Hazelnut Rocher Marble Cake

And a scheduling update!

Before we get going I wanted to do a little update about when posts will be going out. I’m going to be changing up the post scheduling so that the newsletter will now go out every Tuesday, rather than the weekend, this should be easier for me to keep on top of and it gives you plenty of time to get the ingredients in if you fancy a weekend bake! There might be a bit of an adjustment period while I get my act together but overall I think this will work better.

This week I wanted to dive into some chocolatey, hazelnut cakes. Chocolate and hazelnut may be the world’s best combination, Ferrero Rocher, Kinder Bueno, Nutella, they’re an absolute dream team. I’ve got a relatively simple chocolate hazelnut marble cake recipe in the post and a more ambitious layer bake for paid subscribers featuring, hazelnut dacquoise, the lesser known whole egg buttercream and a load of praline-y deliciousness, get the recipe here.

Chocolate Hazelnut Slab Cake

But back to this bake! I developed this recipe for a project I did with Callebaut Chocolate last year, the brief was to create something that could be easily transported, loaf cakes are perfect for this, they don’t need chilling, they’re fairly sturdy and I added an extra layer of protection in the form of a crunchy chocolate hazelnut glaze which also helps to keep it fresh. This cake can easily be sent in the post by wrapping it up, plopping it in a box and surrounding it with plenty of tissue paper. Who doesn’t want cake as a gift?

This loaf took quite a bit of development, previously when I’ve made loaf cakes I’ve found that they can be a bit hit and miss when it comes to the rise so I really wanted to create a recipe that would rise perfectly every single time, have a lovely soft crumb and most importantly I didn’t want it to be dry! There is nothing worse than a dry sponge and the problem with loaf cakes is that there isn’t anything to moisten them up, we don’t have any jam or buttercream to help us out.

The method for this sponge isn’t one that I’d ever used before, rather than incorporating any air into the batter we’re relying completely on baking powder, the good thing about this is that the results are perfect every time, it’s almost impossible to measure the amount of air we’re adding by creaming butter or whipping eggs so this method removes any variables making for a very easy and reliable cake. I now use a variation of this sponge for any loaf cakes I make.

Most cakes that rely on baking powder for the rise either use melted butter or just oil, however I don’t love the texture of cakes make with melted butter, I find that they can be slightly greasy on your pallet and have a less tender crumb and I miss the flavour of butter in cakes made with just oil. My solution was to use a mixture of butter and oil but rather than melting the butter I blend it with the oil eggs and sugar to create an emulsion, it’s basically like a sweet mayonnaise, this results in a really lovely tight crumb that’s wonderfully tender and it saves us from having to do loads of washing up because we just blend the hazelnuts in there as well.

The glaze can be a little fiddly, if you want it to set with a lovely smooth, shiny finish, it does have to be in temper, however if you’re not confident with tempering you can get away with using the glaze out of temper, as long as your loaf cake has been chilled before hand. If the glaze isn’t in temper, it really isn’t the end of the world, it might just have a few streaks in when it sets and it won’t have that crack when you cut into it but the flavour will still be a 10/10!

Chocolate & Hazelnut Marble Cake

Ingredients - Makes 1 loaf cake,

Equipment - 1 x 500g (1lb) loaf tin, blender, wire cooling rack, digital thermometer.

Marble Loaf

50g soft butter

50g hazelnut oil (or any neutral oil)

100g eggs (about 2 eggs)

120g caster sugar

50g hazelnuts

70g plain flour

4g baking powder (1 scant tsp)

Pinch of salt

15g cocoa powder

30g freshly boiled water

Hazelnut Rocher Glaze

100g milk chocolate

100g dark chocolate

30g chopped hazelnuts

15g hazelnut oil or any neutral oil

Method - Marble Loaf

1. Pre-heat the oven to 170°C fan (340°F) and line a 500g loaf tin.

2. Roast all of the hazelnuts you’ll need for this recipe (80g in total) for 20-22 minutes until golden brown.

3. Mix the cocoa powder and boiling water in a medium sized bowl until smooth and set aside.

4. Place the butter, oil, sugar, eggs and 50g of hazelnuts in a blender and blend until completely smooth.

5. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and blend or mix by hand until just combined.

6. Weigh out 170g of the batter and mix with the cocoa paste.

7. Add alternating dollops of the cocoa batter and the plain batter to the loaf tin until full, you don’t need to be precise, just dollop it on in.

8. Cut a few very thin strips of butter and place them in a line in the centre of the cake, this ensures that the cake rises evenly and dome is perfectly in the centre.

9. Bake for 40-45 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.

10. Once cool, wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge before glazing.

    

Hazelnut Rocher Glaze

1. Combine the chocolates and temper, or gently melt in the microwave/over a Bain Marie.

2. Add the hazelnuts and the oil.

3. Stir really well to combine, there should be no streaks of oil, the glaze should be 30°C/86°F before using.

4. Dip the bottom of the cake into the rocher glaze and put onto a piece of parchment to set.

5. Once completely set, transfer to a wire rack and pour over the rocher glaze.

6. Transfer onto a piece of clean baking paper and leave to set, if your kitchen is warm you can set it in the fridge it will only take a few minutes.

7. Either wrap up and post to a loved one or tuck in! This cake will keep for 7 days.