Warm the Nutella slightly in the microwave or in a bowl over some boiling water. Just enough to loosen the consistency (about 15-20 seconds in the microwave). Spoon the Nutella into a piping bag with a thin nozzle.
5 tbsp Nutella
Place your raspberries in a wide bowl with the hole pointing up and pipe Nutella into each one. Place the bowl of raspberries in the freezer whilst you prepare the rest of the ingredients (freezing the raspberries helps to ensure they barely cook, meaning they'll retain their Nutella-filled structure).
36 raspberries
In a large bowl, mix the oil, sugar and vanilla extract using a wooden spoon. Add the egg and buttermilk, and stir to combine. Slowly pour in the melted chocolate whilst mixing all the time. Finally fold in the plain (all-purpose) flour, bicarbonate of soda, and cocoa powder. Mix until just combined.
4 tbsp vegetable or coconut oil, 100 g (1/2 cup) golden caster sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, 1 large egg, 150 ml (2/3 cup minus 2 tsp) buttermilk, 70 g (2.5 oz) good quality chocolate, 150 g (1 1/4 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour, 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda, 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
Take 3 x 12-hole non-stick mini muffin trays and place a heaped tsp of the chocolate mixture into each hole. You should get 36 cakes from the mix. Take the raspberries out of the freezer and push a raspberry into the cake mix of each muffin hole. Ensure the raspberry is placed with the Nutella end-up (to stop the Nutella from leaking into the cake mixture). Spread a little cake mix over each raspberry so they're just covered.
Place in the oven and cook for 10 minutes.
Take out of the oven and leave to cool for 5 minutes, then carefully remove from the trays and leave to cool completely on a cooling rack.
Once cool, pipe the remaining Nutella over the top of the cake bites.
2 tbsp Nutella
Notes
Note 1:
You can use dark chocolate or milk chocolate (semi-sweet) for this recipe - whatever you prefer..
Cake Tin:
You might notice that some of the prep photos are in a little pink mould, and some are in a tin. That's because I started out testing these in silicone cake-pop moulds - for a nice domed appearence. I found that this only works if your raspberries are small (mine weren't) and if you spray the mould well with cake release spray or another oil spray (I didn't). The result was an overflowing cake mould with cakes that melded together, then wouldn't come out of the cake mould. Also, the raspberries were too big to be properly covered in cake mix, so that stuck out after baking.I've tried it before with smaller raspberries, and it worked great.This time, I ended up going with a well-sprayed mini muffin tin, and it worked out perfectly!.
How long with they keep?
Stored in a sealed container at room temperature, they should keep for 2 days. If you are planning on not eating them all right away, I'd suggest leaving off the drizzle of Nutella - as you can't stack them when they have Nutella on top..
Do they freeze?
I find they don't freeze that well. Because it's only a small amount of sponge, the raspberry will release liquid as it defrosts, making the sponge a little soggy..
Can I make them gluten free?
Yes, you can replace the plain/all-purpose flour with plain/all-purpose gluten free power blend. It also works if you use three-quarters gluten free plain flour blend and one-quarter coconut flour..Nutritional Information is per cake bite.