Another friend another birthday. I realized that I had never made a
cake for this friend even though we’ve been friends for years. Well it was
about time!
She loves hazelnuts and Nutella, so I knew I had to incorporate them
into the cake somehow. I was thinking of
a light sponge cake with a hazelnut meringue layer inside. I’ve never made a sponge cake before, so it
was a bit of a risk. Turns out sponge
cakes have very few ingredients. Some
recipes have butter, while others don’t – I went with one with just egg whites,
sugar, flour, salt and vanilla.
The cake would consist of 5 parts:
Sponge cake layers
Hazelnut meringue disk
Piped hazelnut meringue pieces
Swiss meringue buttercream
Nutella
Check out the verdict at the end of the post!
Hazelnut Meringue (disk and pieces)
Adapted from here.
Ingredients
½ cup hazelnuts
3 egg whites, at room temperature
½ cup + 2 Tablespoon sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
Directions
1. Place
hazelnuts in a pan over medium heat and toast until golden.
2. Gather
the hazelnuts in a tea towel and rub together to take off skins.
3. Blitz
in a blender or food processor until finely ground.
4. In
a stand mixer with whisk attachment, beat egg whites until frothy.
5. Add
sugar one tablespoon at a time, and beat until thick and glossy.
6. Add
vanilla, and beat.
7. Fold
in hazelnuts with a spatula.
To
make the disk, fill a piping bag with ¾’s of the meringue. Trace a 6-inch
circle on parchment paper. Flip over onto a baking sheet and pipe the meringue
tracing over the circle. Build it into a tall disk using.
To
make the meringue pieces, line one side of the piping bag with Nutella. Fill
the bag with the remaining meringue and pipe pieces onto a baking sheet.
8. Preheat
oven to 250 degrees F., and bake for 1.5 hours.
Turn off oven and let the meringue cool in the oven for 2 hours, but
preferably overnight.
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| Ground hazelnuts |
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| About to fold in hazelnuts. |
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| Before baking. |
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| After baking. |
Sponge Cake
Adapted from here.
Ingredients
3 egg, separated, and brought to room temperature
¼ teaspoon salt
90g sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
105g all purpose flour, sifted 2 times
Directions
1. Preheat
oven to 355 degrees F. Line 2 6-inch
baking pans with parchment. Grease and
flour the sides.
2. In
a standmixer with whisk attachment, beat egg whites with salt until frothy.
3. While
beating, add sugar 1 tablespoon at a time, and continue beating until fairly
stiff and very glossy.
4. Add
egg yolks one at a time, beating well between each. Add vanilla.
5. Sift
flour onto egg mixture and fold in with a spatula.
6. Divide
into baking pans and bake for 18 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
7. Turn
off oven and allow cake to sit and cool with the door open for 30 minutes.
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| Before baking. |
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| After baking. |
Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream
Adapted from here.
Ingredients
2.5 (75g) egg whites
½ cup sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, cubed, at room temperature
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
Directions
1. Wipe
down bowl of stand mixer and whisk attachment with vinegar using a paper towel.
2. Combine
egg white and sugar in the bowl and place over simmering water. Whisk continuously by hand until the
temperature reaches 140 degrees F.
3. Place
the bowl in the stand mixer and whip until stiff peaks form and the meringue
has cooled.
4. Switch
to a paddle attachment and add cubes of butter one at a time while
beating. Beat until smooth and silky.
5. Add
salt and vanilla and beat to combine.
Assembly
1. Place
a sponge layer on the cake plate. Spread a healthy amount of Nutella.
2. Top
with meringue disk. Spread more Nutella onto the meringue, and top with the
second sponge layer.
3. Use
the Nutella to fill in the gap between the meringue and sponge layers (see
photo).
4. Spread
a crumb coat of Swiss meringue buttercream over the entire cake.
5. Line
a piping bag with Nutella. Add the remaining Swiss meringue buttercream and
pipe around the sides of the cake. Don’t
worry if there’s not enough to cover the entire side.
6. Use
a spatula or spoon to make swirls and spread to cover the sides.
7. Top
with meringue pieces.
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Verdict: OMG, awesome cake, if I do say so myself! I don’t even really
like hazelnuts but this cake was amazing. The sponge cake was super fluffy,
which is requirement for any good cake and the combination of the cake layers,
Nutella, and crunchy meringue, not to mention the fluffy and not too sweet Swiss
meringue buttercream was perfectly balanced.
I can’t wait to experiment with the sponge cake recipe. Oh yeah, and the
birthday girl was super surprised and really liked the cake!
