Chocolate Chip Hazelnut Cake With Chocolate Cinnamon Butter Cream

Chocolate Chip Hazelnut Cake With Chocolate Cinnamon Butter Cream

A favourite nutty sponge cake rich with chocolate nibs and a dark chocolate and cinnamon frosting. Serves eight.

INGREDIENTS:

butter – 250g
golden caster sugar – 250g
shelled hazelnuts – 75g
dark chocolate – 120g
large eggs – 4
self-raising fl our – 125g
½ tsp ground cinnamon
strong espresso – 4 tsp

For the spiced chocolate cream:

dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids) – 250g
butter – 125g
cinnamon – a knife point

You will also need a 20-21 cm loose-bottomed cake tin.

METHOD:

Set the oven at 180˚C/Gas 4. Line the base of the cake tin with greaseproof paper. Cut the butter into small chunks and put it with the sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer, then beat until white and fluffy. Toast the hazelnuts in a dry pan over a moderate heat, then rub them in a tea towel until most of the skins have flaked off. There is really no need to be too pernickety about this, you just want most of the skins removed. Grind the nuts to a coarse powder, less finely than ground almonds, but finer than they would be if you chopped them by hand. Chop the chocolate into what looks like coarse gravel.

Break the eggs into a small bowl and beat them gently. Slowly add them to the butter and sugar mixture, beating all the time – it may curdle slightly but it doesn't matter. Stop the machine. Tip in half the ground nuts and half the flour, beat briefly at a slow speed, stop the machine again, then add the rest together with the chopped chocolate and cinnamon and mix briefly.

Fold in the espresso gently, taking care not to knock the air from the mixture, then scoop into the lined cake tin. Smooth the top and bake for 35-45 minutes, covering the cake with tinfoil for the last 10 minutes if the top is colouring too quickly.

Remove the cake from the oven and test with a skewer – you want it to come out moist but clean, without any uncooked cake mixture clinging to it. Leave the cake to cool a little in its tin before turning out and peeling off the greaseproof paper from its bottom.

To make the chocolate butter cream, snap the chocolate into small pieces and let it melt in a small pot balanced over a small pan of simmering water (the water should not touch the bottom of the pot). Leave to melt, with little or no stirring then add the butter, cut into small pieces and spice. Stir until the butter has melted.

Leave to cool until the mixture is thick enough to spread (I sometimes impatiently put mine in the fridge for 15-20 minutes). Spread the chocolate cream over the top of the cake, decorate as the whim takes you and leave for an hour or so before cutting.

Cookie

Ho Ho Ho . . . this is something I've got to try!!!!!!

Thanks Cookie!