Dessert is beautiful in many, many ways, but in our house, we especially appreciate its ability to bridge the divide between my vegetarianism and his carnivorous diet. Because unless we’re putting lard in our pie crusts or sprinkling bacon on our ice cream (and even my bacon-loving guy isn’t really on board with the bacon-in-desserts thing), dessert is naturally vegetarian. No need for our usual fork-in-the-road recipes, which really isn’t such a bad way to live, but there’s something fun about being able to nosedive simultaneously into, for instance, the same Fluffy Nutella Buttercream frosted cupcakes.
Nutella in buttercream form. Pure heaven. After all, if dessert is beautiful, Nutella is pure divinity. People write poems about it. And there’s even a holiday to celebrate it!
This fluffy, light buttercream combines your traditional buttercream ingredients, butter and powdered sugar, with a nice dose of Nutella. A little vanilla adds a perfect note, and a good pinch of kosher salt rounds out the sweetness while also highlighting that delicious chocolate-hazelnut flavor that’s uniquely Nutella. And lastly, it’s got heavy whipping cream, which I love, love, love adding to my buttercream recipes. It gives an otherwise heavy frosting such a wonderfully airy texture.
In this case, I topped basic vanilla cupcakes (from the same vanilla sponge cake recipe I used for my Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes) with the stuff. Pure, simple perfection. It’d also be magical atop banana cupcakes, or maybe even sandwiched between two peanut butter cookies.
Dessert – especially this one – is a beautiful thing indeed.
If you try this recipe, please leave a rating! And, if you find it share-worthy – which I hope you do – please share. Tag #kitchentreaty on Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest, and donโt forget to check out my other recipes!

Fluffy Nutella Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
Instructions
- In a stand mixer afixed with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and powdered sugar on low until well-blended. Add the Nutella and increase the speed to medium. Beat for two minutes.
- Add the vanilla extract and salt and whip for an additional 30 seconds.
- Add the whipping cream and beat for about one minute, until the frosting lightens slightly in both color and texture.
THIS LOOKS INCREDIBLE. I don’t even know what I would slather this buttercream on first! I love love love Nutella!
First thing would be my finger!! ๐
giggity
I made banana nutella swirl cupcakes and am about to frost them with this!! Yummy!
I have to say this frosting looks seriously delicious! I might have to use it on the next cake I bake! ๐
Oh man, this looks AH-MAZING! It might even be the best buttercream ever! I’m having a breakfast date with a good friend of mine who is almost 9 months pregnant so she will be over the moon for this! Unless her cravings are completely out of whack!
Sooo freaking good. THANK YOU for posting.
THIS LOOKS PERFECT!!! THANKS FOR SHARING!
Just made this! Tastes awesome and looks great! Thank you for sharing this recipe!
So glad to hear it! My pleasure.
This looks so delish and super tempting! YUMMY ๐
I just finished frosting some strawberry cupcakes with this frosting!! It is so delicious! I’m confident it will be a bestseller at the bake sale I’m bringing it to tomorrow ๐
Nicole, strawberry cupcakes with this buttercream sound fabulous! Have fun at the bake sale!
This looks sinfully delicious! Now to just make a Nutella chocolate cake, all will be right with the world!
This looks so yummy! I’m always on the hunt for new, decadent buttercream recipes!
What specific frosting tip did you use to get that dollop effect?
Hey Sue, um … well … I used a Ziploc bag and cut the corner off! I run a very sophisticated kitchen over here. ๐
Wow. I thought so, but wasn’t sure if there really was a tip out there with that big of a hole. I’ll try that Ziplock bag trick!
Ateco has a big round tip, works great to get those big round swirls on your cupcakes. I think it’s tip 808.
Thank you Tori!
I tried this recipe last week and it turned out amazing! Very easy to make, and all of my family and friends who tried it absolutely love it. My family is demanding that I make it again tomorrow. I took the tip to make banana cupcakes and they went great together too.
