WANT TO SAVE THIS RECIPE?
Enter your email below and we’ll send it straight to your inbox. Plus you’ll get great new recipes from us every week!
This week I’m on vacation! So I’ve invited some amazingly talented bloggers to guest post and keep you entertained while I’m gone.
Today’s guest post is by Janna Patterson – Eats and Beats. Janna lives near my talented cousin in the DC area, and my cousin “introduced” us. Janna has two adorable kids and a love for entertaining. On Beats and Eats Jenna shares entertaining tips and menus, wonderful recipes, as well as tunes to play while you’re in the kitchen and entertaining.
~~ ♥ ~~
Well I just about pulled a face muscle from smiling when Barbara invited me to do a guest post. I mean, holy smokes, does the woman know her stuff! Such an honor to have a space on her site and her readers as my audience for a day!
Today’s lesson is titled: “The Four Stages of Chocolate.” I know this is a subject matter you can all get behind!
Stage 1 is almost not worth mentioning, because it usually involves the kind of chocolate that you find laying around the house late at night when you’re too sleepy to drive to the store in pursuit of the good stuff. It’s the kind that you can eat a whole bag of and never really be satisfied. This chocolate usually rhymes with smershey’s fisses. As time goes on I become more and more convinced that stage-1 chocolate has little value. Blech.
Stage 2 is the everyday, comforting chocolate you find in your homemade chocolate chip cookies or cupcakes. It’s warm, it’s sticky, and it’s familiar. It says, “Hey, old friend. Let’s put on some ‘jamas and watch ‘An Affair To Remember.’”
Stage 3 is the sort of carefully crafted chocolate you purvey through the glass at a specialty shop. The flavors are creative and balanced, the aesthetics are detailed, and the texture is like silk. Most often, one of these creations, savored slowly, is enough to make you want to pirouette your way to Heaven.
Then there’s stage 4. This is the kind of experience you seek when you don’t just want chocolate; you want CHO. CO. LATE. You want it rich, you want it big, and you want it now. This chocolate holds intense eye contact as it shimmies its way toward you to the steady pounding of a bass drum. There’s no fighting it.
Usually I’m a stage 2 or 3 kind of gal, but about once every few months I get a stage-4 hankering, and that’s why I came up with the Hazelnut Chocolate Mousse Cake. The cake itself is almost sticky it’s so moist. And the frosting… Oh, the frosting… It means business. And it’s knocking at your door, honey.
WANT TO SAVE THIS RECIPE?
Enter your email below and we will send it straight to your inbox. Plus you will get great new recipes from us every week!
Hazelnut Chocolate Mousse Cake
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 cups granulated white sugar
- ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk
- ½ cup 1 stick butter, melted
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup boiling water
Hazelnut Chocolate Mousse Frosting
- 12 ounces high-quality bittersweet chocolate
- 3 cups heavy whipping cream
- 1 Tablespoon hazelnut extract
- 1 ⅓ cups Nutella or other chocolate hazelnut spread
Instructions
- Fit the oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees. Grease three 8-inch pans (or do as I did if you don’t have three and just use one of them twice) and set aside.
- In a medium bowl sift together flour, sugar, cocoa, soda and salt, and set aside.
- In the large bowl of a standing mixer, whisk together, by hand, the eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla until combined, and then whisk in the melted butter. With the bowl under the paddle attachment running at a low speed, slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and continue to beat until smooth, about 2 minute. Remove bowl from mixer and stir in boiling water with a rubber spatula. Batter will be very loose.
- Pour the batter evenly between the three 8-inch pans and bake for about 35 minutes, until a toothpick or fork inserted in the center comes out with just a few steaming crumbs attached.
- Allow to cool to room temperature. If combining with the Hazelnut Chocolate Mousse Frosting, wrap entirely with plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours (or overnight) until completely cold.
- Hazelnut Chocolate Mousse Frosting
- In a medium sauce pan, heat chocolate and heavy cream on medium-high heat, whisking constantly until it reaches a boil. Turn down to a low boil and continue whisking for another minute.
- Remove from heat and pour into a bowl. Quickly stir in the hazelnut extract and Nutella. Let cool completely to room temperature, cover with plastic wrap so that it’s directly touching the frosting, and put in the freezer and leave it in the freezer overnight. It should be very thick, but not unworkable.
- Assemble the Cake: Just before spreading, gently whisk the frosting only until it’s spreadable. (You can use a wooden spoon if the frosting is too thick initially for the whisk.) Place each of the three cake layers side-by-side and frost just the tops with even portions of the frosting, heaping it toward the middle of each layer. Place the first layer on the desired serving stand and then stack the second and the third directly on top to create a three-layer cake. Get creative with the topping- a pile of raspberries, a pile of mixed berries, cherries with the stems still on, shaved chocolate, powdered sugar, etc.
Notes
Thanks Janna! The cake looks and sounds like chocolate heaven. For more great recipes be sure and visit Eats and Beats. I’d also love to try her Brownie-Bottom Coconut Chocolate Cream Cake.
