Ferraro Rocher cake

Ingredients for the cake

Plain flour - 225 gm / roughly 2 cups

Baking powder - 1/2 tsp

Baking soda - 1/2 tsp

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Cocoa powder - 1/2 cup

Boiling water 250 ml

Unsalted butter (softened)- 125 gm 

Vanilla extract - 2 tsp

Dark muscuvado/brown sugar - 100 gm (tighly packed 1/2 cup) 

Caster sugar - 150 gm ( 1 1/2 cup )

Eggs - 2 large  at room temperature )

Chopped hazelnuts ( for assembling )

Method

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and keep it aside.

In a bowl measure cocoa powder, dark brown muscuvado sugar, boiling water and whisk. Keep it aside.

Cream butter and sugar until soft and creamy.

Beat one egg at a time and beat well,add a  tbs of  sifted flour and beat for few seconds, break the second egg  and beat well.

Add vanilla extract and beat.

Add the rest of the sifted flour and beat.

Finally add the cocoa mixture and fold in.

Pour the batter into two 8 inch greased cake tins and bake them in a preheated oven at 180 degree celcius for 30 minutes.

Cool the cakes completely on a wire wrack.

Note – This recipe is for two layers,  I needed three layers so I adjusted the ingredients proportionately

For Nutella buttercream icing

Unsalted butter – 200 gm

Nutella – 100 gm

Icing sugar – 250 gm

Cocoa powder – 2 tbs

Method

Beat Butter for a minute or so until creamy

Add cocoa powder and icing sugar and beat until it’s mixed.

Finally add Nutella and whip for 3-4 minutes.

Nutella Ganache

Double cream – ½ cup

Chocolate – ½ cup ( I used equal parts of milk and dark )

Nutella – 1 heaped tablespoon

Method

In a pan add the cream and bring it almost boil.

Remove from fire and pour over the chocolate in a bowl.

Add Nutella. Let it stand for a minute. Mix until its smooth. Let it cool down for sometimes until it thickens. ( As u can see, I didn’t have time for that and had to  use it  while it was still warm, so   my drip was very  thin and didn’t get the look I wanted )

Assembling

Place the cake on a stand.

Spread the Nutella buttercream icing evenly

Drizzle some nutella ganache on top of the buttercream ( 1 1/2 tablespoon)

Sprinkle some chopped hazelnuts

Place the second layer on top and cover the cake with buttercream.

Pour the ganache on the top of the cake and also on the edges for the drip if you desire.

Sprinkle with chopped hazelnuts and decorate it with some ferraro rocher chocolates if you like !