Hi Ellen! I’m so glad you (and your family and friends) loved it! Thanks so much for coming back to comment and rate the recipe, I really appreciate that.
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Made this today and it is AMAZING!!! I didn’t have any heavy whipping cream, so I used half and half. Delicious! Thank you
Glad you liked it! ๐
Gorgeous cupcakes, and all of those veegigs packed into it with NUTELLA frosting?? That is genius and looks/sounds delicious. Now, did I miss the Nutella challenge again? Wait..I’m thinking of Nutella day..is the Nutella challenge a different dealypoo? ๐
I made this frosting over labor day weekend! Came out Soo good!!
Yay! Thanks for letting me know, Naureen!
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I made this tonight and mine didn’t turn out right, it’s not fluffy, just kinda runny and grainy. I didn’t have unsalted butter, so I used country crock, is that why it didn’t work?
Gah, Kelly, that must’ve been so disappointing! ๐ Definitely use real butter; I would imagine the extra stuff (like water) in a substitute would do weird things.
I really want to try and make this frosting but can I use an ordinary hand mixer?
Hi Veronica, yes, a hand mixer should work just fine. ๐
I made this today and it turned out really good, but I would say to add less sugar and more Nutella. It ended up super sweet and I couldn’t taste the Nutella very much. It still turned out great though ๐
Heya, thought I’d point out a couple of great-looking Nutella buttercream recipes that have popped up in the blogosphere recently. They have a lot more Nutella than my recipe. They would be more creamy than fluffy than this one but look utterly fantastic!
http://www.roxanashomebaking.com/nutella-cupcakes-with-nutella-frosting-recipe/
http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2013/03/14/chocolate-cupcakes-with-creamy-nutella-frosting/
So this icing is basically a Italian Meringue Buttercream w/o the bteutr. FYI – if the sugar isn’t really HOT, you aren’t cooking/sanitizing the eggs and could be feeding people salmonella poisoning. The correct temperature for this particular application would be soft ball stage for your sugar (~235 degrees F).
Great recipe, the whole family loved it on top of my pumpkin cupcakes
Thanks, Breanna! Those sound amaaaazing.
This is delicious. Made it this weekend to top dark chocolate brownie bites and they were fantastic.
YUM!
mines don’t look like that :-/
This was delicious but it made SO MUCH ICING omg. ๐ I had enough left over to bag and store for later while still generously icing my layer cake. Also I think next time I will add more salt. It is fantastic! Thanks for the recipe.
I made this tonight to use as one of my fillings for a single tier topsy turvy yellow cake. Oh my, this stuff is absolutely delish! So light and fluffy, it definitely enhances the flavor of the Nutella. I’m not sure how I didn’t eat all the leftovers with a spoon, but I was able to use self-control. Thanks for this recipe!
Hello,
How much is 1 cup of butter in grams?
Thank you
Hi Maayan, I have no idea! I Googled and found this terrific page on allrecipes.com, which says 1 cup of butter = 226 grams. Hope that helps.
I’m planning to make this for my son’s bday… just trying to decide on what kind of cake to use! it sounds so fabulous. I’m planning to use pretty basic decorating techniques because I plan to just put some toys atop the cake to create a battle scene…. should work great… I hope! ๐ what kinds of cakes have you had this with???
A battle scene – awesome! ๐ I think this frosting would go well with all kinds of cake flavors. White/vanilla, chocolate, a nice yellow cake … someone commented above that she frosted pumpkin cupcakes, yum! Banana cake would be fabulous too, I would think.
Happy birthday to your little guy!
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Thank you for this wonderful recipe!! Lately all my frostings haven’t turned out how I wanted. This is by far the best one I’ve ever made! Thanks, so much!!
I am so glad to hear that. It is my pleasure to spread the fluffy Nutella love. ๐
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just made this frosting with a french vanilla cake, and put sea salt on top, it was SO good.
thanks for the fantastic recipe!
