This delicious Nutella Hazelnut Cake is adorned with stunning candied hazelnuts.
I think there are probably very few people in this world that do not love Nutella. Chocolate hazelnutty goodness. It’s delicious. Even more so as a whipped buttercream! I kept the cake simple — classic vanilla — as I really wanted the Nutella buttercream to stand out. It would be equally delicious with a chocolate cake, I’m sure.
I like to try different decorating techniques, and love a rustic buttercream look. This one was really easy to do: spin the cake while lightly pressing an offset spatula into the sides and you’re done.
Despite being easy, it didn’t turn out exactly how I planned, but I stuck with it anyhow (which is huge for me). I know it’s supposed to be rustic, but it’s supposed to be a perfect rustic. The lines should be cleaner and closer together, especially on the top. Normally I would have redone it, but I couldn’t be bothered. I’m trying to tell myself no one else will notice these imperfections. Except now I’ve told you, and you’re looking at it and judging me for leaving it so messy. Right?? Maybe the candied hazelnuts will distract you from the unclean lines.
The candied hazelnuts are actually super easy to do! I’ve written a tutorial on it here. It really takes no time for such a pretty cake topper. They would look great on cupcakes or a chocolate tart as well.
Some roughly chopped hazelnuts along the bottom finish off this pretty Nutella Hazelnut Cake. Even though each element here is super easy to do, the final result will be very impressive to your guests!
Nutella Hazelnut Cake
Ingredients
Vanilla Cake
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 280g
- 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar 300g
- 3 1/2 tsp baking powder 16g
- 1 tsp salt 5g
- 1 1/4 cup milk 305g
- 1 Tbsp oil 14g
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter 113g, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract 4g
- 3 large eggs
Nutella Buttercream
- 2 cups unsalted butter 454g
- 1 3/4 cup Nutella 525g
- 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar 313g, sifted
- 1 Tbsp heavy whipping cream 15g
Hazelnut Border
- 1 cup hazelnuts 150g, toasted, skinned, and chopped
Candied Hazelnuts
- 1 cup granulated sugar 200g
- 1/4 cup water 60g
- 5-10 whole hazelnuts
Instructions
Vanilla Cake
- Preheat oven to 350F, grease and flour two 8" cake rounds and line with parchment. I use homemade cake release.
- Place butter and sugar into a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium until combined.
- Add eggs one at a time, fully incorporating after each addition.
- Add oil and vanilla extract and beat until well combined.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking powder.
- Turn the mixer to low and alternate adding the dry ingredients and the milk scraping the sides of the bowl as needed. About 3 additions of each.
- Pour batter evenly into prepared pans.
- Bake for approximately 30 mins or until a cake tester comes out mostly clean.
- Cool on wire rack before frosting.
Nutella Buttercream
- Place butter and Nutella into s stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on med-high until fully combined.
- Reduce speed to low and add icing sugar 1 cup at a time. Increase mixer speed between each addition to fully incorporate.
- Add cream and whip on med-high for 3-5mins.
Hazelnut Border
- Preheat oven to 350F. Spread hazelnuts on parchment lined baking sheet.
- Bake for approx. 5 minutes, until fragrant. To remove skins, wrap warm hazelnuts in a dish towel and let sit for 5-10 mins. Rub vigorously in towel.
- Once cooled, roughly chop.
Candied Hazelnuts
- Prepare as per instructions here.
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Notes
April says
Great recipe! Just a few things to change:
For the Nutella buttercream:
1) I used ONLY 1 CUP of powdered sugar— turned out just the right amount of sweet!!
I noticed a lot of cake recipes overdo it on the sugar, no matter how highly rated it is.
2) also, i didn’t sift the powered sugar; didn’t change the buttercream!
3) i ran out of unsalted butter so instead of using 2 cups(4 sticks),what the recipe calls for, I instead used 1.2 cups (3 sticks) of unsalted butter. Still great and enough to ice the cake !
Vanilla cake portion:
PERFECTION, just had to bake for 40 min in my new oven. Test with toothpick to center, make sure it comes out clean.
Tip : if you don’t have “large eggs”, you can compensate by just adding an extra egg.
( “3 large eggs” —> use 4 regular eggs)
Olivia says
Hi April! So happy you loved this recipe. Thanks for all your tips and feedback!
Roksi Bak says
Hi Olivia!
I am super excited to try this cake out for Christmas. I am very new to baking and this question may be silly but in the picture of the cake there are 4 layers but the recipe calls for only 2, 8” cake rounds?
