This hazelnut praline chocolate cake is the definition of tall, dark and handsome. Layers of moist chocolate cake, creamy hazelnut praline mousse and a rich chocolate ganache glaze. This is the chocolate cake made from dreams.
What is in this hazelnut praline chocolate cake?
This cake definitely trumps ALLL the cakes I have ever had. If you like Ferrero Rocher or Bueno, or any hazelnut and chocolate combination, you need to make this cake right now. Coincidentally, the idea for this cake came to me as I was enjoying some Bueno a couple months back.
This recipe consists of 3 layers moist chocolate cake filled and covered with hazelnut praline mousse and then topped off with a glaze of dark chocolate ganache.
I tested this recipe on my family and friends, every gave nothing but glowing reviews and… wanted a second slice.
How to make the hazelnut praline mousse
I usually try to avoid superlatives but believe me when I say that this is THE best mousse I have ever had.
Here are the steps on how to make it:
- Caramelize 2/3 cups of white sugar in a pot on the stove
- Add in peeled hazelnuts and stir until evenly coated
- Spread out on an oiled sheet pan and let cool – you now have hazelnut praline!
- Break up the praline into pieces and pulse in a food processor until you get fine crumbs
- Melt 10 oz. milk chocolate and add in all of the finely crumbed praline
- Bring 300 ml of heavy cream to a simmer then pour it over the chocolate praline mixture and stir
- Add in 700ml of cold heavy cream, stir until combined then place the entire mixture into the fridge for 3 hours
- Remove from fridge and whip gently until medium peaks and there you have it, hazelnut praline mousse!
More tall and layered chocolate cake recipes:
Gold Hazelnut Praline Ganache Cake
Reese Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake
Recipe for Hazelnut Praline Chocolate Cake
Hazelnut Praline Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake
- 2 cups white sugar
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup cocoa
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 cup black coffee
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Hazelnut Praline
- 100 g hazelnuts
- 2/3 cup white sugar
Hazelnut Praline Mousse
- 300ml and 700ml heavy cream separated
- 10 oz milk chocolate best quality you can find
- all of the hazelnut praline
Dark Chocolate Ganache
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup dark chocolate chopped into small pieces
Instructions
Chocolate Cake
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
- Whisk together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt in large bowl
- Add eggs, buttermilk, coffee, oil and vanilla; mix to fully incorporate
- Divide batter evenly into 3 - 10" round cake pans
- Bake 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean
Hazelnut Praline
- Preheat oven to 150 degrees C. Roast hazelnuts for about 8-10 mins, then place the hazelnuts between 2 towels and rub the hazelnuts to get the skin off
- In a saucepan, caramelize the sugar one third at a time. Place 1/3 cup of sugar into pan at medium heat, stir and let melt until it reaches a caramel colour. Add in the remainder slowly, making sure to stir continuously
- Once all sugar is caramelized, throw in the hazelnuts and coat them in the caramelized sugar
- Immediately transfer to oil-sprayed cookie sheet. Let the praline cool until hardened
- Break up praline into pieces, process in food processor until it reaches a super fine consistency
Hazelnut Praline Mousse
- Using a microwave, melt the milk chocolate in 30s intervals, stir in between intervals until just melted and smooth
- Stir the finely processed praline into the chocolate. The mixture should be grainy, don’t worry!
- Bring 300mL of heavy cream to a simmer, then slowly pour it into the chocolate praline mixture and stir until evenly combined
- Pour in the remaining cold 700mL heavy cream, stir until combined. You now have your hazelnut praline mousse
- Place the mousse in the fridge for at least 3 hours until completely cold. Place the beaters of your stand mixer/hand mixer into the fridge as well. You want to make sure everything is really cold, but NOT frozen, in order to be able to whip up the cream.
- When it is cold, whip the mixture on medium speed until medium peak forms. Be careful not to overwhip to avoid curdling and breaking the cream.
