Love Halo Top ice cream on my cupcake!!
Makes it feel more guilt-free…
Halo Top ice cream is pretty fantastic stuff! For those that haven’t heard of them yet, start check out their link here. It’s actually HEALTHY ice cream… and it’s not just me wishing it was healthy and tastes amazing, but actually is!! How fabulous is that?! Each pint is a nice 240 calories, meaning that I can indulge on half a pint everyday (or why not the whole thing) and not feel like I have to run to the closest Equinox and get my workout on. I’m happy to see that their distribution has expanded and will be in Wholefoods! So easy and convenient, and thankfully it’s healthy, because now I can really keep my freezer stocked full of Halo Top and not feel guilty about it. I couldn’t have asked for anything more. So with that, I really do have to thank the creators of Halo Top for their genius and sweet creation…. and once you try it, you will too.
Ingredients:
For Dark Chocolate Cupcakes (makes 12 cupcakes):
- 3/4 cup cake flour
- 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated white sugar
- 1/2 cup Valrhona 100% cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
- 1/3 hot espresso (I use King Arthur Espresso Powder)
- 3 1/2 tablespoon avocado oil
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 egg, at room temperature
Whipped Nutella Buttercream:
- 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup confectioner’s sugar
- 1/2 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips
- 3 tablespoons Nutella
- 2 tablespoon heavy cream
- Pinch of salt
Directions:
For Dark Chocolate Cupcakes:
- Preheat oven to 360F degrees and line muffin tin with cupcake liners.
- In a large bowl to standing mixture, sift together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. I like to sift the ingredients twice to ensure its well mixed together.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the hot espresso into the buttermilk (if you don’t have buttermilk, take a scant 1/2 cup of whole milk plus 1/2 tablespoon of vinegar. Stir and allow it to sit for about 10 minutes and it will become buttermilk).
- While whisking, add the avocado oil, egg and then vanilla.
- Add the liquid ingredients into the bowl with dry ingredients and with a whisk attachment to standing mixer, mix the ingredients together until the batter is smooth (takes about 45 seconds to 1 minute). Do not over mix.
- Fill the cupcake liners to about 2/3 full.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes. Use toothpick test to ensure it comes out clean. Once the cupcakes are out of the oven, allow it to cool for about 5-10 minutes prior to moving them to a cooling rack.
- Allow them to cool completely prior to adding the buttercream.
For Whipped Nutella Buttercream:
- Melt the chocolate chips in a microwave safe container. I heated it about 1 1/2 minutes in the microwave and stir with a spoon once done. Set on side.
- In a bowl to standing mixer with paddle attachment, place in butter and sift the confectioner’s sugar into the bowl.
- On low speed (Kitchen Aid mixer speed 2), mix the butter and sugar together for about a minute.
- While the mixer is on low, add in vanilla extract.
- After the vanilla is combined into the mixture, add in the melted chocolate (by now, it shouldn’t be cooled down a little bit. If the chocolate is too hot, it will melt the butter). Once the chocolate is poured into the bowl, increase the mixer speed to setting 4 and beat for about two minutes.
- Low the speed back down to setting 2 and add the Nutella, heavy cream and pinch of salt and beat on medium-high (speed setting 8).
- The heavy cream is the key ingredient that helps the buttercream fluff up.
- Place the buttercream into a pipping bag with closed star tip.
Assemble:
- Melt one cup of chocolate chips and place on side.
- Place cupcake on serving plate.
- Drizzle one-half tablespoon of melted chocolate on the top of the cupcake.
- Take one scoop (well, good luck with just one scoop…) of Halo Top ice cream (love all the flavors, but vanilla bean might be my favorite!!) and top on the chocolate.
- Drizzle one-half tablespoon of melted chocolate on top of the ice cream.
- Decorate with mini chocolate chips or sprinkles.
- Pipe the Nutella buttercream on top. It’s whipped and light that it goes well together with the ice cream and cupcake!
