Nutella Cake (VIDEO)
This Chocolate Nutella cake is a perfect dessert for chocolate and hazelnut lovers! It's a gorgeous combination of moist chocolate sponge cakes, luxurious Nutella mousseline cream (German buttercream) as filling and frosting, and chopped hazelnut as decoration! This lovely layered cake is sure to impress your guests at any dinner or birthday celebration!
Prep Time1 hour hr
Cook Time30 minutes mins
Waiting time1 hour hr 30 minutes mins
Total Time3 hours hrs
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Servings: 8
Calories: 853kcal
Chocolate Sponge for 3 x 15 cm ( 6 inches)
- 170 g All purpose flour
- 45 g Cocoa powder unsweetened, dutch processed
- 120 g Granulated sugar
- 120 g Brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon Baking soda
- 1 teaspoon Baking powder
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 70 g Vegetable oil
- 2 Eggs room temperature
- 165 g Milk room temperature
- 120 g Coffee freshly brewed strong coffee, room temperature
Nutella frosting
- 750 g Whole milk
- 150 g Granulated sugar
- 120 g Egg yolk approx. 6 egg yolk
- 37 g Corn starch
- 37 g Flour
- 75 g Chocolate semi-sweet good quality chocolate finely chopped
- 225 g Nutella
- 225 g Unsalted butter soft, room temperature
- 25 g Cocoa powder unsweetened, dutch processed
Start with chocolate pastry cream for the Nutella froting
In a large enough bowl with the help of a Hand whisk, whisk together sugar and egg yolk until slightly fluffy for about 1-2 minutes Mix in corn starch and flour until throughly incorporated and have a smooth paste
Bring milk to simmering in a saucepan on medium heat
Pour the warm milk over the egg yolk mixture slowly while whisking vigorously with a Hand whisk. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and cook on medium heat for a few minutes until it thickens. Concretely it is approximately 1 min after the first boil. It might get lumpy first, don't worry just keep whisking and the cream will get smooth and glossy. If in doubt, strain the pastry cream for a lump free, creamy end result
Add in chocolate in 3 stages, and mix with a Rubber spatula until completely incorporated. Place the cream into a shallow bowl and cover the entire surface with plastic wrap to avoid skin forming on top. Let it cool to room temperature
Chocolate sponges
Heat oven to 180 C / 356°F (no fan)
Prepare 3 15 cm (6 inch) round cake pan with parchment paper With an Electric hand mixer whip together the wet ingredients for 1-2 minutes: room temperature egg, oil, sugar, coffee, and milk Sift dry ingredients; flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder, salt
Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients then fold just until combined
Divide batter equally into 3 cake pans with the help of a Digital scale Bake for 25-30 min or until skewer inserted in the middle of the cakes comes out clean
Cool the chocolate sponges on Cooling rack. Chill them in the fridge before assembling the cake
Preparing the Nutella frosting
The Nutella frosting can be made with room temperature chocolate pastry cream, Nutella, cocoa powder, and room temp soft butter. Make sure everything is room temp otherwise the mixture might curdle
Once the pastry cream is set and at room temp, prepare the frosting by whipping room temp butter first for a few minutes, then whip in the cocoa powder and Nutella for 1-2 minutes
Start adding in the room temperature pastry cream in 4 stages until the cream reaches a stable yet fluffy texture. Do not over whip the mixture as it can become runny
Chill the cream if needed for an hour, otherwise, proceed with assembling the cake
Assembling
You will need to use the cream for: 1. filling 2. frosting 3. piping decoration so make sure you have enough cream left for each
Start layering the cake from bottom to top and fill each layer with 200g Nutella frosting
Continue with the second layer and apply the same. Finally, finish with a 3rd layer of chocolate sponge cake
At each layer please check how even the layers are, and make sure they are symmetrical with even layers. Chill the cake for either 1h in the fridge or 15min in the freezer before proceeding with frosting the cake
Once the cake is nicely chilled, frost the cake. You can pipe the cream around the cake first, then smooth it with an offset spatula
Chill the cake again 1h in the fridge before proceeding with decoration
Apply roasted chopped hazelnut all around and on the top of the cake and pipe some decoration on top using the same Nutella frosting
Serve the cake fresh, store any leftover in air-tight container refrigerated for 2-3 days
INGREDIENT NOTES:
- Measure your ingredients with a Digital scale for accuracy
- All ingredients for the chocolate cake must be at room temperature to properly emulsify: eggs, milk, coffee etc.
- Do not skip salt that will balance the sweetness of this cake
- For the Nutella frosting, it is key to use good quality unsweetened dark cocoa powder and semi-sweet chocolate so that they don´t overpower the Nutella taste but balances it
TECHNIQUE NOTES:
- Make sure you read my Expert tips section above to maximize your success. A short recipe alone is not able to cover all the necessary details, and science behind baking. Consider this recipe more like an in-depth tutorial, literally the only recipe you will ever need to make delicious Nutella cake
- Chill the chocolate sponges before making any layered cake
- Assemble the cake on the serving tray you are planning to serve as at a later stage you won´t be able to move the cake
- Let the pastry cream be properly set before whipping it up into mousseline cream. While whipping, pay very close attention to the consistency and stop whipping immediately after it gets fluffy. Over beating would result in breaking the cream and instead of becoming stiffer, in fact, it will get runnier
- Make sure you chill the cake in between applying the different layers and frostings just as stated in the recipe. That is a standard procedure for making any layered cake
Calories: 853kcal | Carbohydrates: 107g | Protein: 14g | Fat: 45g | Saturated Fat: 29g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 10g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 277mg | Sodium: 425mg | Potassium: 540mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 74g | Vitamin A: 1165IU | Calcium: 263mg | Iron: 5mg