Thanks!
Olivia says
Hi Roksi! I cut each of the cake layers in half horizontally after they cooled.
Rosemary says
Is the calorie count or 968 calories per slice or for the entire cake? Divided by 12 slices it comes out to 80 calories per slice, which seems too little; but it also seems like too many calories to be contained in one single slice.
Olivia says
Hi Rosemary! The nutritional data is calculated automatically and that is the per slice amount listed. It DOES seem like a lot, but it also takes into account that all of the frosting was used, which is rarely the case. The Nutella in the buttercream adds a lot of extra calories.
Samantha says
Does this cake need to be stored in the fridge?
Olivia says
Hi Samantha! It will be fine on the counter for 2-3 days 🙂
Heather says
I followed the recipe exactly as shown, but it came out overly sweet to the point where my mouth is overwhelmingly salivating for water! This came out terrible. PS both the batter and the frosting calls for more sugar than necessary, and I would recommend baking the cake for 25 minutes, as the cake was well-done.
Olivia says
Sorry to hear it wasn’t to your liking!
Irene says
This cake is Ah-mazing!! I made it for my sister in law’s birthday and everyone said it was the best cake they’ve had. I had a lot of buttercream left over but it’s happily sitting in my freezer until I make this cake again in the very near future!!
Olivia says
Hi Irene! So happy to hear that everyone liked it! 🙂
Elena says
15 tsp of BP is correct or i got wrong?
Olivia says
Hi Elena! It.s 3.5 tsp of baking powder. There was a spacing error with the recipe!
Marlene says
Hello Olivia,
What a beautiful cake! Thanks for sharing, I’m going to try this out but I have a few questions and I just want to confirm before I attempt it..do you use regular flour or cake flour? And for the cream, is it heavy cream? I’ve only made a few cakes from scratch so I’m a newbie. Thanks a lot!
Olivia says
Hi Marlene! I’m so excited that you’re going to try this one! I should have been more specific in my recipe. I used all-purpose flour and whipping cream (or heavy cream). Please let me know how you like it!
Jade says
This cake looks lovely. The chopped hazelnuts look the best part and that the candied hazelnuts on top look like the finishing part. This would be lovely for a Nutella addict and that loves hazelnuts as well.
🙂
Olivia says
Thanks so much Jade! I hope you try it 🙂
Lorena says
Making this cake for the THIRD time now. First time for my kids’ birthday party. Second time for Christmas Dinner dessert and now for a friend’s daughter’s birthday. I hope THIS time I will finally be able to take a photo and send it to you. Fingers crossed 😀
Olivia says
Ahhh, please do! I cannot wait to see your version! 😀
Lorena says
I made this cake for my kids’ birthday party and OH MY GOD it was SO delicious!!!! Everybody loved it and asked for more. There obviously wasn’t any left so the guests started searching for leftover icing in my fridge and once they found it spooned it out of the container, lol.
I made the recipe with the measurements to be able to confirm its accuracy for you. The grams are exactly as stated in your recipe. Only the milk I didn’t weigh but measure the ml instead and ended up adding 300 ml (measuring 5 ml is hard). The teaspoon measurements I did use teaspoons for. Europeans tend to have measuring spoons, just not measuring cups.
Thank you for such an amazing recipe! I was so proud to present the cake and my kids were OVER THE MOON with their cake with “spikes” and a 3 and a 5 candle on it 😀
Olivia says
Hi Lorena!! I am so happy that you made this cake and that everyone loved it!! I seriously hope you took some pictures, I would love to see them!
And thanks for confirming the measurements in grams and that they work! Yay! 😀
Lorena says
Unfortunately I couldn’t take any pictures :'( I made the cake and put it in the fridge then while the guests were already here I chopped the hazelnuts (didn’t have time for that ahead) and put them on hiding behind the fridge door. The candied hazelnuts I couldn’t put on until last minute because then the cake wouldn’t have fit in the fridge. I only have video of it while we sing happy birthday to my kids. But I will FOR SURE make it again!! I’m thinking Christmas 😀 And this time I WILL definitely take pictures.
Olivia says
Awesome, I’m so glad it was a hit! By the way, I know you didn’t, but don’t put the candied hazelnuts in the fridge! It will weaken/dissolve the caramel and make it super sticky and unusable :(. So, good thing the cake wouldn’t fit! 🙂
Lorena says
Phew!! Hahaha.
