Layers of chocolate mousse made with gianduja, the luscious Italian hazelnut-flavored milk chocolate, and chocolate genoise top a base of hazelnut crunch. Do-aheads: cake layer, 1 day; assembled cake, 2 days.
Ingredients
Makes 12 servings
Cake
Hazelnut crunch
Mousse
For cake:
Step 1
Position rack in bottom third of oven and preheat to 350°F. Line bottom of 9-inch-diameter cake pan with 2-inch-high sides with parchment paper. Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat. Spoon off foam from top of butter and discard. Spoon clear yellow butter into small metal bowl, leaving water and milk solids in bottom of pan. Add vanilla to butter in bowl; set clarified butter aside.
Step 2
Sift flour and cocoa powder together 3 times into medium bowl. Whisk eggs and sugar in large metal bowl to blend. Place bowl with egg mixture in large skillet of barely simmering water; whisk constantly until egg mixture is lukewarm (105°F), about 2 minutes. Remove bowl from water. Place bowl with clarified butter in hot water in same skillet over low heat to keep warm.
Step 3
Using electric mixer, beat egg mixture until cool and tripled in volume, about 5 minutes. Sift 1/3 of flour-cocoa mixture over egg mixture and gently fold in with rubber spatula. Fold in remaining flour-cocoa mixture in 2 more additions. Fold 1 cup of cake batter into warm clarified butter until incorporated. Using rubber spatula, gently fold butter-cake batter mixture into remaining cake batter.
Step 4
Transfer batter to prepared pan. Bake until tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean and top springs back slightly when gently pressed, about 30 minutes. Cool completely in pan on rack. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; store at room temperature.)
Step 5
Run knife between pan sides and cake to loosen. Invert cake onto rack; remove parchment. Using long serrated knife, trim top of cake horizontally, forming 3/4-inch-high cake layer. Using bottom of 8-inch-diameter springform pan as guide, trim around sides of cake to form 8-inch round cake. Set cake aside.
For hazelnut crunch:
Step 6
Line bottom of 8-inch-diameter springform pan with parchment paper. Pour enough water into large skillet to reach depth of 1 inch; bring to simmer. Remove skillet from heat. Place gianduja in medium metal bowl; set bowl in hot water in skillet. Stir until gianduja is melted and smooth. Stir in cereal and nuts. Spread crunch evenly over parchment in pan. Place cake atop crunch layer, pressing to adhere. Chill until crunch is firm, about 1 hour.
For mousse:
Step 7
Place gianduja in metal bowl. Pour enough water into large skillet to reach depth of 1 inch; bring to simmer. Remove from heat; place bowl with gianduja in hot water in skillet. Stir until gianduja is smooth. Remove bowl from water; cool gianduja to lukewarm.
Step 8
Using electric mixer, beat cream and salt in another bowl until very soft peaks form (when bowl is tilted, cream should be fluffy but still pourable and flow to one side). Mix 3 tablespoons water into melted gianduja. Pour whipped cream over and fold into gianduja just until incorporated (mousse will be very soft).
Step 9
Brush top of chilled cake with liqueur. Spread mousse over cake in pan. Cover and chill overnight. (Can be prepared 2 days ahead. Keep chilled.)
Step 10
Run knife between cake and pan sides to loosen. Soak kitchen towel in hot water; wring out water. Wrap hot wet towel around pan sides and hold 30 seconds. Carefully remove pan sides from cake; smooth mousse with knife if necessary. Place cake on pan bottom on rack set over baking sheet. Sift cocoa powder lightly over top of cake. Using stencils such as snowflakes or stars, sift powdered sugar over top of cake. Transfer to platter and serve.
Step 11
*Many supermarkets sell pre-husked hazelnuts. if you can't find them, here's how to husk whole hazelnuts: Scatter nuts on rimmed baking sheet and toast at 350°F until skins darken, 12 to 15 minutes. Wrap warm hazelnuts in kitchen towel and rub together to remove skins.
Gianduja bars are often sold only in professional quantities, but one-pound blocks (enough to make this recipe) can be ordered from Jane's Cakes and Chocolates (800-262-7630).
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Reviews (70)
Back to TopYikes! In preparing the cake pan, it only says to line the bottom of pan with parchment paper. Seems unusual, am I missing something? Do you need to grease /or dust the pan, as usual?
sargentlee50
10/29/2013
spent my whole day n loads of money making this cake hope its worth it...big day tommorow..will be takignthisa cake to my boyfriends place...
