Here at N Cubed we believe in everything in moderation and one piece of cake is not going to harm you. Everyone needs a go to chocolate cake recipe and this is one that is yet to fail me. I have been bought up having this chocolate cake at majority of celebrations and it is consistently a crowd pleaser.
Chocolate Cake:
| 1 cup water | 1 1/3 cup sugar | |
| 125g butter | 2 Tbsp cocoa | |
| ½ tsp baking soda | 2 eggs | |
| 1.5C self-raising flour | Pinch of salt |
Chocolate buttercream:
| 150g butter | 2 cups icing sugar | |
| 1/4 cup cocoa | 1T milk |
Candied Hazelnuts:
| 3/4 cup roasted hazelnuts finely chopped | 1/2 cup white sugar | |
| 1t lemon | 1T water |
Cake:
1. Preheat oven to 175c.
2. In a large saucepan, boil together water, sugar, butter, cocoa and baking soda. When boiling and bubbles are forming, reduce heat and simmer for five minutes.
3. Turn heat off and allow mixture to cool.
4. When mixture is cool, add eggs, self-raising flour, salt and stir to combine.
5. Pour mixture into greased and lined cake tin and bake for 45 minutes
6. Once cake has cooled, ice with chocolate buttercream and decorate with candied hazelnuts.
Chocolate buttercream:
1. Beat butter until creamy.
2. Add one cup icing sugar at a time, once combined, add in the other cup of icing sugar, cocoa and milk. Beat until smooth and creamy.
Candied Hazelnuts:
1. In a small pan, swirl together white sugar, water and lemon juice over medium heat until amber caramel colour. Do not remove from heat too soon as it will not harden- make sure it is bubbling away consistently whilst stirring.
2. Once all sugar is melted, quickly stir in hazelnuts and pour over baking paper to cool and harden.
3. Break or finely chop into pieces.
