chocolate and hazelnut cake

Well hello there. A lot has happened in a year. I didn't intend to abandon blogging but crap happened and I didn't deal with it very well, I certainly didn't want to talk about it and I pretty much spiralled into a pit of negativity and sadness. I still don't want to talk about it but I feel ready to dip my toes back in here now that I've vaguely touched on it. I've missed using this space and having a handy creative archive to refer to.

However, I have come to the decision that I want to return this blog to just baking and crockery as it has got to a stage where I'm not happy posting my sewing and knitting projects here anymore. I'm aware I've mentioned moving them to a separate space for at least 4 years, but this is the year where I feel I need to make the change. If/when the move happens, I'll let you know here.

In the meantime you can still find my knitting projects on Ravelry and I recently joined The Foldline where I've reviewed a few sewing projects from the last year.

So without further ado, CAKE. We're still here for cake, right?

This particular cake, inspired by Ferrero Rochers, was baked for my sister-in-law's birthday last April. I'd definitely describe it as a "grown up" cake. The hazelnut sponges were rich and textured and the chocolate ganache coating was rich and luxuriously cocoa-y. I'm glad I sandwiched the sponges together with a chocolate butter icing and used it to pipe decorative swirls on top as the sweetness of the butter icing really lifted the cake.

On the whole there was a lovely balance of textures and flavours. You certainly didn't need a large slice to feel full and satisfied either.

Somewhat amazingly, I appear to have kept a physical note of what I used for the sponges. The rest of the details however are a hazy memory, but this is roughly what I did:

Chocolate and hazelnut cake

sponges:

250g softened butter

250g soft light brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 large eggs

150g plain flour

1 heaped tsp baking powder

150g hazelnuts (roasted, skinned and ground.) I bought a couple of bags of already roasted, skinned and chopped hazelnuts then whizzed them up in my small food processor to ground them up further. 

chocolate ganache:

I have no idea what recipe I used for this, but I definitely used double cream with a combination of good quality milk and dark chocolate with high cocoa percentages. I have a funny feeling I may have incorporated melted butter into the ganache at the end...? Who knows. If you want to recreate this cake I recommend referring to a favourite chocolate ganache recipe or picking one of the many kicking about on the internet. It's safer than following my vague memory.

chocolate butter icing:

I likely mixed this up without following a recipe, so I recommend following whatever chocolate butter icing you like best. I personally really like the one in the Hummingbird Bakery's Cookbook.

topping:

another bag of roasted, skinned and chopped hazelnuts

a box of Ferrero Rocher

Preheat the oven to Gas 4/180C/ Fan 160C. Grease two 20cm/8 inch round cake tins and line the bases with baking parchment. 

In a large bowl beat together the margarine and sugar for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy. In a separate bowl mix together the ground hazelnuts, flour and baking powder. Add the eggs to the butter and sugar mixture one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add a tablespoon of the flour mixture with the last egg to prevent the mixture from splitting. Tip in the rest of the flour mixture along with the vanilla extract and mix until everything is combined.

Divide the mixture between the cake tins and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for approx. 25-30 minutes until well risen and springs back when touched. Leave to cool in the tins for a few minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

For the icing beat the butter, cocoa powder and icing sugar until light and fluffy, for about 5 minutes. Use to fill the cake and put the remaining icing in a piping bag with a 1M nozzle to use later.

After sandwiching the sponges together with butter icing, coat the sides and top with the ganache. It doesn't matter if it isn't smooth. Press chopped hazelnuts onto the side of the cake (this is messy, admittedly) and scatter them across the top. Finally, pipe 12 decorative swirls of the leftover butter icing on top of the cake and press a Ferrero Rocher chocolate on top of each swirl.

white chocolate and hazelnut praline cake

The combination of white chocolate and hazelnut has been rattling around my brain for ages so last weekend I finally decided to pair them together in a cake. I'm happy to report that it turned out rather well.

 Uggghhh night time photography. Sorry. 

