German Chocolate Spice Cake (Gewuerzkuchen)
This buttery German spice cake aka. Gewuerzkuchen with a beautiful texture is a family favorite. It's absolutely delicious, spicy, not overly sweet, very moist and so easy to make.
Servings: 12 Servings
Equipment
- 30 cm (11.8 inch) loaf tin
Ingredients
For the chocolate spice cake
- 4 eggs medium eggs Germany, large US, room temperature
- 400 g (0.88 lbs/ 3 1/3 cups) hazelnuts or any ground nuts
- 125 g (4.4 oz/ about 1 cup) plan flour/ all purpose flour
- 100 g (3.5 oz) dark chocolate
- 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar homemade
- 150 g (5.3 oz/ ¾ cup) sugar
- 3 teaspoons German gingerbread spice mix
- 200 g (7.1 oz) butter soft plus extra for greasing
- 200 ml (6.8 fl.oz/ about ¾ cup + 1 tablespoon), milk room temperature
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder for dusting
For the glaze
- 4 tablespoons jam, warm (I've used homemade red currant jelly)
- 150 g (5.3 oz) dark chocolate
- 100 ml (3.4 fl.oz/ about ½ cup – 1 tablespoon) heavy cream (whipping cream)
Instructions
- Grease a 30 cm (11.8 inch) loaf tin with butter and dust it with unsweetened cocoa powder and preheat the oven to 175 ° C (347 °F), with both top and bottom heat.
- Next add the baking powder and ginger spice mix to the bowl with plain flour and mix well and cut dark chocolate into chunks. Then add the eggs, sugar and butter to a separate bowl and beat until creamy. Add the plain flour mixture. Followed by part of the milk and then part of the nuts. Repeat the process until you've used up the milk and nuts. Now fold in chopped chocolate and transfer the batter to the prepared cake tin.
- Bake for 60 minutes. Since the temperature differs from oven to oven, insert a wooden toothpick near the center of the cake just to check the cake for doneness. If the toothpick comes out clean, the cake is done. Let the cake cool down briefly, then remove it from the cake tin and let cool down completely.
- Once the cake has cooled down, melt the chocolate in the microwave or over a hot water bath and stir in whipping cream (heavy cream).
- Next brush the cake with warm jam (if you're using a jelly, there is no need to warm it. You're simply warming the jam, to make it easier to spread on the cake.) and then spread it with chocolate glaze. (I sliced the crust off the top of the cake, before brushing it with jam, just to have a perfectly made cake. But this step is totally optional). Let the chocolate glaze dry for at least 30 minutes and enjoy. This German spice cake stays moist up to 4 days.
Notes
- Feel free to use almond nuts if you don’t have access to hazelnuts.