Hazelnut Cake

Hazelnut Cake

When I started my new job back in December of 2009, one of my new co-workers, Karen, gave me a calendar. It's the Pillsbury® Dessert Recipes 16 month 2010 Calendar. I thought she was being nice. Little did I know, the "catch" was that I was supposed to make the special dessert that was pictured each month. Okay, fine. I guess I can do that :) Although, I haven't really stuck to the month to month thing. I just kind of make whatever looks and sounds good at the time. So, this is actually the recipe for the month of June.

The picture I posted includes the original picture from the calendar (top cake) and how mine turned out (bottom cake). Looking at the two, I think I did a pretty darn good job! Now how about the taste? Honestly, I think it was good. It wasn't real sweet, which I liked. It might have been a little dry, but I think that might have been because I used too much ground up hazelnuts in the batter. It was still very good though. All my co-workers seemed to like it. I did double the chocolate glaze part. I work with all women, we love chocolate :)

Here's the recipe, courtesy of my Pillsbury® 2010 Dessert Recipe Calendar.

Hazelnut Cake

16 Servings

Prep Time: 30 mins

Start to Finish: 2 hrs

½ cup butter or margarine

2 packages (2½ oz. each) hazelnuts (filberts) or pecans

3 eggs

1½ cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups all-purpose flour

2¼ teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

Glaze:

½ cup whipping (heavy) cream

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (6 oz.)

½ teaspoon vanilla

1. Heat oven to 350ºF. Lightly grease bottom only of 10-inch spring form pan with shortening or cooking spray. In 1-quart saucepan, melt butter over low heat; set aside to cool.

2. Reserve 8 whole nuts for garnish. In food processor or blender, process remaining nuts until ground, making about 1 1/3 cups. Reserve 1 tablespoon for garnish.

3. In large bowl, beat eggs, sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla with electric mixer on medium speed 2 to 3 minutes or until thick and lemon colored, scraping bowl occasionally. On low speed, beat in flour, baking powder, salt and ground nuts, scraping bowl occasionally. Continue beating, gradually adding cooled, melted butter until well blended, scraping bowl occasionally (mixture will be thick). Spread batter evenly in pan.

4. Bake 35 to 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 15 minutes. Remove side of pan; run long knife under cake to loosen from pan bottom. Place heatproof serving plate upside down over cake; turn plate and cake over. Remove pan bottom. Cover cake with cloth towel; cool completely, about 30 minutes.

5. In 2-quart saucepan, heat whipping cream just to boiling; remove from heat. Stir in chocolate chips until melted and smooth. Stir in ½ teaspoon vanilla. Spread glaze over top of cake, allowing some to run down side of cake. Sprinkle reserved ground nuts around top edge of cake; arrange reserved whole nuts over ground nuts.

High Altitude (3500-6500 ft): Heat oven to 375ºF. Increase flour to 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons. Bake 30-40 minutes.

Baking Tip: No spring form pan? Just use a 9-inch round cake pan. Line the pan with foil and generously grease the foil with shortening or cooking spray. Bake the cake for 45 to 55 minutes. After cooling for 15 minutes, use the foil to lift the cake out of the pan.

Enjoy!