest of the flour. However with an electric mixer you can put all the ingredients in together.
3. Place an even amount of cake mixture into 6 cupcake cases. You might have some mixture left over depending on the size of your cases.
4. Bake in the middle of a preheated oven (190C/170C fan) for 15-20 minutes. You can check if they’re ready by poking a skewer or small knife in the middle, and if it comes out clean they’re cooked. If not just pop them back in for a few minutes.
5. Leave to cool on a cooling rack.
6. Once completely cooled you want to carve out the centre of the cupcakes, I have a little device that easily does this but you can always use a knife and cut around a piping nozzle. Fill the hole with a generous amount of Nutella (this step is optional however I love Nutella so always do this)

To Make the Nutella Buttercream Icing

1. Whisk the butter for 5-10 minutes until it’s light and fluffy.
2. Sift the icing sugar into the bowl and mix with the butter for another 5 minutes.
3. Add Nutella and mix until fully combined, then pop into the fridge to set.
4. You can add the buttercream icing on the top of the cupcakes with a knife, however I prefer to use a nozzle and piping bag. Then just pop a Happy Hippo on the icing!

Let me know if you bake these Happy Hippo Cupcakes and love them as much as I do. I’m a huge Nutella lover so these are my dream cupcakes, however I’d love to know what yours would be too!

Rebecca x