Nutella Swirl Cupcakes (Vanilla and Matcha versions)

Nutella Swirl Cupcakes, for him/G (plain vanilla) and for her/me (weird matcha).

This is one of my go-to recipes for cupcakes, because I am that lazy person who does not want to make frosting separately (besides, frosting is usually too sweet anyway). I have made these cupcakes a couple of times before, but I ended up making the same mistakes when I made them last night (i.e. not adding milk, not making sure the Nutella is soft, not sandwiching the Nutella between the batter because it is hard to make swirls in the sticky batter using a toothpick). Well, I’m now documenting everything here so that all goes well next time!

The batter is soft and a little dense, which is perfect because who wants the Nutella to sink at the bottom of the cupcake? The sweet Nutella goes well with the buttery vanilla version, and perfectly compliments the strong taste of the matcha version. 

Curious about the combination of matcha and Nutella? Read on for the recipe!

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I love ice cream. I used to have it every single day. It didn’t help that back home we had three different half gallon boxes of ice cream in our freezer. Or that there was a Mc Donald’s just beside our office where I could buy sundae cones. But now, I’m being more careful. After I volunteered for a focus group discussion on low-fat ice cream for a marketing class, I found the best compromise to my body’s need for ice cream and for remaining fit and not fat. This Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich is only 140 calories but is very creamy and filling, and not too sweet. So now I can go back to having ice cream every single day. :)
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I love ice cream. I used to have it every single day. It didn’t help that back home we had three different half gallon boxes of ice cream in our freezer. Or that there was a Mc Donald’s just beside our office where I could buy sundae cones.

But now, I’m being more careful. After I volunteered for a focus group discussion on low-fat ice cream for a marketing class, I found the best compromise to my body’s need for ice cream and for remaining fit and not fat. This Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich is only 140 calories but is very creamy and filling, and not too sweet. So now I can go back to having ice cream every single day. :)

From my South Bend Chocolate Company stash: chocolate creams. I got these mainly because the guy behind the counter was so nice and let us sample almost all of the filled chocolates. I ended up choosing raspberry cream, dark raspberry cream and dark vanilla cream. Both the raspberry and vanilla creams were not too sweet and the chocolate covering made a yummy snack. This pound of candy might just last me a few weeks. 
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From my South Bend Chocolate Company stash: chocolate creams. I got these mainly because the guy behind the counter was so nice and let us sample almost all of the filled chocolates. I ended up choosing raspberry cream, dark raspberry cream and dark vanilla cream. Both the raspberry and vanilla creams were not too sweet and the chocolate covering made a yummy snack. This pound of candy might just last me a few weeks. 

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