Nutella Bundt with Nutella Glaze #BundtBakers

Fudgy and soft with a subtle nuttiness, this Nutella Bundt cake with Amaretto and ground almonds, topped with slightly warmed Nutella, is a brownie-like confection that every chocolate or Nutella fan will love.

When they were growing up and still at home, I would occasionally find an empty Nutella jar in one of my daughter’s bedrooms - most often the elder, if truth be told - scraped clean of sticky hazelnut chocolate and abandoned under the bed. They spread it on toast, rolled it up in crepes and, as just mentioned, ate it with a spoon. They come by Nutella love naturally, a tale you can read about here, along with a recipe for my Nutella Swirl Muffins. When they went off to university in Providence, no stores near them seemed to carry the creamy delight of our young lives. One year I even sent them jars ordered on Amazon as a special treat, in celebration World Nutella Day. When they were coming home for Christmas last year, I bought a very large jar of Nutella in anticipation (750g or 1.7 lbs by weight) and stashed it in the cupboard. It was opened, a little Nutella was eaten and then, the holidays over, they left. That big jar has been languishing there for eight months now, mocking me each time I opened the cupboard door, threatening to turn rancid, as old things with oil will ever do. I began to scour the internet for recipes with Nutella and finally settled on this one from Nigella Lawson’s site.

I had to adapt it slightly for lack of all the ingredients, but this is essentially Nigella’s cake, fudgy, soft and brownie-like in texture. The additional Nutella warmed and poured on top is mine though. I had to get through that jar, folks!

Without further ado, here’s my contribution to this month’s Bundt Bakers Sprinkles theme, hosted by Terri of Love and Confections. August is Terri’s birthday month and what better way to celebrate than with Bundts with sprinkles. Hope your birthday was the best, Terri!

Ingredients
For the cake:
6 large eggs
1/2 cup or 120g unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups or 400g Nutella or whatever hazelnut chocolate spread you have on hand
1 tablespoon Amaretto liqueur
1 cup (spooned in, not tightly packed) or 100g ground almonds
3 1/2 oz or 100g dark chocolate
1 pinch salt

For the glaze:
1/2 cup or 135g Nutella

To decorate:
Some sprinkles, of course, to fit our theme

Method
Preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your Bundt pan by buttering and flouring it, or use the baking spray that already has flour in it. That's what I usually do.

Carefully separate your eggs into whites and yolks. Melt the chocolate for your batter in a microwaveable bowl using a few short zaps and stirring well in between. Set aside to cool.

In a large mixing bowl, use your electric beaters or stand mixer to beat the butter and Nutella together and then add the Amaretto, egg yolks and ground almonds. Beat well.

Fold in the cooled, melted chocolate.

In a large bowl, whisk the egg whites with the pinch of salt until soft peaks form.

Add a large dollop of the fluffy whites into the chocolate bowl and stir with a spatula or spoon to loosen the chocolate batter.

Now add the rest of the egg whites, a dollop at a time, folding gently to combine the whites with the chocolate batter with each addition. You are trying to keep it light so this is not the time to mix vigorously. Just gently fold.

Spoon your batter into the prepared Bundt pan, making sure to fill all the curves and crevices. I used my Nordic Ware heart pan (<Amazon affiliate link) with a 10-cup capacity.

Bake on the center rack of your preheated oven for about 40-50 minutes or until it is all puffed up and springs back when touched.

It was even higher when I first took it out but it didn't seem to appreciate my big oven mitt thumb on the tip of the heart. 

It starts to deflate when you take it out of the oven, but don’t be alarmed. This is just concentrating the fudgy-ness inside. Cool for 10 minutes then turn the cake out of the Bundt pan onto a wire cooling rack.

Allow to cool completely before attempting to decorate.

When the cake is cool, warm the Nutella gently in a microwaveable vessel until it can just pour. If it gets too hot and runny, let it cool until it is just pourable but won’t run down the sides of your cake too quickly. Scoop a little up with a spoon and drizzle it back into the vessel to test the consistency.

Pour the warmed Nutella onto your cake and decorate with the sprinkles of your choice, or perhaps some chopped nuts.

Enjoy!

