Hazelnut Cake with Chocolate Ganache
I love Hazelnuts in every form. So, when I saw this cake on my friend’s blog few years ago, I had to try it. Her pictures also made it look so good. I have made this cake several times mostly without any kind of frosting because I love the ease of snack cakes and how well they pair with morning coffee or latte.
My favorite combo latte and a dense cake lie this. I say dense because usually nut cakes are supposed to be dense due to the high usage of nuts in them. But at the same time, its soft.
The original recipe comes from the book Ripe by Nigel Slater. It’s easy one-layer cake to impress anyone. If you wish to skip the ganache and instead add chocolate chips in the cake itself great idea. Or serve it with side of Nutella. It will remind you of Ferrero Rocher. It’s a very nutty cake if you know what I mean.
I think the original recipe uses roasted hazelnuts and then roughly processing them. But I used a short cut. I used store-bought hazelnut flour. Go ahead and roast the hazelnuts and make your own flour. I have done that. I won’t lie getting the skin off is a little bit of work. If you plan and do it a day before baking, it will be much easier.
I made this cake for my husband’s birthday. I wanted a small cake and because this cake has no layers, is only one layer it was an easy choice. Ganache was my addition to the Birthday celebration.
I made the cake a day in advance because we had plans to be out on his birthday. I came back from a whole day’s trip and quickly made the Ganache, poured it over and let is sit.
By the time we finished dinner, it was well set. We cut the cake and had it for dessert and day after leftovers for breakfast.
The method cannot be simpler. Just cream the butter and sugar, mix the eggs and rest of the ingredients and bake it. The topping can be s simple sugar lemon glaze or sugar espresso glaze or ganache.
Ganache took me 5 minutes to make and I didn’t use any other tool to pour it.
I put a tray underneath the cooling rack and cake was already resting on the cooling rack. Started pouring the ganache from the middle and went sideways making sure the sides were well covered. Nothing must look perfect and that’s the beauty of homemade food. I didn’t do any extra garnish as I had planned. I just added splashes of gold powder dissolved in water on the cake once it set up.
This cake will be a such a great addition to your holiday table. It has that chocolate feels and hazelnutty taste. And, while we are talking about hazelnuts, why not add some hazelnut liqueur. After all, its holiday time.
Hazelnut Cake with Chocolate Ganache
Ingredients
- 2 cups Hazelnut flour 7 oz or 200 grams
- 2 tbsp roughly chopped Hazelnuts optional
- 2 sticks of butter room temperature
- ¾ cup loosely packed light muscovado sugar or light brown sugar
- 3 large eggs room temperature
- ½ all-purpose flour
- Pinch of salt
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp Frangelico liqueur optional
- 1 cup semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips I used Guittard 46% semi sweet
- ½ cup Heavy cream or Heavy whipping cream
Instructions
- Pre heat the oven at 350 F. Grease a 9-inch pan lined with parchment paper.
- Using an electric mixer on medium high speed, beat together the butter with sugar, until it looks fluffy and mix looks slightly changed in color. It will take 2-3 minutes. Lightly add one egg at a time, and until each one gets incorporated.
- The batter might look curdled or separated. Don’t worry it will come together. Add in the hazelnut flour, all-purpose flour along with baking powder and salt. Mix everything on low speed until it comes together. Stir in chopped hazelnuts and if using, frangelico as well.
- Transfer the batter in the prepared pan and smooth out the top. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick or knife comes out clean and the cake looks done. The cake might look darker than other cakes.
- Remove it from the oven, let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Take it out on a cooling rack and let it cool completely.
- While the cake is cooling, make ganache.
- In a microwave or stove top, heat up the heavy cream just enough that the chocolate can melt.
- Add the chocolate chips and whisk it well until it melts, and the ganache looks shiny and smooth and there are no lumps in the it.
- Once the cake is completely cool, drizzle ganache on the cake right in the middle (check pics) and going sideways to ensure that the sides are also covered in chocolate ganache. Make sure to put a tray underneath your cake while you pour the ganache to catch all the extra drippings.
Notes
- You can also make your own hazelnut flour by roasting hazelnuts in the pre heated oven at 350 F for 10 minutes, cooling it down for another 10 minutes and then remove the skins by putting them in a dish towel and rubbing it. You can then grind it coarsely. I preferred to buy store-bought hazelnut flour (Bob’s Red Mill) to save time.
- I have reduced sugar considerably, but if you want more sweetness, add about ¼ to ½ cup more. You can find muscovado sugar from lot of places. But If you don’t find it just use light brown sugar.
- Ganache – use best quality of chocolate. I loved how Guittard chips were so silky smooth and made the best ganache. Use all that extra drippings of ganache of extra serving on cake or on ice-cream etc.
XO, Devangi