The Best Part

 To me frosting is the best part of a cupcake, but also the hardest to perfect. I've had a few failed frosting attempts in the past, so for the longest time Betty Crocker had been my best friend. Hello ready-made frosting in a can.

This past Friday was a dear colleague's last day at work. He also happens to be a fellow baker which I blogged about before, when we collaboratively baked farewell cupcakes for our big boss man in June. I thought this would be the perfect time to bake up a storm as a farewell gift to him. Since one of his best recipes is banana bread, I baked banana muffin cupcakes again (same recipe as last time). But this time I took an extra step and made Nutella buttercream frosting to go with it.

I googled a couple recipes online and altered the portions of ingredients along the way. The final product came out really well - heavy on the Nutella flavor but still light enough to not overpower the banana cupcake. It was not too sweet, not too buttery. And my colleague loved it. I'm glad I was able to put a smile on his face on his last day... and also successfully make frosting from scratch - for the first time!

Now my recipe...

You'll need:

Butter - 1 cup

Powdered Sugar - 2 cups

Nutella - 1/5 cup

Milk - 1 Tablespoon

With an electric whisk, beat the butter till smooth. 

Sift in the powdered sugar, and add in both the Nutella and milk. 

Beat entire mixture till fluffy, or till you get your desired consistency. 

If you refrigerate your frosting for later, I suggest to beat once more right before use.

(that's me trying to sound all food network-y haha)