Mini Chocolate Cakes with Nutella, Mascarpone & Fresh Fruit ... & I've adopted!!

"I am addicted to Nutella, the chocolate hazelnut spread? I can't live without it. I need a daily dose of Nutella."  

Michelle Trachtenberg

I'm late, a little late to catch the Nutella wave ... but fortunately when the globe is as large as ours, it's still World Nutella Day in many parts of the world. So I am hanging on to the tail and waving! I have a promise to keep...

I had promised myself that I would join the wave and send something to Michelle from Bleeding Espresso for the World  Nutella Day event that she is co-hosting this year with Sara from Ms. Adventures in Italy (and Shelley from At Home in Rome, in spirit) ... a day to celebrate, to get creative with, and most importantly, to EAT Nutella.

 

Yesterday was a regular 'headless chicken dance' sort of a day in my life. We spent all morning at the boy's school for Sports Day. Hub and me slipped away for a bit and tucked into some yum street food.  Up and down and all around town, then the daughter begged for the coals to be lit in the evening. She wanted a BBQ dinner. To cut a long story short, I couldn't get to the computer eventually.

So here I am, early in the morning, punching at the keyboard furiously. I have a teeny Nutella yummy to share and I have some blogger love to share too. Heard Kerstin call on Twitter the other day  -  the shout was for Adopt-a-Blogger. 'Time for all of you Veteran Bloggers to come out and give a hand to the newest folks on the food blogging block!'

Have heard of it for a couple of years. When I was a newbie blogger, I was far too timid to even stick my hand asking up to be adopted. Would they laugh at me? Strange thoughts of the sort crossed my mind. When I heard Kitrsten @ Dine & Dish tweet out, I just had to volunteer. I was stamped 'Veteran' and was given a newbie blogger who I have happily adopted  ... Beth @ Baking Therapy. (Diva my sweet, still love ya....)

It couldn't have come at a better time. I am enjoying blogging more and more, share whatever I have learnt as I get a number of mails everyday, and love what Kirsten is doing. It's her fourth year at Dine & Dish where she is running this event, and it's all hard work. I have 'adoped' Beth and am having a wonderful time sharing what I know with her. She's an absolute pleasure to share my 'foodie platter' with ... a smart, enthusiastic NY girl who shares my bpassion for baking. Thank you Kirsten, for making our foodie blogging world such a wonderful place to be in! I love the connect!! Here's a little bio about Beth...

Beth, a 20-something New York City girl with a baking sensibility is how she describes herself! I love it, I do. She moved to NY 5 years ago, and baking became her way of simplifying and slowing down life when it became a little too much for this New York City girl to handle. Tough deadline at work? She'd whip up a batch of cookies. Worried about paying her rent? She'd throw together a banana bread. Relationship troubles?Out came a 3-layer chocolate cake.

Cookies and brownies showed up as office treats, and soon became cakes and pies, quickbreads and cupcakes ...  "the baker" in the office has arrived. The red tupperware on top of Beth's shelf at the beginning of the day had co-workers stop by all day long to get a treat. The smiles and laughter that came with the opening "whoooosh" of the tupperware lid, the feedback of how new recipes fared with her testing pool ... and Baking Therapy was born!

Onto the recipe now. I made a batch of Mocha Muffins from Joy of Baking a few days ago. My SIL from Pune makes them often, and they are a great choice for a healthy, moist muffin. No butter in these, so they rank high on my Ten in 10 scale. 

So I made a batch of muffins. Still had some batter left over, and these were born. I ribboned a little Nutella through the batter, and baked them in these little cake tins I got from my little shop in Old Delhi. Once done, they popped out quite easily. I gave them a nice dollop of Nutella, then a dollop of fresh homemade mascarpone, and then fresh seasonal fruit. We have plenty of great looking fruit in the bazaar these days, so it's always a feast of colours! Love it! Nice for Valentines too...

Mini Chocolate Cakes with Nutella, Mascarpone & Fresh Fruit
adapted from Joy of Baking
3 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup refined oil
1/2 cup strong black coffee, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder, sifted
1 cup vanilla sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 a jar of Nutella
1/2 cup Mascarpone (recipe here)
Seasonal fruit

Method:
Preheat oven to 190C.
Grease and flour 12-14 mini cavity cake molds, or mini bundt tins.

In a large measuring bowl whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, oil, coffee, and vanilla extract.

In another large bowl combine the flours, cocoa powder, vanilla sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir in the chopped nuts and chocolate chips. With a rubber spatula fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir only until the ingredients are combined. Do not over mix the batter or tough muffins will result. (You can add a little Nutella to the bater and gently marble it through with a knife).

Evenly spoon it into small baking cavity moulds or mini bundt tins.

Place in the oven and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 20 - 25 minutes.

Transfer to a wire rack and let cool for about 5 minutes before removing from pan.

Once completely cool, add 1-2 tbsp of Nutella, spread it around. Top it with fresh, unsweetened, hand whipped mascarpone. Add an array of fresh fruit and chill until required.

Makes about 12-14 mini bundts.

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