With the exception of the Guardian’s own Felicity Cloake – a heretic who recommends making your own – Nutella is seemingly irresistible to humans and animals alike. Not bad for a creation whose origins lie, twice over, in war, privation and improvisation. Napoleonic trade bans restricted cocoa’s availability in 19th-century Piedmont, inspiring the first gianduja or gianduiotto blends with local hazelnuts. In similar circumstances after the second world war, the Ferrero family created its own cocoa and hazelnut mix which, in 1964, became the easily spreadable SuperCrema version of Nutella which – recipe tweaks aside – we know today. I know some people prefer to use salted butter because that is what they tend to buy and they don’t want to buy multiple butters. If this is the case, you can use salted butter but do not add anymore salt to the buttercream. The quantities below are enough to generously decorate twelve cupcakes. My Vanilla Cupcakes would be an absolutely perfect base for this buttercream.

You need to use your judgement with how much milk you add. This will be dependant on which milk you are using. For example you will need to add less skimmed milk than whole milk or double cream because it is thinner in consistency. what consistency should the NUtella Buttercream be? I always use unsalted butter when I am baking. I like to be able to control the amount of salt I add to baking and therefore prefer to use unsalted butter and add salt if needed. I like to use whole milk because it does make the buttercream creamier, but I wouldn’t buy a pint of whole milk just for this one recipe. I have used semi skimmed milk before and that works well. Bafflingly rich, sweet, stodgy foods. The addition of Nutella, even more so than whipped cream, compounds this problem. “Galumphing, maximalist cooking that makes you long for delicacy, refinement and finesse,” says HTE, the column that eats Nutella straight from the jar.

Morrisons Hazelnut and Chocolate Spread (400g)

I definitely wouldn’t recommend using margarine when making buttercream. The flavour and texture won’t be as it should be. Make sure you butter is soft That has an unmistakable, unappealing 1970s feel. Dipping fruit into softened Nutella brings two great things together and ruins both. Although it is not as leftfield as serving chocolate spread on a charcuterie board to pair with the cheese. Or adding it to a grilled cheese sandwich. If you didn’t use all of the Nutella Buttercream or you wanted to make it in advance, it will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to one week.

However this does vary depending on the time of year and where you live. If you live somewhere very hot, you wouldn’t need to leave the butter out very long to soften; especially in the summer.I’m sure most people will have heard of Nutella, even if they haven’t tried it. It is an Italian chocolate hazelnut spread. There are lots of other brands of chocolate hazelnut spread, but Nutella is the most well known. You can use whichever milk you usually buy. Skimmed milk will offer much less creaminess than whole milk will. Potential banana skin … while this looks nice enough, it’s marked down for the poshness of the bread, and should really be paired with tea. Photograph: Vsevolod Belousov/Alamy Nutella is a good source of calcium and iron, although it's not very nutritious since it is high in sugar, calories, and fat. Nutella ingredients include sugar, palm oil, hazelnuts, cocoa, milk powder, lecithin and synthetic vanillin. A few years ago, I realised that Nutella used palm oil. I wasn’t very keen on this so I looked for alternatives and found that Gü make a palm oil free chocolate hazelnut spread.