Lorena says
ohhh, and by the way, I tried to find the wrap around thingies to get my flat cakes and went to a specialized cook and bakeware shop here in Montreal and they had no idea what I was talking about!! I will have to try find online I think. Anyhow, since I couldn’t find them I tried your other trick with pressing down a clean kitchen towel on the cake immediately after taking out of the oven and that worked like a charm. I had suuuuper flat cakes 😀
Olivia says
Oh strange! You can find them in Michael’s, the Wilton brand at least, but I would recommend ordering the velcro ones online! Glad the tea towel trick worked fine! 😉
Sammie says
Ooh yum this Nutella Hazelnut Cake looks scrumptious. I think chocolate & hazelnuts are probably my favourite choc n nut combo. Would definitely like to give this a try. Beautiful photography and a lovely post thank you. Sammie http://www.feastingisfun.com
Olivia says
Thanks Sammie!
Heghineh says
This looks so delicious.Gorgeous cake!
Olivia says
Thank you! 🙂
Georgina @theamazingflavoursofbrazil.com says
Hi Olivia I came across your website on scrumptiousfinds.com,your pictures and recipes are pure art. The look of this cake…so beautiful and romantic, it feels like I am in person at a patisserie in Paris about to have a slice! You are super talented, for sure I will follow your recipes to learn more about baking and food photography. Great job!
Olivia says
Thank you so much Georgina! That’s such a huge compliment. You’ve made my day! 🙂
Lucy @ Bake Play Smile says
Pinned and shared on FB! Love this gorgeous cake!
Olivia says
Thanks so much Lucy! 😀
Kim - Liv Life says
Simply stunning cake!! Yes… after you mentioned that it wasn’t perfect I did take a closer look, and well, I still don’t see any imperfections. Love the flavor combos as well.
Olivia says
Haha, thanks Kim! 😀
Shanna says
Hi Olivia, I’m so glad I came across your page, it’s beautiful!
I wanted to ask if you have any tips or tutorials for how to frost a cake like this. What do you use to create the rings of buttercream?
Thank you!
Olivia says
Hi Shanna, thanks so much!! 😀
The rings were actually pretty easy. First I iced the cake like I usually would and made sure the top and the sides were fairly smooth. Then I gently pressed an offset spatula along the bottom of the cake and started spinning the cake wheel. As I spun I slowly moved the offset spatula upwards. I stopped from time to time to scrape the excess frosting off the spatula. Same process for the top and I started on the outside and worked my way in.
Let me know if you need more info! I’ll try to dig up a more visual tutorial :).
Shanna says
Thanks so much, Olivia! I can’t wait to try this out. Yes, a visual would be fantastic! Thanks again
Olivia says
Well this is the best video I could find :(. Slip ahead to about 1:45.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD9HFlNnlbU
In hindsight, her technique is likely easier. just doing one row at a time, rather than constantly spinning the cake while moving the spatula up!
Let me know how it turns out!!
Nancy @ gottagetbaked says
Girl, are you kidding? Everything about this is absolute perfection! Even after you pointed out the uneven lines, I still can’t see them. All I see is deliciously creamy Nutella frosting, totally kick ass candied hazelnuts and perfect layers of cake. Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous.
Olivia says
Lol! Thanks so much Nancy. I’ve grown to love the imperfections :). <3 the candied hazelnuts!
Mallory @ Chocolate with Grace says
This cake is gorgeous and Nutella is one of my favorite things. Two good reasons why I need this cake!
Olivia says
Thanks Mallory! 🙂
Lynn | The Road to Honey says
Personally, I like that the lines aren’t perfectly clean on this treat. It adds another dimension to the cake. But can we talk about that Nutella frosting? I will be daydreaming about that loveliness for days. I bet it is absolutely divine.
Olivia says
Haha, thanks Lynn! The frosting is pretty damn good, I’m not gonna lie… The imperfect lines have grown on me :).
Rachel @ Bakerita says
What an absolutely stunning cake, and the flavors sound incredible! Perfect for a Nutella lover 🙂 pinned!
Olivia says
Thanks Rachel! 😀
Ohmydish says
Hi Olivia! I absolutely love the looks of this nutella hazelnut cake, especially the caramel hazel nut decoration. Thanks for sharing !
Olivia says
Thanks so much Marco and Véronique! The candied hazelnuts are my favourite part :).
Anu-My Ginger Garlic Kitchen says
This is so stunning and delicious! YUM!
Olivia says
Thanks Anu! 🙂
Anna | ANNAdventure says
Yum! This looks so beautiful and delicious!!! I love nutella!
Olivia says
Thanks Anna! It was so yummy!