Here are this month's "Sprinkles" Bundts:

• Black Onyx Bundt Cake from Living the Gourmet
• Bourbon Walnut Pound Cake from Magnolia Days
• Bubblegum Frosted Funfetti Vanilla Bean Bundt from Baking in Pyjamas
• Bundt Cake Extra Chocolateado from la mejor manera de hacer... 
• Celebration Confetti Bundt Cake from Cali's Cuisine
• Chocolate Chip Cheese Cake from Tea and Scones
• Chocolate Sprinkles Sour Cream Bundt Cake from Spice Roots
• Chocolate Walnut Cake with Sprinkles from FoodJam
• Confetti Bundt Cake with Whipped Chocolate Ganache Frosting from How to Philosophize with Cake
• Crazy Coco Bundt Cake from Los Chatos Chefs
• Eggless Vanilla Confetti Bundt Cake from SimplyVeggies
• Funfetti Bundt Cake from Liv for Cake
• Funfetti Bundt Cake from Recipes, Food & Cooking
• 'Guild the Lily' Bundt from Jane's Adventures in Dinner
• Irish Butter Chocolate Sprinkle Cake with Ganache from Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
• Jammin' Jimmies Bundt from Noshing With The Nolands
• Nutella Bundt with Nutella Glaze from Food Lust People Love
• Oatmeal Cookie Bundt Cake with Sprinkles from The Spiced Life
• Orange Dreamscicle Confetti Cake from Our Good Life
• Pistachio Sprinkle Bundt Cake from Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Raspberry Ricotta Bundt Cake from Brunch With Joy
• Red Velvet Sprinkle Explosion Bundt Cake from Love and Confections
• Sprinkled Jelly Donut Bundt Cake from Making Miracles
• Sprinkles of Love Cake from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Strawberry Sprinkled Bundt Cake from The Freshman Cook
• Triple Chocolate Zucchini Cake with Sprinkles from Baking and Creating with Avril
• Vanilla Bundt Cake with Sprinkles from I Love Bundt Cakes
• Vanilla Mini Bundts from Passion Kneaded
• Watermelon Bundt Cake from Eat, Drink and Be Mighty

#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our of lovely Bundts by following our Pinterest board. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about BundtBakers, can be found on our home page.

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Nutella-filled Raspberry Muffins #MuffinMonday

Every week my fellow Muffin Monday baker, Anuradha and I have an email discussion about which ingredient we should feature.  Sometimes we are organized and decide a month of ingredients in advance (rarely) and sometimes we are scrambling on Thursday or Friday to make a decision (more often) for the next Monday.   This week we chose Nutella, that wonderful cocoa and hazelnut spread, and since it’s an ingredient we’ve both used before, I knew I had to do something different with it.

So I piped the Nutella into the raspberries and froze them on a parchment-lined cookie sheet!   Then I folded them gently into a lovely batter with lemon zest, vanilla sugar and Greek yogurt.  I am pleased to report that the Nutella-filled raspberries held their shape (and Nutella) beautifully through the baking and the flavor combination was fabulous.

N.B.  The only drawback if that you do have to fill your raspberries and allow plenty of time for them to freeze before making the muffin batter.  Several hours might do but I left mine overnight to be sure.

Ingredients

I make my own vanilla sugar by adding a couple of split pods to
fine sugar and letting it stand for a few weeks. 

2 cups or 250g flour
3⁄4 cup or 170g vanilla sugar (or substitute normal sugar and add 1 teaspoon vanilla to the wet ingredients)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
Zest of one medium lemon
2 eggs
1 1⁄4 cups or 300g plain Greek-style yogurt
1⁄2 cup or 120ml canola oil
6 oz or 170g raspberries
About 1/4 cup Nutella plus more for decorating, if desired
Powdered sugar for decorating, if desired

Method
Start several hours or even one day ahead by putting your Nutella in a piping bag with a small hole decorating tip (Wilton 3, 4 or 5) and then filling all of the raspberries.  Lay them out on a cookie sheet lined with wax or parchment paper and put them in the freezer until frozen solid.

When you are ready to make the muffins, preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your muffin pan by greasing it or lining it paper muffin cups.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, vanilla sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Grate in the zest of one lemon.

In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, Greek yogurt, canola and vanilla extract, if using.

Pour your wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold them together until just mixed.

Remove the Nutella-filled raspberries from the freezer and fold all but 12 of them into the batter.

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

Top each muffin cup with a filled raspberry.  I put some up and some down because I rather thought the Nutella would ooze out and possibly make a mess.  As you can see, my fears were unfounded!  So put them all with the Nutella showing if you’d like.

Bake in the preheated oven about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Cool on a rack for a few minutes and then remove the muffins to cool completely.

Top with some extra Nutella or a sprinkle of icing sugar to decorate.

Enjoy!

Peanut Butter M&M Muffins #MuffinMonday

Way back when I was a freshman (first year) at the University of Texas at Austin, I lived in an all-girls dorm called Contessa West.  It was suite-style, which meant three bedrooms with two girls each and a tiny common area in which you could not swing the proverbial cat, with a round table, four chairs, a two-burner electric stove, a hotel refrigerator and a bathroom-sized kitchen sink.  And that is all.  I am staying with my younger daughter in her campus apartment for a few days and, while student housing undoubtedly varies from school to school, I can only say, it’s lovely.  Three bedrooms with only one girl each and a fairly well equipped kitchen.  It has a real stove with an OVEN, a full-sized fridge and actual counter top space for food prep.  Her corner bedroom is full of light from three big windows and from my vantage point, perched in her bed writing this, I can see the beautiful dome of the Rhode Island State Building.  It’s a far cry from Contessa West, back in the Dark Ages, I can tell you.  Tell me, was your campus housing anything like this?  (Disclaimer:  Any mess you see is mine!  Amazingly, they keep their common area quite clean and my daughter's bedroom is fairly tidy.)

