Chocolate and hazelnut is one of my favorite flavor combos, so it should be no surprise that I LOVE Nutella. These moist chocolate hazelnut cupcakes are filled with Nutella and then topped with fluffy Nutella buttercream! They're the ultimate cupcake for Nutella lovers!
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Why You'll Love These Cupcakes!
- Filled with Nutella - you can't have Nutella cupcakes without filling them full of creamy Nutella!
- Fluffy Nutella buttercream - adding Nutella to the frosting makes it extra creamy and fluffy!
- Moist chocolatey cupcake base - these chocolate cupcakes are moist, fudgy, and full of rich chocolate and hazelnut flavor!
If you love chocolate and hazelnuts as much as me, you might also like these chocolate hazelnut macarons or this chocolate hazelnut biscotti!
Ingredient Notes
You only need a few ingredients to make these chocolate hazelnut cupcakes with Nutella buttercream!
Vegetable Oil - I use oil instead of butter in these cupcakes to help keep the cake super moist and delicious! You can also use canola oil or a neutral olive oil.
Cake Flour - I always use cake flour in my cupcakes because it makes them super soft and tender, but all purpose flour also works great!
Hazelnut Flour - Hazelnut flour is literally just finely ground hazelnuts! I love using it in place of some of the flour for an extra nutty flavor. But it's completely optional! You can buy hazelnut flour at a lot of grocery stores and online (Bob’s Red Mill is my favorite brand for nut flours). You can also substitute almond flour or regular flour.
Cocoa Powder - My absolute favorite cocoa powder to use in my baking is the King Arthur Flour Triple Cocoa Blend! It's a blend of natural, Dutch, and black cocoa and is perfect for any baking. But you can easily substitute unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa instead!
Espresso Powder - This is optional, but I love how espresso powder enhances and deepens the chocolate flavor! King Arthur is my favorite brand of high quality espresso powder!
Nutella - I'm partial to the classic Nutella, but any chocolate hazelnut spread will work!
The complete list of ingredients and amounts is located in the recipe card below.
How to Make Chocolate Cupcakes
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, hazelnut flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In a separate large bowl, whisk together the vegetable oil and granulated sugar until fully combined. Then whisk in the eggs and vanilla until smooth. Whisk in the milk until combined.
Then gently mix in the dry ingredients until fully incorporated. The batter will be thin.
Pour about ¼ cup of batter into each cupcake liner (they should be about halfway full).
Bake at 350°F for 18-22 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
Remove from pan and let cool on wire rack.
Let the chocolate hazelnut cupcakes cool completely before filling and frosting.
Use a cupcake corer to remove the center of each cupcake, then fill with 1-2 teaspoons of Nutella.
Frost the filled chocolate cupcakes and garnish with crushed hazelnuts if desired!
Tips for the Best Baked Goods
Use room temperature ingredients! Always make sure ingredients like butter, eggs, milk, yogurt, etc. are at room temperature before baking (unless the recipe indicates otherwise)! This ensures they'll incorporate into the batter more easily and leads to overall better texture. Remove all ingredients from the fridge 30 minutes to an hour before baking for best results.
Measure your flour correctly! It's most accurate to use a kitchen scale, but if you're measuring by volume you want to spoon and level! Fluff up the flour a bit with a spoon, and then spoon flour into the measuring cup. Once it's overflowing, use the back of a knife to level it off. Don't ever pack flour into the measuring cup or you'll end up with way too much! Improperly measured flour can lead to dry, dense baked goods. [Measure cocoa powder the same way!]
Use an oven thermometer! Just because your oven says it's 350, doesn't mean it is! If you oven hasn't been calibrated recently, it can be as much as 30 degrees off, which will negatively affect all baked goods from cakes to macarons! An oven thermometer is the easiest/cheapest way to ensure your oven is always at the proper temperature.
Make sure you baking powder is fresh! Baking powder is important for helping baked goods rise properly, but it has a relatively short shelf life once opened, so it's one of the few items I never buy in bulk! To test if your baking powder is still fresh, add a small amount to boiling water. If it bubbles it's still good to use, but if not it's time to toss it!
Cupcake Decorating Tips
For chocolate cupcakes, I like to use these chocolate brown cupcake liners for a more seamless look!
Make sure you let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting, then use a cupcake corer to easily remove the center of your cupcakes before filling with Nutella.
For these big beautiful frosting swirls on these chocolate hazelnut cupcakes, I use the 1M tip from this decorating kit. The tips are much larger than standard sizes and so fun for decorating cupcakes!
You can garnish these Nutella cupcakes with chopped hazelnuts or chocolate shavings!
Recipe FAQ's
These cupcakes will last in the fridge for up to 3 days. However, they taste best when served at room temperature! I like to let them sit at room temperature for about an hour before serving.
You can use your favorite chocolate hazelnut spread or substitute with a different kind of nut butter.
Tips for Success!
For best results I always recommend using weight measurements (especially when baking) because it's the most accurate. Kitchen scales are super affordable and also reduce the number of dishes you have to do! However, all my recipes also include US customary measurements for convince. Use this chart to convert measurements for common ingredients!
Substitutions: In all my recipes, I've included substitutions that I know will work, but I cannot guarantee results if you substitute ingredients that I have not recommended. [For example, granulated sugar and honey are indeed both sweeteners but they have very different properties so they can not always be swapped 1:1. Using honey in a cookie recipe that calls for granulated sugar will yield a giant mess.] In the recipe card you'll find links to the specific ingredients/brands that I use.
