INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups gluten-free 1:1 mix of your choosing (I love the Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 mix!  Also, if you’re not baking for a GF friend in your life, regular ol’ AP flour works just fine)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I did a mix of black cocoa and Hershey’s cocoa)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup buttermilk (okay, if you don’t have buttermilk on hand, you can use The Kitchn’s guide to making your own with vinegar or lemon juice OR buttermilk powder if you bake a lot because it’s so worth it/magical)
• 1/2 cup coffee, room temperature/lukewarm
  

  

FILLING:

• literally just a 13 oz. jar of Nutella

FROSTING:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 to 1 1/2 cup Nutella (if you like big ol’ piles of frosting, guilty as charged, err on the side of more Nutella)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 1/2 – 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar (once again, the ratio depends on how much frosting you want – play around with it until you have a consistency you’re happy with, and you can add more if needed!)
• 2-3 tbsp  whole milk or heavy cream to thin out your frosting as needed

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F and line your baking pans with liners.
2. In a large bowl, cream together your butter and sugar.  Add the eggs one by one, beating well after each egg.  Add vanilla, making sure it is well combined with eggs and sugar mix.
3. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together cocoa, flour, baking soda, and salt until combined.  (Worth it to sift the cocoa and flour before whisking to get any big lumps out of it).
   

   

4. In a third bowl, stir buttermilk with coffee until combined.  If you’re using buttermilk powder, add the powder to the dried ingredient bowl and proportional amount of water to the coffee bowl.
5. Add the dry ingredients in thirds to the sugar mix, alternating with buttermilk and coffee mixture, beating well after each addition and scraping the bowl as needed.
   

   

6. Fill your cupcake liners 2/3 full with batter and bake for 15-20 minutes (standard cupcakes) or 11-14 minutes (mini cupcakes), until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cupcake comes out clean with very little crumbs.
7. Let cupcakes cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove them to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
8. Now the cupcakes should be cooled fully – still with me? Great!  For the mini cupcakes I used the Wilton 230 tip and for the standard cupcakes I scooped out some of the center of the cupcake and set it aside (ate it).  Fill your cupcakes with Nutella using whichever method you prefer.
9. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter, Nutella and vanilla until smooth.
   

   

10. Gradually add powdered sugar until desired consistency is reached, adding milk/more powdered sugar as needed to get ideal smooth consistency.  Frost the cupcakes with whatever method you like, offset spatula works or the ol’ trusty Wilton 1M for the sky high pile of fluff.
    

    

11. Take all of them into your room and hide them under lock and key.  Share only if person knows the password.