Nutella Cake (VIDEO)

5 from 1 vote

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

Cook Time30

Waiting time1 30

Total Time3

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings:

Calories: 853kcal

Author: Katalin Nagy

Equipment

Ingredients

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

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

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

Video

Notes

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

Nutrition