Thank you, Italy

My idea for these Nutella-filled cupcakes came from having a massive jar of Nutella that I was either going to consume rapidly with a spoon or bake with and force-feed to other people. I chose the latter.

I started off with a basic yellow cake mix (Pillsbury, I think) and baked the cupcakes according to the directions. Then I filled a pastry disposable pastry bag with Nutella and used a frosting tip with just a round opening, maybe about 1/4" in diameter. Since the cupcakes were pretty fluffy, I was able to stick the tip into the top of each cupcake and fill them. My incredibly precise method for getting the same amount into each was to count to 5 as I squeezed the pastry bag. Of course, I have no idea if they're all equal because I did not personally eat every one of them (good thing, too, because I'm trying to avoid obesity until I'm out of my 20s).

Then I attempted to make hazelnut frosting. I bought hazelnut extract (the bottle suspiciously says:

Natural
Hazelnut
Type Flavor

What, I ask you, is "hazelnut type flavor"? Well, the emphasis was on hazelnut, so I decided to focus on that) and added about 1/2 teaspoon to the buttercream frosting recipe on the Domino Sugar box instead of vanilla extract. It calls for:

1 box (3 3/4 cup) powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
3-4 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Then I also added about a tablespoon of Nutella, which made it a nice light tan color. I liked the look of the frosting, but I was not a huge fan of the taste. It was too sweet, and the "hazelnut type flavor" did not taste much like hazelnut. If I make these again, I'll probably just add a bit of Nutella to the frosting and then maybe add a couple of tablespoons of cocoa powder as well to make it less coma-inducingly sweet. Another option would be to use chocolate cake instead of yellow cake because it tends to be less sweet.

Overall, not a bad experiment. The people at my internship liked it at least, and as long as other people enjoy them, I'm happy.