The first cupcakes I’d like to absolutely rave about are these peanut butter cupcakes with chocolate glaze from I Heart Cuppycakes.

These are amazing!  I’ve been reluctant to make peanut butter cupcakes because I thought that the peanut butter might make the cake heavy or dense.  But these cupcakes are so incredibly moist and soft and so full of rich peanut butter flavor!  I was blown away, this is one awesome cupcake!

This will definitely not be the last time I make these.  If you love peanut butter and chocolate, I highly recommend you bake a batch of these right now!  And make sure you have a tall glass of milk to go with them!

Now for the second cupcake.  The peanut butter cupcakes got me thinking about Nutella cupcakes.  Nutella can often be substituted for peanut butter in recipes, so I decided to give it a go with these cupcakes.  I used the same amount of Nutella, but I did decrease the sugar by about 1/4 cup because Nutella is much sweeter than peanut butter.  I did everything else the same as for the peanut butter cupcakes.

What I found was that the Nutella cupcakes sank slightly in the middle when they were done baking.  They seemed to rise higher as well, so next time I wouldn’t use a full 1/4 cup of batter in each liner; my Nutella cupcakes overflowed a little bit!

But, the cake did taste of Nutella and still came out very moist and soft.

I wasn’t sure of the type of frosting to use on Nutella cupcakes.  I didn’t really want to use more Nutella in case it ended up being a bit too much.  A friend suggested marshmallow frosting, which sounded like a winning combination!  I guess sort of like a fluffernutter cupcake, only with Nutella instead of peanut butter!

To finish off the Nutella cupcake, I spooned a dollop (or about a teaspoon) of fresh Nutella into the middle of the top of the cupcake and frosted them with marshmallowy Swiss meringue from the queen of Swiss meringues at How To Eat A Cupcake.  This frosting is definitely a keeper, it was fantastic!

The Nutella cupcake is quite sweet, but a flavor combination I haven’t yet experienced.  Next time I probably wouldn’t use so much frosting on each cupcake, but instead just spread a light layer on top.

What kind of frosting would you like on a Nutella cupcake, just out of curiosity?