Nutella Cake Queries

Asked by Unknown. Answered on 30th December 2014

Full question

Hi Team Nigella. The dark chocolate that you use in the Nutella Cake - can it be couverture or compound or is it okay to use normal cooking dark chocolate?

I would like to make the Nutella Cake for a dinner party dessert. Would you recommend this or a flourless chocolate cake? Is the Nutella cake suitable and fudgy?

Hi! I was hoping to make a tiered birthday cake using Nigella's Nutella Cake, however I noticed in the method it mentions 'Unmould the cooled cake carefully, leaving it on the base as it will be too difficult to get such a damp cake off in one piece.' Do you think the Nutella Cakes will be suitable to stack on top of each other, or will it be too difficult to work with? Thanks in advance for your advice!

I tried to cook the Nutella Cake. Baked it for 40min at 180C but as it was still wobbly and still hadn't removed from the sides, I left it another 5min, then another and another. Each time I checked it was still wobbly. Finally the sides separated and the tester came out clean but my cake is burnt. I'm a true baker newbie so any guidance would be appreciated!

Our answer

Nigella's Nutella Cake (from Domestic Goddess) is a flourless cake made with Nutella, ground hazelnuts, eggs, butter and melted chocolate. In this recipe and in most recipes we prefer to use a chocolate with a high percentage of cocoa solids (preferably 70%). Coverture chocolate has a high percentage of cocoa butter but tends to be lower in cocoa solids and compound chocolate has a fairly low percentage of cocoa solids. Cooking chocolate has a very high level of cocoa solids but is unsweetened so is too bitter. So we would suggest looking for a good quality regular chocolate (the type you would eat). The proportion of cocoa solids is usually shown in the ingredients list.

The Nutella Cake is a flourless cake and like many flourless cakes it will be slightly dense and a little squidgy. However as Nutella is a chocolate hazelnut paste this cake will have a slightly less intense chocolate flavour. If you prefer a more intese flourless chocolate cake then we would suggest Nigella's Chocolate Cloud Cake (from Nigella Bites and on the Nigella website).

Unfortunately all flourless cakes tend to be slightly fragile as they don't contain gluten, so they will be difficult to handle and stack. We would suggest instead trying a cake like Nigella's Chocolate Fudge Cake or Devil's Food Cake (both on the Nigella website). For a gluten free cake there are several recipes on the internet using gluten free flour blends.

When you are baking a flourless cake and using a cake tester or metal skewer then the skewer may not come out completely clean even when the cake is cooked. The tester should have a few damp crumbs clinging to it, though not raw/uncooked cake batter. Also watch for just the top edges of the cake pulling away from the sides of the pan as this is usually the sign that the cake is cooked. You shoud also usually bake the cake on the middle shelf of the oven (unless your oven handbook directs otherwise). You may also like to check your oven with an oven thermometer. These are not usually expensive and can be bought in many baking or hardware stores. Sometimes oven thermostats are not completely accurate or may need adjusting.