Ferrero Rocher Cupcakes

I am back on my cupcake craze again. It is not the actual devouring of cupcakes which is appealing. It is the fact that they are usually so pretty. Too cute to be eaten that draws me to them.

I stumbled onto this blog where Stef of Cupcake Project actually baked Rocher cupcakes in its likeness. How cool is that? How many people actually have the patience and artistry to make cupcakes. Cupcakes are fun as they are tiny and you can make so many things with them.


Read more on Cupcake Project how the Rocher Cupcakes came about. I am also pasting her recipe here for those who are keen to try making their own rocher cupcakes too :)

The Recipe:
The recipe for the cupcakes came from Laura of Sweets Made Here. It is for 12 cupcakes. I doubled it.

1/2 c boiling water
6 T unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 c milk
1/2 t vanilla extract
1 T hazelnut extract
1/2 c unsalted butter, softened
10 T dark brown sugar
6 T granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 c all-purpose flour
1/2 + 1/8 t baking soda
1/4 t salt

In a bowl, whisk the boiling water into cocoa until smooth and whisk in milk, vanilla, and hazelnut extracts. In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes, and beat in eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Into another bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, and salt and add to egg mixture in batches alternately with cocoa mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture, and beating well after each addition. Fill each wrapper slightly more than 1/2 way. They will rise a lot. Bake in a preheated 350F oven for about 18 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

Note: I have never used that much of an extract in a recipe before. I actually worried that it was a typo and she meant teaspoon. However, it definitely needed that much. In fact, I added another whole tablespoon (1/2 if you are only making 12).

The Gooey Filling
If you have some Nutella around, I think you could easily just fill this with Nutella. I did not have Nutella around and didn't want to go to the store.

1 c heavy cream
1 c semisweet chocolate chips
2 t hazelnut extract

Bring heavy cream to a boil. Pour over chocolate chips to melt them. Add extract. Mix until fluffy. Let cool. Cut a cone in each cupcake and put a teaspoon or two of the ganache in. Replace the cone.

The Ganache
I used the ganache recipe from Sweets Made Here. The only change I made was that rather than putting hazelnuts on top as she did, I mixed 1 Cup of toasted, ground hazelnuts into the ganache before spreading. Also, while I doubled the cake recipe, I did not double the ganache recipe and I still had plenty.

1/2 c heavy cream
8 oz good semi-sweet chocolate chunks
2 T light corn syrup
2 t hazelnut extract

Heat the cream on the stove until it boils. Pour over the chocolate and stir to melt, adding the corn syrup and hazelnut extract.