Towards the end of last year I was kindly sent a tub of praline white hot chocolate powder from Whittard along with other goodies (you can find the other bakes I made from these here and here.) It was a special flavour brought out for their hot chocolate month last October but I see from their website that the flavour has been brought back. YES! I'm definitely buying more because oh my word that drink was good. It tasted like a ferrero rocher melted into a white hot chocolate. In other words, it was heavenly. Sadly it never made it into a baked good, but I've recreated the flavour in a special cake for Mother's Day last Sunday.

The sponge is packed with nutty flavour. It might be a bit of a pain to roast, skin and grind hazelnuts but it is definitely worth the effort for the added flavour. The richness of the sponge was complimented by a sweet, creamy white chocolate buttercream and topped with a crunchy hazelnut praline.

PacMan cake angle

It's definitely the kind of cake where you should cut relatively slim slices as it's very filling. As you can see from my photos I cut my usual greedy sized portions but I really struggled to finish my slice. I do not like to be defeated by cake though, so I spaced my eating over an hour. Victory was mine!

Mum's only complaint was that there wasn't enough icing and I definitely agree. I originally intended to ice the sides as well but didn't have enough icing so I made do with just filling and topping the cake. If, like us, you are bonkers for white chocolate buttercream then I'd recommend increasing the amounts, perhaps even doubling it. There's no such thing as too much white chocolate buttercream.

White chocolate, hazelnut and praline cake

sponge:
250g butter, softened

250g soft light brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 large eggs

150g plain flour

1 heaped tsp baking powder

150g hazelnuts - roasted, skinned and ground

1 tbsp milk

icing:

100g white chocolate, chopped

100g butter, softened
175g icing sugar

praline:

100g whole hazelnuts, roasted and skinned

50g caster sugar

Line a baking tray with parchment and spread the hazelnuts for both the sponge and praline on top. Roast in the oven at a relatively low heat, at something like 130 or 140C, for around 5-10 minutes. Keep a close eye on them as it really doesn't take long and you don't want them to burn! Once roasted, rub their skins off with a teatowel. Grind 150g of the hazelnuts in a blender (for the sponge) until they're a similar consistency to ground almonds.

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4 and grease and line two 8 inch round cake tins. Beat together the butter and sugar for 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract, then the eggs one at a time, mixing well between each addition. In a separate bowl mix together the plain flour, baking powder and ground hazelnuts before adding to the main bowl along with the milk. Mix everything together until fully combined. 

Divide the mixture between the two tins and bake in the centre of the oven for 25-30 minutes until well risen, firm to touch and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. I noticed that mine were starting to colour too much just after 20 minutes but weren't fully baked so I put a layer of greaseproof paper over the top to stop the surface from burning. Once fully baked, remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tins for a few minutes before turning out to finish cooling on a wire rack.

For the icing, melt the white chocolate in short bursts in a bowl in a microwave or in a heatproof bowl over a small pan of simmering water (whichever method you prefer.) Once cool, add to the butter and icing sugar and beat together for about 5 minutes until soft and creamy. Use this to fill and top the cooled cake.

For the praline, put the caster sugar in a heavy bottomed pan and cook over a relatively low heat. Watch it like a hawk as it really doesn't take long for the sugar to dissolve and caramelise. Once it turns a nice caramel colour chuck in the remaining whole hazelnuts, give it a quick mix and quickly dump onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper. Once cool and set, roughly chop up the praline and press it onto the top of the iced cake.

chocolate chip banana bread and homemade Nutella

A few nights ago I dreamt that Mary Berry asked me to find a Scrabble board. I didn't question her, after all she is a baking legend and has as much authority as the Queen. I dutifully drove to my house, found the box and drove back to give it to her. She was delighted and gave me a massive hug.

I have no idea what any of that signifies, but I took it as a sign to bake something from Mary Berry's Baking Bible. Looking at the sad bananas on the kitchen counter I knew it had to be banana bread, which is basically a big, comforting hug for your tummy.

This is my favourite type of recipe: throw everything in a bowl, mix for 2 minutes, pour it into a tin, done. My only addition was a bag of milk chocolate chips as I'm a sucker for banana and chocolate combinations. There's no other flavourings in the batter to interfere, just banana and milk chocolate joy.

