Hazelnut Fudge Cake with Chocolate Hazelnut Icing

            Last week I was struggling to come up with an idea of what to bake my friend for her birthday, so as I was going through my cookbooks for ideas I saw Lola Berry’s Paleo Chocolate Ganache Birthday Cake, in her new ‘The Happy Cookbook’ and knew exactly what I wanted to bake her.

            This cake is like a mix between healthy Nutella and Ferrero Rocher, at least that’s what I was thinking when putting it together. Also if you do manage to have a little bit of the icing left over after icing your cake, it makes an amazing healthier alternative to Nutella.

Hazelnut Fudge Cake with Chocolate Hazelnut Icing

Plant-based – Gluten Free – Dairy Free

Makes: around 10 – 12 servings

Time: prep – 15 minutes

Cooking – 1 hour

Ingredients:

Cake

            - 3 cups hazelnut meal

- ½ cup buckwheat flour

- ¾ cup cacao powder

- 1 cup coconut sugar

- 2 tsp baking powder, gluten and aluminum free

- ½ cup coconut oil, melted

- 3 flax eggs (1 tbsp flaxseed meal to 3 tbsp water per egg)

- 1 cup coconut milk

- Pinch of pink Himalayan salt

Icing

            - 2 cup hazelnut meal

- ¼ cup cacao powder

- 2/3 cup coconut nectar (or preferred liquid sweetener)

- ¼ cup coconut milk (don’t worry if its just under a ¼ cup)

- 2 tbsp coconut oil, melted

- Pinch of pink Himalayan salt

Top with

            - ½ cup chopped hazelnuts (optional)

* The quantity of coconut milk used in both the cake and icing is equivalent to one 400ml can.

Method:

- Preheat your oven to 170C and grease a spring form cake tin, as it’s easier to get out. If you don’t have one, you can simply line your cake tin with baking paper.

- Combine all the dry ingredients for the cake in one bowl, and then mix together all the wet ingredients for the cake in another bowl before incorporating them both together. Mix this batter together really well; making sure all the flax egg is dispersed evenly. (ie. no light brown nuggets through your cake.)

 

- After it is all combined pour it into you cake tin and place in the oven for an hour, or until the skewer comes out clean. Once the cake is cooked through allow it to cool for a little bit in the cake tin before transferring it to a wire rack to cool completely. You could eat the cake as it is now but I really think the icing is worth the effort.

- When your cake is cool it’s time for the icing. Which is as simple as popping everything into a bowl and mixing it together really well!

I just used what coconut milk was left from the can after measuring out what was needed for the cake, because it adds an amazing creaminess and I hate to waste food, so don’t worry if you have under a ¼ of a cup’s worth of coconut milk. If you feel the mixture is a touch too thick you can add in a bit of water or nut milk to loosen it. Once it’s mixed together you can smother the top of the cake in it and sprinkle over the chopped hazelnuts.

Let me know how you go if you do try this out yourselves, or post a picture on instagram with the hashtag #cinnamoncourtney so I can see all of your recreations!

‘I am flexible and flowing' - Louise L. Hay