Chocolate and hazelnut cake

I miss baking! In my last post I mentioned that I had been away with work. When I got back the oven was (temporalily) broken and then I went away on holiday. Holiday was very nice but I do miss the act/smell taste of some baked goods. I am away this weekend too (brownie camp) so I doubt October will be very fruititous in the baking department.

Still I did find time when I was away to make this, quite frankly, delicious cake. It was devoured fast enough by my fiances family and myself.

This cake is a cross between a maryland cookie, ferrero rocher and a cake. If that has not convinced you to give it a try nothing ever will.

A vanilla and hint of coffee sponge, packed with hazelnuts and dark chocolate, topped with a chocolate glaze and more hazelnuts. Yum.

Chocolate and hazelnut cake (recipe adapted slightly from Nigel Slater)

makes one deep cake

250g butter (I used lactose free spread)
100g demerara sugar
100g dark brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla paste
4 eggs
2 tablespoons of coffee, made and set aside to cool slightly
250g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
200g chopped hazelnuts
250g of dark chocolate, chopped

30g butter
1/2 tablespoon golden syrup
tablespoon of double cream

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C FAN. Grease a 23cm spring-form tin, line the base with baking parchment and flour the sides.

Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla together until light and creamy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, followed by the coffee. Fold in the flour, baking powder and salt until almost combined. Finally fold in the hazelnuts and chocolate, reserving 30g of each, until no streaks of flour are visible and the chunks of nut and chocolate are evenly distributed. 

Pour the batter into the prepared tin and level the top, bake for 70-80 minutes until golden and cooked through. Mine took 75 minutes, after 1 hour I covered the top with foil. 

Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Leave the cake to completely cool. 

To make the topping put the butter, golden syrup, cream and reserved chocolate in a pan, heat gently, stirring occasionally  until the chocolate has melted and all the ingredients are combined. Remove from the heat and set aside for 15 minutes to thicken up slightly.

Spread over the cooled cake and sprinkle with the reserved hazelnuts. 

I should say that I had no electric whisk just a wooden spoon and elbow grease and it turned out lovely.
I would say this is a special enough cake for any occasion, but it matters not if this occasion is simple because it is a Tuesday.

This cake contains chocolate and as 'C' is the letter for this months alpha bakes I am going to enter this cake, I suspect Ros is going to get a lot of entries with chocolate in this month...