Ok, this cake is not really chock full o’ hazelnuts, but it is full of hazelnut flavor! I had this idea of hazelnut flavored chocolate cake frosted with hazelnut buttercream, but when my local grocery store didn’t have any hazelnut flavoring, I opted to try using some hazelnut flavored instant coffee in the cake instead.
Chocolate batter with hazelnut instant coffee for flavoring. It sounded like a good idea to me. Then another idea came to mind. Why not add some Nutella on the cake? Why you ask, because, there aren’t quite enough calories in this cake yet, 🙄. What else has the most unbelievable hazelnut flavor? Why Ferrero Rocher chocolates, of course!! Oh yes, that’s right the light, crispy, delicious and most decadent taste of hazelnuts to top off this cake. I guess I was feeling a little nutty today…hazelnutty that is!
Cake Ingredients:
- 2 ½ cups cake flour
- 1 cup cocoa
- 1 ½ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 3 single serve packets of hazelnut instant coffee
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup of boiling water
Hazelnut Buttercream Icing
- 1 cup room temperature butter
- 4 cups confectioners sugar
- 3-4 tablespoons heavy cream
- 2 single serve packets of hazelnut instant coffee
Optional ingredients for a very special decoration as shown:
- 6 Ferrero Rocher hazelnut chocolates
- ½ cup Nutella hazelnut spread for topping
Directions:
- preheat oven to 350℉
- combine all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and mix well
- whisk together eggs, oil, buttermilk, vanilla in a small bowl
- add the milk mixture to the dry ingredients and beat on low speed for two minutes
- after mixing for two minutes add in one cup of boiling water and blend for another two minutes or until smooth
- spray two 9″ cake pans with baking spray or grease thoroughly then pour cake batter equally into both pans
- bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean
- allow cakes to cool completely on a cooling rack before icing.
Hazelnut Buttercream:
- place butter and coffee packets into a mixing bowl and blend it until it is light and fluffy
- blend in 2 cups of the confectioners sugar and blend well
- add in the rest of the sugar and blend
- add in the heavy cream one tablespoon at a time until you get the desired frosting consistency * frosting should be very light and fluffy
Decorating the Cake:
- take one layer cake and add some icing on top
- put another cake layer on top
- cover cake with a thin layer of icing and then place it in the freezer for 15 minutes. “crumb layer”
- next spread Nutella over the top of the cake
- cover the sides with buttercream icing again until all the cake is covered
- fill a piping bag with icing and pipe some icing into circles around the cake
- cut the Ferrero Rocher candies in half and place them in between the icing dollops and one in the center of the cake
