Halloween is coming soon, and for the occasion, I’m sharing with you a frightfully delicious recipe for vanilla hazelnut cupcakes with a bat look. These little vanilla cupcakes are filled with a hazelnut spread and a hazelnut whipped ganache.
Which spread should you use?
The hazelnut spread I’m talking about is from the brand Koro, but it’s so delicious that it’s sometimes out of stock, oops! The brand Nocciolata also makes a hazelnut spread (Nocciolata Bianca) that I’ve had the chance to taste too — it’s just as delicious. If you don’t have either, you can use a spread of your choice.
And what about the decoration?
For the decoration, nothing very complicated. You’ll need Oreo© biscuits — large ones for the wings and small ones for the face.
Finally, to make the eyes, you can very well buy little sugar eyes — that’s the simplest. But you can just as well do as I did and use black and white icing pens. You just pipe little balls of white icing directly with the pen, let them dry (it’s very quick), then pipe little black dots on the white balls. Once dry, your eyes are ready to use. To stick them on, you can use melted chocolate.
Ingredients & method
3 components · Full recipe
Hazelnut whipped ganache (start the day before)
Ingredients
- 63 g (2.2 oz) white Ivoire 35% Valrhona chocolate
- 80 g (2.8 oz) heavy cream (1)
- 170 g (6 oz) heavy cream (2)
- 40 g (1.4 oz) hazelnut paste
- 2 g (0.1 oz) gelatine (= 1 sheet)
Method
1
Rehydrate the gelatine in water.
2
Break the white chocolate into pieces in a bowl (you can melt it slightly in a bain-marie or in the microwave).
3
Heat the 80 g (2.8 oz) of cream and bring to a boil.
4
Off the heat, add the rehydrated gelatine and stir.
5
Pour one third of the cream over the white chocolate and mix with a spatula to create an emulsion. Then add a second third, then a third, until you get a smooth, homogeneous mixture.
6
Add the 170 g (6 oz) of cold cream and the hazelnut paste, mix again. Blend for a few seconds with a hand blender to fully emulsify.
7
Cover with cling film touching the surface and refrigerate overnight.
Vanilla cupcake
Ingredients
- 240 g (8.5 oz) flour
- 280 g (9.9 oz) caster sugar
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- a pinch of salt
- 80 g (2.8 oz) butter, at room temperature
- 250 g (8.8 oz) whole milk
- 2 eggs
- 1 tbsp Norohy vanilla extract
Method
1
Preheat the oven to 170°C / 340°F.
2
Place 16 paper liners in a muffin tin.
3
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt (away from the baking powder) and butter. Mix on low speed until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
4
Gradually pour in half the milk and beat on medium speed until fully incorporated.
5
Whisk together the eggs, vanilla extract and remaining milk in a bowl for a few seconds. Add this liquid mixture to the batter and continue beating until smooth (don’t hesitate to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula). Be careful not to overmix.
6
Fill the paper liners two-thirds full with batter.
7
Bake in the middle of the oven for 25–30 minutes (keep an eye on them, as all ovens vary). The cupcakes are ready when they are golden and a knife inserted in the centre comes out clean.
8
Leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Allow to cool completely before decorating. If the cupcakes have domed too much during baking, don’t hesitate to level them with a serrated knife to get an almost flat surface.
Assembling the vanilla hazelnut cupcakes
Ingredients
- hazelnut spread
- 16 mini Oreos
- 8 large Oreos
- sugar eyes (or black and white icing pens)
Method
1
Core each cupcake to fill with hazelnut spread (the easiest way is to use a cupcake corer, but you can manage with a small knife too).
2
Whip the hazelnut ganache like whipped cream, then transfer to a piping bag fitted with a star tip.
3
Pipe a rosette of ganache onto each cupcake, then decorate with Oreos.
4
For the eyes, the easiest option is to use sugar eyes. Alternatively, use white and black icing pens: pipe small white dots directly onto the ganache, let dry (this happens very quickly), then pipe small black dots on top. Once dry, your eyes are ready to use.
Gallery