A note on salt: I almost exclusively use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt because it's the best all-purpose salt for cooking and baking. If you're not using kosher salt, consult this handy guide for a conversion chart! When in doubt, if you're using table salt just reduce the amount by half for baked goods. When cooking, I prefer to under-salt because you can always add more! If you've over-salted, adding a little bit of acid (like lemon juice) can help.
More Chocolate Recipes You Might Like!
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Recipe Card
Chocolate Hazelnut Cupcakes with Nutella Buttercream
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- ½ cup vegetable oil, substitute canola oil or neutral vegetable oil
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup whole milk
- 1 cup cake flour, substitute all purpose flour
- ¼ cup hazelnut flour, substitute all purpose flour
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon espresso powder, optional
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup Nutella
Nutella Buttercream
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- ½ cup Nutella
- 3 ½ cups powdered sugar
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- chopped hazelnuts , for garnish
Instructions
Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, hazelnut flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In a separate large bowl, whisk together the vegetable oil and granulated sugar until fully combined. Then whisk in the eggs and vanilla until smooth. Whisk in the milk until combined.
- Then gently mix in the dry ingredients until fully incorporated. The batter will be thin.
- Pour about ¼ cup of batter into each cupcake liner (they should be about halfway full).
- Bake at 350°F for 18-22 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
- Remove from pan and let cool on wire rack.
- Let the chocolate hazelnut cupcakes cool completely before filling and frosting.
- Use a cupcake corer to remove the center of each cupcake, then fill with 1-2 teaspoons of Nutella.
Nutella Buttercream
- In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the softened butter and Nutella until smooth.
- Add in the powdered sugar and salt and mix on low until fully combined.
- Then beat on high for 3-5 minutes until the buttercream is super light and airy.
- If the frosting in too thick, you can add in 1 tablespoon of cream at a time to thin it out a bit.
- Frost the filled chocolate cupcakes and garnish with crushed hazelnuts if desired!
Notes
Nutrition
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Chantal says
My fiance and I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVEA this cupcake recipe. So much so I want to make it as a 10" wedding cake with 3 layers. Can you please tell me if I can make it as a cake version? would it be 3 x or 4 x to get 10"? Thanks!! x
Kyleigh Sage says
Ahh I love to hear that!!
This recipe is equivalent to about 1 8" round layer (or roughly 3 cups of batter). A 10" pan needs about 5 cups of batter, so for 3 10" round layers it would be 5x for 15 cups of batter (feel free to double check my math but I think that's right lol). Just note: that's a lot for regular kitchen equipment so you might need to do a couple batches so you don't overflow your bowls (I'd probably do the calculations for 5x and then divide by 2 and do 2 batches). For the frosting, you might not need 5x the amount, so you'd probably be fine with only 4x.
Melinda says
For thr buttercream, how would you recommend adjusting the recipe to include shortening so it will be less likely to melt? I am thinking of making these for my daughter's birthday party this August!
Kyleigh Sage says
I don't ever use shortening in my buttercreams because I don't like the flavor, so I'm not an expert on this. But I would probably just do half butter half shortening and cream those together before adding the Nutella. But even with shortening, try to keep them inside as long as possible because even shortening will melt in the heat in August.
Sheree says
Hi, Kyle!
Wow! I made these cupcakes and they were absolutely delicious!
As usual, I tweaked the recipe a touch. Instead of filling the cupcakes with Nutella, I added it to the batter. I made a different filling made from smooth peanut butter, heavy whipping cream, vanilla, a little powdered sugar, Nutella, and Frangelico. I also added a little Frangelico to the icing and cut the powdered sugar back to about half. (I find that everyone prefers less-sweet icing.) I topped each cupcake with a light sprinkle of Kosher salt, a chocolate covered espresso bean and a Byrd’s Salted Caramel Mini-Cookie.
Thank you for a great recipe! It’s one I’ll be repeating!
Michelle Alexandre says
Can I make this into cake? If so should I double or triple the recipe?
Kyleigh Sage says
Yes absolutely! As written the recipe will convert to a 9 inch square cake or 8 inch round cake (or a 2 layer 6 inch round cake). But if you double it, it will make a 2 layer 8 inch cake. You'll just have to increase the baking time (usually 25-30 minutes). I also have a similar chocolate espresso layer cake you might like! It's about 1 1/2 times the volume of the cupcake batter so it would also work as a 9x13 inch sheet cake! https://www.barleyandsage.com/chocolate-espresso-ombre-layer-cake/ (you could easily adapt it for the same chocolate hazelnut flavor).
Margaret says
Delicious, my husband’s comment ‘They’re very good, really light and fluffy’ and he doesn’t like cake! Definitely a keeper.
Angela Stanford says
Absolutely divine! I made them gluten and dairy free and replaced Nutella with Noccioloata dairy free hazelnut spread! Family LOVED them! Youngest daughter loved them so much, I'm turning it into a cake for her birthday today!
Lisa says
I love hazelnuts, this buttercream was delicious… I also made this with white cake and added hazelnut extract and added espresso to the mix topped off with hazelnut buttercream. Next time I will be filling with a lite Italian meringue icing, for a even lighter taste.
Daniel Pyavka says
… I didn’t notice the typo in my last comment, my bad. It was supposed to be “and I have experimented”
Daniel Pyavka says
I love baking so much, and you be experimented with all kinds of flavors with cookies, brownies, cupcakes etc. but this is by the far one the best deserts I have ever had. I just gotta say, good job with this one!!