When it comes to cake, I will always go for moist and full of flavour over spongy and vanilla. Biting into outwardly stunning layer cakes at events to find a slightly dry, cardboard-like interior plastered with inches of sickly buttercream is not ok. Small is cute, but I’m also not a huge cupcake person – maybe it’s the memories of high school bake-sales with the same dryness issues or the associated girliness -and why should cupcakes seem in any way more “girly” than cake, anyway? I read this interesting article recently about how steak evolved to be “manly” while salad and dainty deserts became “feminine”, starting in the late 1800’s with specific restaurants for women to lunch and increasing magazine space dedicated to dietary and weight loss advice (which also simultaneously peddled steak recipes to please the men in your life). In some ways those prawn cocktails and trifle have just been replaced by kale and green juice and açai bowls, all under the guise of ‘wellness’. I will admit there’s also huge male wellness industry equivalent now too, heavy on the protein and keto – but those gendered food stereotypes remain pervasive. Food for thought, anyway.
Obviously these mini hazelnut, coffee and chocolate cakes are neither dry or vanilla. Freshly roasted and ground hazelnuts are the star ingredient (so please please make sure yours aren’t rancid), boosted by coffee and two types of sugar for texture (demerera and brown) then topped with a silky chocolate ganache that drips from the sides. I’ve had nothing but glowing feedback thus far – they last well for at least a few days, are rich without being overkill, and are incredibly soft and moist in texture thanks to all the ground hazelnuts and yogurt. If you don’t have mini loaf tins, you could also easily make them in muffin (regular or Texas muffin tin size) or a friand pan. I haven’t personally tried it as a cake but I think it would work in a 20cm round cake tin also – let me know if you give it a go.
- 240 g hazelnuts
- 1 tablespoon instant coffee
- 120 g demerara sigar
- 150 g light brown sugar
- 50 g plain flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 100 g unsalted butter cold, cubed
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 160 g full fat greek yogurt (I used chobani)
- 2 large eggs lightly beaten.
- 90 ml cream
- 100 g dark chocolate
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Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and line the bases of 8 mini loaf or muffin tins, depending on what you have.
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Place the hazelnuts on a baking tray in a single layer. Roast in the oven to 5-10 minutes until golden brown and the skins are peeling off – almost looking burnt but not quite (you want to get the full flavour out of them). Leave to cool, then rub together with a clean tea towel to get most of the skins off.
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Place the skinned hazelnuts in a food processor with the instant coffee and blitz until finely ground.
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Add both sugars, the flour, salt, baking powder and cubed cold butter and blitz a couple of times until breadcrumb consistency and there is no longer any visible butter.
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Transfer to a large bowl. Add the yogurt and eggs and mix to thoroughly combine and there are no lumps or yogurt streaks remaining
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Evenly distribute the batter between the lined tins to about 2/3 full. Tap to level off. Place on a baking tray and cook for 25 minutes, rotating the tray half way through to ensure they cook evenly, until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out with just a few crumbs, the cakes bounce back to touch and are starting to pull away from the sides of the moulds. Allow to cool in the tins for 15 or so minutes before removing to a wire rack (don’t leave in too long to avoid them sticking to the tins). Leave to cool completely.
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Finely chop the dark chocolate and place in a bowl.
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Heat the cream in a small pot until just simmering, then pour over the dark chocolate. Leave for 5 minutes, then use a fork to whisk until completely smooth and homogenous. The longer you leave it now the thicker the ganache will become.
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Place the cakes on a baking rack over sheet of baking paper to catch the drips.
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Spoon chocolate ganache over the cakes and spread so it drips off the sides. Top with extra chopped toasted hazelnuts. Leave to set or serve immediately. Store in an airtight container for a few days.
Hi Claudia. These photographs are absolutely stunning!!! (The cakes included of course)
You probably get asked this almost every day, but what camera and editing software do you use??
All the love from South Africa Xx
Thanks so much Hannah!! I use a Canon 70D with a 24-70 f2.8 lens, and then I use lightroom to edit. So happy to hear you like them!
Thank you for this beautiful recipe! I made it for my Mum’s birthday and it was a huge hit. It worked wonderfully in a 20 cm cake tin. I cooked it at 160C for about an hour and it was just perfect.
Hi Rachel! That is lovely to hear, I’m so glad it worked so well. I actually haven’t tried it in a full size cake tin myself so that is great to know for future!