Fran@fransfavs.com
Wow…wow….wow, was this ever good! Made it, loved it, posted it! 🙂 http://www.fransfavs.com/2013/08/hazelnut-chocolate-mousse-cake/#more-6608
Brynley Lazar
Made this cake for my husband and a dinner guest this evening. It was a complete hit and absolutely worth the effort! Both my guest and husband said it was one of the best cakes they had ever had. Thanks for the recipe! I’ll repeat this one for sure.
Barbara Schieving
Thanks for taking the time to comment Brynley! It’s always so fun to make something extra special for guests. And even more fun when everyone loves it.
Jenna
Followed this recipe to the letter and it didn’t work at all.
The cake didn’t rise, it was way to dense, very thin and someone even asked about leavening. Remade with baking soda and powder and made it work but wasted an entire batch of batter.
The frosting… you need way more than 2 hours because mine was still very liquidy at two, and still not thick enough at 3 to be able to use and I had it in the freezer as directed with plastic. I will have to use another frosting for my cake tonight. Overall I’m pretty bummed.
Barbara Schieving
Sorry Jenna that is disappointing. In the past when my ganache frosting haven’t set up enough, I’ve resorted to pulling out the mixer and making more of a chocolate whipped cream frosting.
Janna Patterson
Jenna, thank you for the feedback, and I’m SO sorry you wasted your ingredients and time. When I checked the recipe, somehow two of the ingredients were left off. I’m certain this wasn’t an error of Barbara’s. There IS supposed to be salt and baking soda. The 4th ingredient should be 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking soda and the 5th ingredient should be 3/4 teaspoon of salt. When the previous commenter had asked about it, I double checked the recipe I sent Barbara and those ingredients weren’t there, so I answered her based on that. But my notes from the original recipe definitely call for them. Regarding the frosting, I made this cake again just last week and I left the frosting in the freezer over night (just because I made it late at night and couldn’t wait the two hours to let it cool. It came out the same for me as when I left it in for 2 hours.
Barbara, I’ll email you the changes so that maybe you can update the recipe? I don’t know how I overlooked this. So sorry…..
Barbara Schieving
Thanks Janna for the update. I’ve updated the recipe with the missing ingredients. Thanks Jenna for taking the time to bring it to our attention.
Nutmeg Nanny
Oh my goodness, this cake looks oh so divine! Mouth watering 🙂
2sistersrecipes
Oh My goodness ! Love this CAKE !! I will be making this for the 4th- thanks for sharing and thanks for introducing us to a new foodie blogger! 🙂
My Inner Chick
Pure SIN! I want. I need! xx
Brooke Schweers
Gorgeous cake Barbara! I am seriously craving to after work go home, eat some chocolate and watch an affair to remember (great movie!!!). I think I would have a problem making this cake and not eating all the nutella frosting before it went on the cake…YUM
Radhika
Oh. My. Goodness. I think I gained 6 kilos just looking at this dessert! I’m pinning it, for a rainy day!
Angie@Angie's Recipes
The cake looks extremely tempting!
Valérie (France)
Une excellente réalisation
Je te souhaite un beau WE
Valérie
The Contessa (Linda)
Thanks for this delicious cake. We’re co-hosting Saturday Dishes tomorrow which features cupcakes/cakes.
Love for you to link this.
Wishes for tasty dishes,
Linda@Tumbleweed Contessa
Maureen | Orgasmic Chef
Thank you for being on vacation, Barbara! I’m in LOVE with this cake!!
Anita
Like the idea of the Nutella taking on more of a background role. No leavening – is that correct? Especially for those of us at high altitude. Thanks for a standout!
Janna | Eats and Beats
That’s right! No leavening. 🙂 Thanks for the sweet compliments!
Janna Patterson
Anita, I’m sorry to say that I initially answered your question based on my motes from the recipe I sent Barbara which somehow left off the baking soda and salt. No leavening should have definitely been a red flag, and you were very smart to pick up on it! I’m so sorry. Ingredient #4 should be 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda and the 5th ingredient should be 3/4 teaspoon salt. It really is delicious… you know… if you include those ingredients. I’ve asked Barbara to update the recipe, so hopefully there won’t be any more confusion.
nessa
Need a slice of this right now!
Mila
OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!! SPETTACOLARE….
sandie
looks great!
Melissa @ A Room for Two with a View
This looks incredible and I can’t wait to try it!
I hope you will link up this wonderful recipe and others at my Foodie Friday Blog Hop .
Have a fantastic Foodie Friday and a wonderful weekend!
Melissa
Jocelyn (Grandbaby Cakes)
Your chocolate cake is absolutely stunning. This would be perfect to serve for my husband who loves a great chocolate cake on his birthday!
Janna | Eats and Beats
Thanks, Jocelyn! My husband usually prefers desserts that involve mostly fresh fruit, but he couldn’t keep his lips off this one. If you try it, come by and let me know how it turned out! Thanks for leaving a comment!
Maria
Looks divine!
Janna | Eats and Beats
Thanks, Maria! So fun to get a comment from you. I’ve been a fan of your blog for a long time. I happened upon it for the first time doing a search and since have seen you on my friend’s site, This Week for Dinner. I’d love to have you by any time! 🙂
Rosa
This cake is splendid and looks extremely tempting with its luscious mousse frosting!
Cheers,
Rosa
Janna | Eats and Beats
Such praise! Thanks so much, Rosa!