Nutella Swirl Cupcakes

Rich, buttery cupcakes with decadent swirls of nutella baked right on top. These self-frosting nutella swirl cupcakes are easy to transport and store, because the frosting is baked right in!

I spent a borderline ridiculously long time debating if I should call these nutella swirl cupcakes… or nutella swirl muffins.

Usually, I think of a muffin as having no frosting, while a cupcake has a pile of frosting on time.

But here, we have no separate frosting that we pile on top, making them like a muffin. Instead, gooey swirls of nutella are baked into the batter and cover the top – so they’re kind of self-frosting. And frosting makes me think of a cupcake.

In the end, I settled on cupcakes, because these are made by beating softened butter with sugar using a mixer. Muffins are usually whisked by hand with melted butter or oil.

But if calling these nutella swirl muffins instead of nutella swirl cupcakes makes you feel better about eating one of these for breakfast, I fully and completely support your decision.

Because these are absolutely delicious for breakfast.