Ok, now I'm going to address what you actually came here for..... I made my own chocolate and hazelnut spread. From scratch! Boom. Like A Boss. Totes Amazeballs. *Insert other hip lingo I feel too uncool/ashamed to use*

Admittedly it's grittier than Nutella, probably because my tiny blender isn't good enough to blitz the hazelnuts any finer. I would say it's closer in texture to peanut butter spread.

This is when I have to admit that I actually hate peanut butter with a passion. Sorry. I think it's a combination of the gritty, stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth texture with the salty, oil-iness. Bleugh. However I like the flavour of this spread, it's hazelnut and chocolate after all, so I'm willing to overlook the peanut butter-type texture. The grittiness is less of an issue when the spread is warmed up (it sets once it's cool) which is how I enjoyed it with my banana bread.

If you love peanut butter I doubt any of this will be an issue though.

Other than the boring task of rubbing off the roasted hazelnut skins it's an easy spread to make so go ahead and make some for yourself! Slather it on some toast, warm banana bread or just shove it straight in your mouth. All good options.

Chocolate chip banana bread
Recipe (barely) adapted from Mary Berry's Baking Bible. Previously baked here.

100g (4oz) softened butter/margarine
175g (6oz) golden caster sugar
2 large eggs
3 small bananas, mashed
225g (8oz) self raising flour
1 level tsp baking powder
2 tbsp milk
100g milk chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/Gas 4 and line a 2lb loaf tin with baking parchment. Put all the ingredients except the chocolate chips in a large bowls and mix together for about 2 minutes until smooth and well combined. Stir in the chocolate chips before pouring the mixture into the prepared loaf tin. 

Bake in the middle of the oven for roughly 1 hour until well risen, firm to touch and skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

For the homemade Nutella I followed this recipe from Not Quite Nigella using Green and Black's milk chocolate. I also halved the quantities to suit what I had. My only suggestion would be to take care when adding the salt. I didn't think I added much but I could definitely taste it, possibly too much! 

chocolate chunk hazelnut biscuits

Does anybody else grumpy-bake? I certainly do. "I feel grumpy so I'm going to bake something."

This is the end product of said grumpy baking.

I initially thought these weren't anything exciting, but considering I ate four in quick succession with my cuppa I must turn around on myself and admit they're rather tasty. They remind me of McVities Boaster biscuits (do they still exist?) which I find oddly comforting as my Granny occasionally kept them in her biscuit tin.

For the chocolate chunks I used a mixture of Green and Blacks white and milk chocolate as that's what I had to hand. Surprisingly, for me, I prefer the stronger cocoa flavour of the milk chocolate against the hazelnuts and vanilla.

The original recipe says to divide the dough in half, roll into 15-18cm long rolls and freeze for 2 hours before cutting into 2-3cm discs. However I had no time or patience for such nonsense so I roughly dolloped slightly flattened knob shapes onto the trays and left in the fridge for about 15-20 minutes to firm up the butter before baking.

So the resulting biscuits are crunchy and crumbly and a bit rough and ready as opposed to the soft and chewy, regularly spherical ones pictured in the recipe book, but I'm fine with that. If anything, I prefer them this way. Their sweetness easied my grumpiness so they did their job.

Chocolate chunk hazelnut biscuits

Adapted from Hummingbird Bakery's white chocolate and pecan nut cookies recipe

250g unsalted butter, softened

100g caster sugar

200g soft light brown sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

400g plain flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

50g white chocolate chopped

50g milk chocolate chopped  

100g hazelnuts, roughly chopped

Beat together the butter and sugars in a large bowl for about a minute until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla. Mix the flour, salt and baking powder together in a separate bowl before adding to the egg mixture. Mix everything together until well combined and forms a smooth dough. Stir in the chocolate and nuts. 

Dollop small-ish knobs of the dough onto lined baking trays (perhaps about a tablespoon in size), well spaced apart. Leave to chill in the fridge for about 20 minutes. This will keep the butter firm so it doesn't melt quickly and make the biscuits spread too much in the oven. Whilst your dough is chilling preheat the oven to 170C/325F/Gas 3.

Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes until the edges start turning golden in colour. Leave to cool on the trays for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. The original recipe produces 24 biscuits/cookies but I ended up with 30-40.