Nutella Cake

It’s that time of year again. Yes, it’s February and time for my birthday! I love February. It’s such an overlooked month. If it weren’t for Valentine’s Day, Groundhog Day (the movie) and the leap year phenomenon I think February would barely make it onto people’s radars. I like February, though, and not least because my birthday happens to fall in it. I think February is a relatively relaxing month. After the buildup and stress (for some people) of the holiday season and the New Year’s Resolution fad of January, February comes and returns life to normalcy. Usually by the time February rolls around, I’ve finally become somewhat comfortable writing the correct year when recording the date; it’s still winter (yay!) but spring is coming (also yay!), and, if you’re life is still dictated by an academic calendar, February marks a rough half-way point. What’s not to love? This morning it was properly overcast but the sun ended up coming out rendering my sweater and comfy boots rather warm. It’s better than being under multiple feet of snow, but I miss the cool, crisp, gray winter days and mornings of the Central Valley.

As today is my birthday and yesterday there was an elephant-sized anatomy exam, I felt a cake was in order. A proper cake, not just cup cakes. Cup cakes are good for anytime, but cakes require an occasion. After much deliberation, I decided to forego the traditional chocolate or funfetti cake and try something new. Pumpkin was suggested, but I’m on a bit of a Nutella kick so I decide to make Nigella Lawson’s Nutella Cake with Chocolate Ganache. This is a delightfully dense (alliteration oo-er) flourless cake. I was excited to try it since I’ve never even made a flourless chocolate cake before! It turned out well (peer-reviewed and everything!) despite a couple slight snafus in the preparation process.

Once you’ve gathered everything you need for the cake then it’s time to get crackin’! Literally you need to get cracking as you need to separate six eggs. Note that it says separated eggs not just egg whites. I read the first few lines of the recipe and only saw egg whites and threw all my yolks away. I then had to crack six more eggs and save the yolks. In a small bowl, whip the egg whites until stiff. If you don’t have the patience or wrist technique to do that by hand, I fully encourage using an electric mixer to speed up the project immensely. I mixed the egg whites until they peaked, that is, when you lift out the whisk/mixer there are little peaks that stick up. I stopped when they just barely started to peak but you could probably mix/whip them longer.

In a large bowl cream together an entire 13 oz. jar of Nutella (intense!) and 1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter. When this is done, grind up some pecans/hazlenuts/almonds whatever you have on hand. I used a little wanna-be food processor to do this and ended up with nuts that were not quite finely ground. Add in the nuts, egg yolks, and water. Next melt 4 oz. of chocolate and fold that into the mixture. I totally missed this part and ended up folding in chocolate after I had folded in part of the egg whites. Oops! Then gently fold in the egg whites a bit at a time.

When this is all done, pour it into a (well-)greased spring-form pan. Try to make the batter as level as possible in the pan. Major disturbances could show up in your finished product. Did I mention I was so excited I got to use my spring-form pan for a second time?! Note to self, must make more cakes as spring-form pan is feeling neglected. If you have parchment paper, you could line the pan. I don’t have any (I know, how could I be relatively into baking and not have parchment paper?) and I didn’t have any trouble. Pop it into the oven and bake for 40 minutes. Be sure to savor that wonderful, distinctive Nutella aroma that will fill your kitchen/apartment.

Let the cake cool completely. I repeat, let the cake cool completely before you do anything to it. I get very eager and impatient, but in this case it’s really best to wait for it to be cool. When it’s cool you should have no trouble removing the side of the pan. In fact, I left my cake cool all night before topping it with the ganache. The cake had completely separated from the edge of the pan so it was a cinch to remove the sides.

Now for the ganache. I used dark chocolate in the cake, but I accidentally buy enough for the ganache. I ended up using semi-sweet chocolate chips for the ganache and I think it was a nice complement.  Measure out 4 oz and chop it if necessary. I don’t have a food scale so I estimated 4 oz of chocolate chips by laying them in a singe layer roughly the dimensions of a 4 oz block of baking chocolate. At 7 am this morning when i was doing this I thought I was a genius! Toss the chocolate in a saucepan over medium-low heat with some water and cream (I used half and half because that’s what I had around). Melt the chocolate and then stir/whisk for a good 20 minutes until it reaches the consistency you want. While you continue to heat and stir, the ganache will thicken. I’ve never made ganache before so I guessed when it was thick enough. I also had to go to class which may or may not have been the major factor in my deciding it was thick enough.

When sufficiently thickened, remove from heat and let it cool off. Then pour this on top of the cake and spread it out to get a nice shiny layer on your cake. Then, voila! Enjoy with friends!


Happy February!
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Nutella Cake with Chocolate Ganache
recipe adapted from here
Ingredients
Cake:
6 large eggs, separated - keep both the yolks and egg whites
pinch salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 13-ounce container Nutellla
1 tablespoon water
1/2 cup finely ground pecans
4 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled (I used 70% Cacao)
Ganache:
1/2 cup half and half
1 tablespoon water
4 oz semi-sweet chocolate
optional: hazlenuts to decorate the top of the cake (see original recipe)
Directions:
Cake:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch springform pan.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg whites and salt until stiff.
3. In another large bowl, cream the butter and Nutella together. Then add the water, egg yolks, and ground pecans.
4. Fold in melted chocolate.
5. Add a blob of beaten egg whites to the chocolate batter and mix gently until well-combined. Fold in the remaining whites, one-third at a time, very gently but thoroughly.
6. Pour into springform and bake for 40 minutes. Test for doneness by inserting toothpick in the center, which should come out mostly clean; lightly pressing finger into top to check for a slight bouncing-back; and observing edges beginning to separate from pan. Let cool completely in pan.
Ganache:
1. Chop chocolate, and add to sauce pan with half and half and water over medium-low heat. Once chocolate is melted and components are combined, whisk until mixture reaches desired thickness, then cool.
2. Remove rim of cake pan and pour cooled ganache over, spreading lightly to create a smooth, shiny surface.