Gillijas
Mumbai ,In
5/8/2013
Made twice - here are suggestions from second effort. Crust: added 1/3 c. more rice cereal and crust wasn't so hard. Used Gourmet 2004 chocolate cake and it was more moist and flavorful, but made taller layer so I made foil collar to hold up mousse. Spread Nutella on cake (crust side) before dropping on crust and it adhered MUCH better. Mousse: added 1 T. warm cream to 3 T. water and had no trouble with seizing chocolate. Sifted powdered sugar over paper doily to make pretty design. Finally, painted Nutella thinned with cream on plates to keep cake slices from sliding. Apologies for rating with alterations, but people loved this dessert!
Anonymous
Chicago
1/3/2013
Just made this cake. Ordered the best gianduja (5.5 pounds). All was going well until the mousse. The chocolate seized up and I ended up with chocolate chip mousse. I spread it on the cake anyway - looks more like a chocolate cloud than the flat layer in the picture, but fine. What do you do when the chocolate seizes up? It could not have been the quality of the chocolate, so it must have been something I did.
Anonymous
Chicago
12/23/2012
A rich, cool-looking cake with lots of hazelnut flavour. I would make it again. I made several substitutions... Cake: I didn't use clarified butter, used regular unsalted butter instead. My egg yolks were not whipped enough or didn't hold their volume, so cake turned out flat (1/4 inch high). I would substitute a more reliable chocolate cake recipe next time. Crust: used 4 oz. Nutella and 1 oz. good chocolate instead of gianduja (couldn't find it here). Worked very well! Mousse: fantastic! Substituted 8 oz. Nutella and 2 oz. good chocolate for gianduja.
karenmckendry
Halifax, NS
12/31/2011
I didn't end up with as much cake or crunch as shown in this photo. I think that next time I will double the crunch. It's good, but a lot of work. I also used Lindt chocolate on the crunch. I couldn't find Lindt without the hazelnuts already chopped in the chocolate, so I used a small bottle of Nutella hazelnut spread and incorporated that into the whipped cream. Worked great for the mousse.
FauxRealGirl
11/19/2011
Help! How finely should I chop the hazelnuts? Should I use the food processor to grind them or do it manually?
mschiavone
Broomfield, CO
12/24/2010
This was a major hit. The bottom crunchy layer tastes just like roeche (not sure I spelled that correctly) candies. I did find the cake a little dry and would bake it a little shorter time next year, but the Frangelica does soften it up a bit. Everyone loved the flavors.
PJAMOK
12/27/2009
This cake is a TOTAL FRIGGIN' pain in the wazoo to make, but TOTALLY worth it. You'll want to eat the whole thing yourself. The mousse is phenomenal. Use the best eggs you can get.
damzelfly
12/8/2009
If you are a novice baker like myself, I would strongly recommend doing some research on how to properly make a genoise before diving into this recipe. That extra planning really prepared me before I started fumbling through the recipe. The rest was pretty straightforward, including mixing in the water into the melted chocolate. Again, some basic research can really go a long way if you are not already experienced.
Anonymous
St. Louis, MO
9/7/2009
absolutely AMAZING!!!! I brought this to a Christmas party and everyone LOVED it! for the decoration just top the whole cake with a medium coat of cocoa powder and then cut out a stencil to make the powdered sugar designs. It takes a bit of work but it is sooooo worth it, it turned out picture perfect I will definitely make it again.
gabylahaie
ottawa
3/15/2009
I made this and it was wonderful!!! I substituted Grand Marnier for the Hazelnut liquer and it was a bit hit!!! I was literally chasing my boyfriend and his mother away from my mixing bowl. I'll be doing it for Thanksgiving this year for some chocolate lovers coming to dinner, I'm sure it'll win new fans.
trinibunny
London, UK
11/19/2008
我做了这个蛋糕两三次。似乎问uite complicated - but if you make it once, the second time is really easy. I thought this cake was SO good. It always gets rave reviews. The only thing I have a hard time with is making the powder sugar on top as cool as the picture, and gathering all of the proper ingredients.
Anonymous
SLC, UT
10/10/2008
I have made this cake several times, and have always loved it. Family members now request that I bring it to special gatherings. You definitely need to feel comfortable with baking, the gianduja is available at whole foods. so yummy!
lduran
Boston, MA
10/3/2008
I made this for Christmas dinner. Well, this was a last minute decision so I could not find the chocolate so, after desperately looking for a substitute, y opted for crushing a good brand of chocolate covered hazelnuts for the bottom layer and now, if you are very delicate about fine ingredients you may not want to continue reading...Nutella for the mousse portion of the recipe. I was so surprised at how FABULOUS this turned out! My family was actually licking the plate. I had problems getting it to stiffen but I put it in the freezer for a bit and perfect! Now the reviewer before me asked about the size of the pan. The reason why you'd bake on a 9 inch is so you can trim it so it looks nice. Usually the edges of the cakes are not perfect so the wider cake allows for you to trim it. That's all :)
Anonymous
Coral Springs, FL
1/25/2008
