Chocolate, Coffee and Hazelnut Cake

The other half asked me for a chocolate and hazelnut cake for his birthday and this is what I came up with.

Chocolate, Coffee and Hazelnut Cake

Ingredients:

• 
  
• 225g unsalted butter
• 225g golden caster sugar
•  3  eggs
• 200g self raising flour
•  25g cocoa powder
•  2tsp instant coffee mixed in 1 tbs hot water

Filling:

 

• 60g unsalted butter
• 110g icing sugar, sifted
• 50g blanched hazelnuts, chopped into very small pieces
• 10g cocoa powder

Topping:

• 200g dark chocolate
• 25 g butter
• 100g cream
• 50g blanched hazelnuts

Method:

cream the butter and sugar together

add the eggs to the mixture one at a time, mixing them in well each time

sift in the flour and cocoa powder and fold into mixture

add coffee and stir in lightly

Place mixture into a greased and lined 8 in cake tin and bake for 40 minutes on gas mark4 or 180C

When cake has cooked through, until a skewer insterted comes out clean, leave to cool

turn out of pan and make filling

To make filling, mix all the ingredients except the nuts together in a food mixer until smooth. Or you can beat them together with a wooden  spoon. 

Add nuts.

When cake is fully cooled, cut it in half using a serrated knife with a sawing motion.

Spread one half with filling and replace the top half.

Make topping by warming the cream and butter in a saucepan. When hot, but not boiling, remove from heat and add chocolate broken into chunks, stir until all combined.

Leave topping mixture to cool for at least 1/2 hour.

spread topping on the cake and decorate with hazelnuts