Hazelnut Latte Cake

Weird fact…I have four sisters and they are all born in February.
So yes, February isn’t a good month for healthy eating (or at least I have an excuse for overindulging?)

I saw a picture of this cake on the BBC Good Food instagram as a sneaky peak into what was coming up in their Feb issue, and bought the magazine the minute it hit the shelves.

I decided this cake would be perfect as a joint celebration cake for them (and sent a pic and ate an extra slice for my sister who lives abroad).

The recipe is finally up on their website so I can now share it with you all 🙂

The Cake

The sponge is a Genoise, this is the  first time I have made a genoise; its a slightly different technique but fairly straightforward.

Put the butter, milk and coffee powder into a small pan and heat gently until the butter has melted. Set aside.

Place the eggs and sugar in a bowl and whisk,for aprox 10-15mins,until the mixture has thickened and leaves a trail when the whisk is pulled out. As the cake doesn't have any raising agents this is important to give the sponge a bounce and make it rise nicely

Mix together th century flours and salt and sieve into the egg mixture, gently fold in

Sprinkle the chopped hazelnuts on top and gently fold in

Pour in the warm milk mixture at the side of the bowl, and gently fold in until there are no longer any darker streaks

Divide the mixture between the pans and once cooked leave to cool

The cake itself feels very different to a normal sponge, it seems to have a slightly denser structure.

The Syrup
I couldn’t find my cake slicer so had to use a large serrated knife and the aid of my rotating cake plate.

I was quite impressed as even with a cake slicer my layers don’t normally come out even, the dense structure of the cake definitely helped!

Once the cakes were cooled and cut, it was time to coat the layers with the coffee syrup.

I made my syrup without the alcohol. I found I needed to make double the quantity.

The Frosting

Nutella + Mascarpone = OMG

It might be getting boring now how in every one of my posts I describe the frosting as the ‘best ever’, but seriously, this is!

It sooo easy to make and it tastes absolutely dreamy.

The layers are sandwiched together with the frosting

The remainding frosting was spread over the top and sides of the cake

I used a decorating comb to give the ridged effect

I sprinkled the hazelnuts at the bottom, I didnt toast them with the sugar as the recipe states (I couldn’t be bothered).

The Topping
The showstopping finish to this cake is a beautiful latte pattern

But mine looked more like a mess…

😳

I decided to salvage my cake by smoothing it over which gave a pretty marbled effect

I was really happy with how this cake looked, fine, it doesn’t look as pretty as the magazine version, but was still impressive.

And most importantly, it’s one of the best cakes I’ve ever eaten let alone made!

The hazelnut sponge is perfect with a crunchy texture from the chopped hazelnuts and a rich coffee flavour from the syrup.  The frosting, as I have already described, compliments it perfectly and the coffee cream on the top brings all the flavours together.

Its the kind of cake you would be happy with if you bought a slice at a nice patisserie.