Holy moly, that sounds terrific. Can I come over? ๐
Just wondering how long this icing would keep. Especially with the cream in it. Thanks! ๐
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Just made this for a dark chocolate cake I am baking. This frosting is so good! The cake is still cooling, so I will be lucky if I don’t eat all the icing before it makes it on the cake!!!! Mmmmmmmm ๐
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Hi !!
What type of Cupcake did you use with the Nutella Frosting? and Do you have any suggestions on what types of cupcakes to make for this particular Frosting?
Hi Vanessa, I used a simple vanilla sponge cake. A handful of people have shared what kind of cake they used in the comments so take a look for lots of great ideas! Chocolate, banana, and pumpkin all sound terrific to me. ๐
Tried this recipe on a whim tonight and it was phenomenal! I was short the whipping cream but added a few tblsp of milk for some creaminess and it worked out fine! Kuddos to you for sharing a delish recipe that I will definatly make again…with the whipping cream of course!:-)
So glad you liked it! Thanks for coming back to comment and rate the recipe. ๐
Oh thanx a lot!
I was just wondering if it works with milk instead of the cream!
Turned it out fluffy enough?
What kind of mixer did you used?
If you sub in milk for the whipping cream it should still be delicious, just a little less light and fluffy.
Just wonderful!
Thanks, Shannon!
I have never made frosting before, but this was super easy and absolutely delicious. I used mine on fudge marble cupcakes. Amazing!
I’ve died and gone to heaven. (Insert George Takei’s voice); OH MYYYY! I made this to put on my hubby’s banana birthday cake. We haven’t even had the cake yet, but the frosting is so yummy I could happily eat it straight out of the bowl. For anyone who’s as cheap as I am; Aldi food stores now carry their own hazelnut spread for $1.99 for a 13 oz jar. Well, at least they have it in Connecticut. Thanks SO MUCH for this recipe – it’s going to be the cherry on top of my hubby’s birthday! (It’s not letting me give this recipe more than two stars!)
This looks AMAZING!! One question….would the cake need to be refrigerated after you ice it?? And if you can leave it out, how long can you leave it out? Thank you!!
Hi there, it looks just amazing. I am looking to do my daughters christening cake, and I was looking for some choc butter cream icing. This looks just divine! Do you think I could frost the cake the day before and then put in the fridge ready for the next day? I was going to do a vanilla sponge with a raspberry mouse with your nutella cream. ๐
Well first, Nutella buttercream with vanilla sponge and a raspberry mousse filling sounds soooooo delicious!
Honestly though, I’m always afraid to frost a cake the day before. I usually just assemble and frost a couple of hours before the event. I’m only comfortable making the cake layers themselves ahead of time (either wrapping them tightly and leaving them on the counter for up to a couple of days) or even freezing them. But this is just due to my gut feeling that the buttercream might break down or do weird things if you frost the cake and then refrigerate it – I’m far from an experienced baker.
So … I guess I would recommend waiting until the day of the event and keeping the cake at room temperature based on my own (somewhat limited experience).
Would love to hear how the cake turns out, and congratulations on your daughter’s christening. ๐
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This is a great recipe!! I used it with my daughter, great cupcakes!!!
This is a great recipe!! I used it with my daughter, great cupcakes!!!
OMG! I just made these for the Super Bowl viewing (I’m just watching for the commercials). SO FANTASTIC!!! I found this on Pinterest, but thought “Hey! I love Nutella and Buttercream!” Very well done!
Yay! Thanks for coming back and sharing. I tried to watch (mainly for the commercials and halftime show, myself) but we had company and I ended up visiting with them mostly. Which is just fine. ๐
Can this frosting be mixed by hand? I don’t have an electric mixer but would still very much like to try the recipe.
Hi Patrick, sorry to say I think you might have limited success mixing this by hand. The butter and powdered sugar kind of need to be whipped into a frenzy by at least a hand mixer. But I’ve never tried it, so never say never … if you’ve got a lot of energy to burn, maybe give it a go with a nice strong wire whisk and let me know how it turns out!
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