I could swing a few cats in here! 

My cardigan on the chair!

Check out all those windows!  And, yes, that is my unmade bed, where I am perched writing and my stuff on the desk.

Last night we were making gyozas from this recipe and I didn’t take a single photo but I can tell you they were delicious.  But yesterday morning, I was baking muffins and, since it’s Muffin Monday, I will share.  Our ingredient this week is peanut butter and since nothing goes better with peanut butter than more nuts and chocolate, I added in Nutella and Easter M&Ms.  My younger daughter and one of her roommates enjoyed a couple and then we took a few up to my elder daughter who works on Sundays at RISD|Works for her to share with her colleagues.  They were a hit!

Ingredients
2 cups or 250g all-purpose flour
1/2 cup or 115g sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup or 120ml peanut butter
1/4 cup or 60ml Nutella or other hazelnut chocolate spread
3/4 cup or 180ml milk (I used Rice Dream because that is what my daughter had. Worked great!)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1/4 cup or 60ml canola oil
1/2 cup or 100g milk chocolate M&Ms plus extra for decoration

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your muffin pan using non-stick spray, butter or by lining it with paper muffin cups.

Put your flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into a large mixing bowl and give it a good stir to combine.

In another smaller bowl, whisk together the peanut butter, Nutella, milk, vanilla, egg and canola oil.

Pour that luscious, chocolately peanutty mixture into your dry ingredients and mix until it is just coming together.  You’ll still see a little flour, but that’s perfect.

See that?  That's how you know this muffin will be delicious. 

Fold in the M&Ms.

Divide the batter between your muffin cups and poke a few more M&Ms into the batter for decoration.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool in the pan for a few minutes and then remove to finish cooling.  I didn’t have a wire rack here so I put them on another baking tray that was chilled from the cold weather we are experiencing.  And several were eaten warm, almost straight from the oven.  Yum!

Enjoy!

Coconut Pecan Brownie Muffins #MuffinMonday

Rich, chocolately muffins with pecans, coconut, hazelnut spread and chocolate chips, these Coconut Pecan Brownie Muffins as gorgeous as they are delicious.

Once again this week, Anuradha, our illustrious Muffin Monday organizer has given us free reign, prescribing only one ingredient and no specific recipe.  In a lot of ways, I find this even more fun and I hope the trend continues.   Our ingredient for this week is coconut, which I love!  The first thought that popped into my head was the birthday cake I often asked for as a child, German Chocolate Cake, which has a pecan coconut frosting.  But since muffins aren’t really supposed to be cupcakes with frosting, I decided just to take those flavors and add them into the actual muffin.*  They went off to the office with my dear husband and, I am told, were gone in an absolute flash.  Which pleases me no end!

Headed for work, spreading joy for #MuffinMonday on Sunday, which is our Monday, so it works out perfectly.

Coconut Pecan Brownie Muffins

This recipe was adapted from the Chocolate Brownie Muffin recipe in The Australian Women's Weekly Madeleines, Muffins & More, which I received as a Christmas gift from my beautiful, generous daughters.

Ingredients
2 cups or 250g flour
1/3 cup or 26g cocoa powder
1/3 cup or 75g sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/2 cup or 165g chocolate hazelnut spread plus extra for decorating
1/4 cup or 60g butter, melted and cooled
3/4 cup or 180ml milk
1/2 cup or 120g sour cream
1 cup or 125g whole pecans (You will reserve 1/4 for decorating.)
1/2 cup or 50g sweetened flaked coconut plus extra for decorating
1/2 cup or 95g chocolate chips

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your muffin tins (one 12-cup and one 6-cup) by spraying with non-stick spray or lining with muffin papers.

Chop pecans and set aside 1/4 cup for decorating.

Combine your flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl.

In another smaller bowl, whisk together your egg, chocolate hazelnut spread, milk, sour cream and butter.

Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ones and stop when it’s still quite dry looking.

Add in three-quarters of the pecans, the coconut flakes and the chocolate chips.  Stir until just mixed.

Divide your batter between the 18 prepared muffin cups.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Allow to cool for a few minutes in the pans and then remove to continue cooling on a wire rack.

Once cool, spread the muffins with a small amount of the chocolate hazelnut spread and decorate with the rest of the pecans and just a little of the coconut flakes.

Enjoy!