German Hazelnut Cake Recipe (Haselnusskuchen)
Haselnusskuchen (which basically means hazelnut cake) is a very moist, delicious, and not too sweet German hazelnut cake with a great hint of cinnamon.
Servings: 12 Servings
Equipment
- 30 cm (11.8 inch) loaf tin
Ingredients
- 4 medium eggs Germany, large US
- 400 g (0.88 lbs/ 3 1/3 cups) ground hazelnuts SEE NOTES
- 125 g (4.4 oz/ about 1 cup) plain flour/ all purpose flour
- 100 g (3.5 oz) dark chocolate
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract SEE NOTES
- 150 g (5.3 oz/ ¾ cup) sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 200 g (7.1 oz) butter plus extra for greasing
- 200 ml (6.8 fl.oz/ about ¾ cup + 1 tablespoon) heavy cream (whipping cream) SEE NOTES
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder for dusting
Instructions
- Grease a 30 cm (11.8 inch) loaf tin with butter and dust it with unsweetened cocoa powder and preheat the oven to 180 ° C (356 °F), with both top and bottom heat.
- Toast ground hazelnuts in the pan, without oil and let cool for afew minutes.. Toasting the nuts gives the pesto an extra fine nutty flavor.
- Next add the baking powder and ground cinnamon to the bowl with plain flour and mix well and cut dark chocolate into chunks.
- Using either a whisk or hand mixer with whisk attachment, beat the butter and sugar until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time and combine well. Then stir in vanilla extract.
- Add part of the flour mixture and then cream. Repeat the process until you have used up all the flour and cream. Now fold in the nut, followed by chopped chocolate.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared cake tin and bake for about 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. Dust the nut loaf cake with icing sugar (powdered sugar), drizzle with icing or glaze with chocolate and enjoy.
Notes
- I have used hazelnuts to make this nut loaf cake, but feel free to substitute them with ground almonds, walnuts, or any ground nut of your choice. If you like you can also use a mixture of chopped and ground hazelnuts to add some bite to the cake.
- * Vanilla: This recipe calls for vanilla extract, but feel free to use about 1 teaspoon vanilla seed paste or about 2 tablespoons vanilla sugar. Just reduce the amount of sugar if you’re using vanilla sugar.
- Feel free to add a dash of rum to the batter just to add some extra kick. If you want to make this hazelnut cake somehow calorie friendly, simply replace whipping cream with milk.