Chocolate Hazelnut Cake
Ingredients:
For the cake
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (best quality available)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
3/4 cup whole milk (or use skim milk and add a little cream)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup very hot water (or hot coffee)
For the frosting
3 cups heavy whipping cream
1 cup powdered sugar (divided)
1 package (8oz.) cream cheese
3/4 cup Sprouts Organic Hazelnut Spread
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Garnish
2 Tablespoons chocolate chips
3 Tablespoons Sprouts Organic Hazelnut Spread
1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts
additional 12-15 whole hazelnuts
Directions:
Bake the cake
Heat oven to 350*F.
Prepare cake pans by rubbing the sides of the pans with a little oil or butter and dusting with flour. Line bottoms of pans with parchment paper.
In a large mixing bowl (the bowl of an electric mixer), stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Beat on medium speed for one minute.
Stir in hot water or coffee (the batter will be thin, don’t worry, this is right).
Divide batter evenly between prepared pans.
Bake until the top of the cake is smooth and has a slight dome and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. I baked the cake shown in three 7” pans and baked them about 30 minutes. You will need to adjust the bake time based on the pans you choose.
Cool completely before frosting. I like to cool the cakes at room temperature a bit, then wrap in plastic wrap and freeze until cold and firm (30 minutes or up to a couple days).
Prepare the frosting
Chill your mixing bowl and beater(s) in the freezer for 5 minutes. This will help the whipping cream whip up nice and quickly.
Pour the heavy cream into the chilled bowl, then beat until it begins to thicken. Slowly add half (1/2 cup) of the powdered sugar, while mixing. Continue to beat until the cream has almost doubled in volume and is nice and fluffy.
Remove whipped cream from mixing bowl (into another bowl), and set in the fridge.
In the mixing bowl (empty, but no need to clean fully), add the cream cheese. Beat until smooth.
Add the remaining (1/2 cup) powdered sugar and mix until fully combined.
Add the hazelnut spread to the smooth cream cheese, and blend until fully combined. Add vanilla and blend.
Retrieve the whipped cream from the fridge and add one large scoop (about a cup) of whipped cream into the mixing bowl with the hazelnut spread/cream cheese mixture. Blend slowly (using the whisk attachment), until combined.
Add the remaining whipped cream to the bowl and use a spatula to gently fold/stir the whipped cream into the hazelnut mixture.
Fill and frost your prepared (cooled) cake as desired. You should have plenty of frosting to cover the cake and some remaining for decorative touches (to be added later). Move frosted cake to the freezer if you plan to add chocolate glaze (recipe follows).
Garnish
Once the cake is frosted, if desired, add a chocolate hazelnut glaze by combining 2 T. chocolate chip and 3 T. hazelnut spread in a small bowl and microwave (at 50% power) 30 seconds at a time until mostly melted. Stir to combine. Cool slightly, then pour onto the top of the frosted (and chilled) cake. Spread almost (but not quite) to the edge. Top chocolate layer with chopped hazelnuts.
If desired, add remaining hazelnut whipped cream frosting to a piping bag fitted with a 1M tip and add decorative swirls (as pictured) around the top edge of the cake. Top each swirl with a whole hazelnut.
Keep the cake in the fridge until ready to serve. Keep any remaining cake in the fridge.
The cake shown was baked in 7” round cake pans. If you are using 8” or 9” pans feel free to just make two layers of cake.
If you are not making a (7”) 3 layer cake, you can reduce the frosting recipe as follows... 2 cup heavy cream, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 4oz. (1/2 package) cream cheese, 1/2 cup hazelnut spread, 1 teaspoon vanilla.
http://www.glorioustreats.com/2017/11/chocolate-hazelnut-cake.html
Gosh, that’s a beautiful cake! I wonder how far ahead you can make it, with the whipped cream and all...
I hadn’t heard of Sprouts Hazelnut Spread. (Nutella was in the news tonight for having - gasp!- changed their recipe - but they claim you won’t notice the difference...)
Sounds delicious! Would be good at Christmas too.
Yum! Hazelnuts are my favorite. Is sprouts hazelnut spread the same thing as hazelnut butter?