Best Chocolate Hazelnut Gateau Recipes

CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT CAKE

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350*F.
• Prepare cake pans by rubbing the sides of the pans with a little oil or butter and dusting with flour. Line bottoms of pans with parchment paper.
• In a large mixing bowl (the bowl of an electric mixer), stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
• Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Beat on medium speed for one minute.
• Stir in hot water or coffee (the batter will be thin, don't worry, this is right).
• Divide batter evenly between prepared pans.
• Bake until the top of the cake is smooth and has a slight dome and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. I baked the cake shown in three 7" pans and baked them about 30 minutes. You will need to adjust the bake time based on the pans you choose.
• Cool completely before frosting. I like to cool the cakes at room temperature a bit, then wrap in plastic wrap and freeze until cold and firm (30 minutes or up to a couple days).
• Chill your mixing bowl and beater(s) in the freezer for 5 minutes. This will help the whipping cream whip up nice and quickly.
• Pour the heavy cream into the chilled bowl, then beat until it begins to thicken. Slowly add half (1/2 cup) of the powdered sugar, while mixing. Continue to beat until the cream has almost doubled in volume and is nice and fluffy.
• Remove whipped cream from mixing bowl (into another bowl), and set in the fridge.
• In the mixing bowl (empty, but no need to clean fully), add the cream cheese. Beat until smooth.
• Add the remaining (1/2 cup) powdered sugar and mix until fully combined.
• Add the hazelnut spread to the smooth cream cheese, and blend until fully combined. Add vanilla and blend.
• Retrieve the whipped cream from the fridge and add one large scoop (about a cup) of whipped cream into the mixing bowl with the hazelnut spread/cream cheese mixture. Blend slowly (using the whisk attachment), until combined.
• Add the remaining whipped cream to the bowl and use a spatula to gently fold/stir the whipped cream into the hazelnut mixture.
• Fill and frost your prepared (cooled) cake as desired. You should have plenty of frosting to cover the cake and some remaining for decorative touches (to be added later). Move frosted cake to the freezer if you plan to add chocolate glaze (recipe follows).
• Once the cake is frosted, if desired, add a chocolate hazelnut glaze by combining 2 T. chocolate chip and 3 T. hazelnut spread in a small bowl and microwave (at 50% power) 30 seconds at a time until mostly melted. Stir to combine. Cool slightly, then pour onto the top of the frosted (and chilled) cake. Spread almost (but not quite) to the edge. Top chocolate layer with chopped hazelnuts.
• If desired, add remaining hazelnut whipped cream frosting to a piping bag fitted with a 1M tip and add decorative swirls (as pictured) around the top edge of the cake. Top each swirl with a whole hazelnut.
• Keep the cake in the fridge until ready to serve. Keep any remaining cake in the fridge.

CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT CELEBRATION CAKE

Steps:

• For the cake: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Grease four 6-inch-round, 3-inch-tall cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment.
• Put the hazelnuts in a food processor and grind them until you have small crumbs. Measure out 1/4 cup of the hazelnut crumbs and set them aside for the frosting.
• Pour the remaining hazelnut crumbs into a large bowl and whisk in the flour, granulated sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and baking soda. In a medium bowl, whisk together the milk, oil, vanilla and eggs. Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and then stir in the hot coffee. It will be a very thin batter.
• Pour into the prepared cake pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Begin checking for doneness at 25 minutes. Let the cakes cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then turn them onto a greased cooling rack.
• For the frosting: While the cakes are cooling, use an electric mixer to beat together the powdered sugar, butter, vanilla and salt until smooth. Mix in the heavy cream until smooth. Scoop out a tiny amount of frosting for the mustard-colored dollops, add the mustard yellow food coloring and mix until combined. Transfer the yellow frosting to a piping bag with a small round tip. To the remaining frosting, add the dusty rose pink food coloring and mix until the desired shade of pink. Measure out 1 cup of the pink frosting and transfer it to a small bowl. Fold in the reserved 1/4 cup ground hazelnuts.
• Level your cake layers and spread the top of one of them with the hazelnutty frosting. Place a second layer on top, then frost the top with more of the hazelnutty frosting. Continue with the remaining 2 layers. Frost the top and sides with the remaining pink frosting without nuts.
• For the decorations: Decorate with mustard dollops of frosting around the edge. Add marzipan house cutouts of white houses with green shutters, crushed hazelnuts, green grass sprinkles, orange sun sprinkles or whatever else you'd like!