Chocolate & Hazelnut Cake

Cake Ingredients:

1 tablespoon baking powder

60 ml cocoa powder

300g cake flour

440g castor sugar

1 teaspoon instant coffee

1 cup milk

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

250g butter

1. Cube the butter and melt in a small saucepan over low heat, remove from the heat and cool
2. Sieve the flour, baking powder, cocoa & coffee into a bowl, then add the castor sugar
3. Mix the eggs, vanilla essence and milk lightly together in another bowl with a whisk
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and beat for 2 minutes with an egg beater
5. Add the melted butter and mix till just combined
6. Pour into a 24cm springform tin that has been sprayed with baking spray
7. Bake at 175 to 180 degrees for 50 min to 1 hour, depending on your oven. Test at 50 minutes with a cake tester inserted into the cake. When it comes out clean the cake is cooked.

Chocolate Ganache

300g chocolate chips, We use callebaut 54%, Bourneville is a good substitute

200ml fresh cream

100g butter – cut into small cubes

100g Hazelnuts

1. Over a double boiler melt the cream and chocolate till just melted, remove from the heat
2. Add the cubed butter, whisk in the butter till combined and shiny
3. Let the ganache cool till thickened and spreadable, can take up to a few hours if it is a warm day. Place in the refrigerator for a short period if needed to thicken up slightly
4. Roast the hazelnuts for 10 minutes at 180 degrees, once cooled rub the skins off, remove the skins and chop roughly. Add the chopped hazelnuts to 1 cup of the ganache. This will fill the inside of the cake

To assemble the cake – once the cake has cooled, remove from the tin and slice in half. Place one layer on a cake stand and spread the nut and ganache mixture on this first layer, place another layer of the cake on top of this to sandwich the nut layer and spread the remaining ganache all over  the cake to completely cover