Chocolate Hazelnut Creme Cake

 Chocolate Hazelnut Creme Cake

 

The Chocolate Sponge Cake (rather standard recipe) 

(Note: Prepare a day or 2 in advance and keep in fridge after it is cooled to room temperature)

Ingredients

4 eggs

150 ml sugar

100 ml corn or potato starch

50 ml flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

50 ml cocoa powder

Method

Mix dry ingredients (except sugar) and set aside. Beat eggs and sugar together until stiff (basically when the batter looks light yellowish) then sieve the dry ingredients folding into the beaten eggs. (Don't stir, if you stir it will release the air and your cake my end up more dense and lose the spongey airy texture). Bake in a 9 inch round tin at 175° C for 35-45 mins (check constantly as every oven varies) Stick a toothpick in the center and if the stick comes out clean the cake is ready.

Chocolate Hazelnut Creme Filling

 The Chocolate Hazelnut mixture before adding the cream (It looks rather grainy)

Ingredients

A)

4 Tbps Hazelnut butter (You can make this yourself if you can't find them from the store)

100 ml water

2 pcs gelatine leaves (soak in cold water until soften)

3 Tbsp sugar (I don't like my cakes too sweet, so you can add more and if you like it with EVEN less sugar you can reduce it)

1 Tbsp butter

200 grams of cooking chocolate (semi sweet)

B)

500 ml of whipping cream

2 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp pure vanilla essence

Method

Prepare two pots, one for heating the hazelnut butter to give it an extra punch and the other to boil the water and sugar. First heat up the hazelnut until you get a nutty fragrant (this will take about 5 mins on medium heat) stiring constantly. Leave aside, on the second pot heat water until boiling point, add sugar until it is melted. Remove from heat and drop the gelatine leaves and stir until dissolve. Now add the chocolate and stir until melted followed by butter to add the extra taste and gloss. Finally add hazelnut butter paste and stir well.

Now prepare the whipping cream, mix the sugar and vanilla essence and beat until the cream stand in peaks. Pour in the hazelnut creme mixture and fold until mixture is even (yes the mixture still has to be lukewarm, don't worry if the cream melts a little the gelatine will set it once it's in the fridge). Now leave the entire bowl in the fridge under a cling film for at least 3 hours.

Chocolate mousse topping

Ingredients

600 -700 ml  whipping cream

200 grm cooking chocolate (semi sweet)

6 Tbs sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence (or 2 tsp vanilla sugar, vanilla essence is rather pungent and will overwhelm if you use too much, unless you like it by all means :D)

100 ml of water

3 pcs  gelatine leave (soak in water) 

Method

Bring water to boil and add sugar. Stir until dissolved, remove from heat and add the gelatine leaves. Add chocolate pieces until melted. Whisk the whipping cream with vanilla essence (no extra sugar is needed as it is all poured into the chocolate mixture) until it stands in peaks. Fold in the cooled chocolate mixture into the whipped cream. Don't worry if there are some streaks, it creates a nice effect :). Cool in the fridge for at least 3 hours before using to decorate on the cake or else it will start to weep.

Notes: It is best to keep the cream overnight in a piping bag if you're using it to pipe on the cake. This way it avoids the mousse or cream from melting.

When assembling the cake, you should assemble it back into the cake tin that you made in, this way the cake will hold its shape better. After assembling the filling return the cake under cling film back into the fridge for an hour before piping the 'icing' on.