Dark chocolate ganache
- In the microwave or on the stovetop, heat up the heavy cream until simmering
- Place chopped chocolate in a bowl, pour the hot cream over it and stir until completely melted and combined
- Set aside on counter to cool until the ganache is still pourable but not warm anymore
Putting it together
- On a cake board or cake stand, place 1 layer of chocolate cake down
- Add a layer of hazelnut praline mousse
- Repeat until the last layer of cake is on top
- Frost the entire cake in the hazelnut praline mousse
- Pour the cooled ganache on top and allow to drip down the edges
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a comment below and tag @chocolateandconnie on Instagram.
Credits
Chocolate cake from Hershey’s
Hazelnut praline mousse modified from Alena Kogotkova
Yike! You live with chocolate and cake ignorant people too? Well, I thought I was the only foodie baker in the whole wide world whose family members do not eat all the desserts I make. They hate sweets. Like what alien planet did they come from? They prefer salty things and don’t dig desserts. Fortunately I am seeing my 6 yo might actually like desserts. She has a ltd capacity tho. Lok!
im with ya gurlfrend! oh well, if our families don’t like sweets, then there’s more left for us right?!
Oh man, I would be in trouble if I lived with people that didn’t like chocolate! I have to give a lot of my sweets that I bake away of I WILL eat them all!! This looks delicious! Straight out of chocolate heaven!
i wish you lived closer, then id just give all my baked goods to you!
OMG I LOVE HAZELNUT PRALINE AHHHHH I NEED TO USE ALL CAPS TO EXPRESS HOW OBSESSED I AM WITH THIS RIGHT NOWWWW
IKNOWRIGHT,IT’SSODELICIOUS!!
Oh my lordy!!! YUMMY!!!!
LOL i love getting that reaction!
Oh man. I need to bake this. Eventhough i suck at baking cakes. Haha!
As cliche as this sounds, practice does make perfect. Keep at it and youll be a cake queen in no time 🙂
So.. I tried baking your cake the yesterday or rather sunday since its already tuesday here. It turned out good. Prettiest cake i’ve ever made!
yay! that makes me so incredibly happy to hear! see, you don’t suck at baking 🙂
This looks incredible and I am going to try it … one question….I found a can of Hazlenut Praline (Love n’ Bake) at Whole Foods so I can skip the praline step….your directions for the ganache state to use ALL the praline from your recipe…but no measurement……can you give me an approximate idea of how much that was? Thank you!!!
Hi Gloria!
I didn’t measure how much praline I used but I can give you an approximate amount. I used around 100g of hazelnuts caramelized with around 150g of white sugar. So I would use around 230g. Hope that helps!
Oh, one more thing!! Also looks like you glazed the cake with more chocolate after you spread the ganache on it…what did you use? Did you freeze the whole thing prior to make the choc glaze harden? I can almost taste this cake in my mind, it looks SO GOOD…thanks!!
Ahaha, you noticed that I added another layer! It was just regular unwhipped ganache, I went with a dark chocolate ganache so that the cake wouldn’t end up overly sweet.
I would recommend refrigerating, not freezing. Freezing causes the ganache solidify too quickly which makes it reallly hard to spread and achieve the even glossy look.
im so glad you asked questions, i may need to update my recipe!
good luck, let me know how it goes!
Where can i find the recipe for the chocolate syrup that is on the cake?
Hi Sophia!
The chocolate syrup on the top of the cake is actually a dark chocolate ganache. It’s my favourite way to finish all my cakes! My recipe for ganache is one part chocolate mixed with one part cream.
1 cup chopped dark chocolate
1 cup heavy cream
1. place chopped chocolate into a bowl.
2. Heat heavy cream in a pot and take it off the heat immediately just as it starts to simmer
3. Pour all the cream over the chocolate and whisk until the chocolate is completely melted and fully incorporated into the cream.
Thank you so much for your help!!! 🙂
youre welcome! 🙂
lemme know how the cake turns out!
hey you there 🙂
this recipe sounds soo delicious, i really have to try it next days! question therefore: what is this creme where the kinder bueno pieces lie on?
what i also wanted to ask is: do you know a recipe where the kinder buenos are actually >in< the cake ? i'd like to bake one as a "late christmas gift" but i can't really find a recipe on the internet 🙁
uhh I got a lot of questions :D… and sorry for my english i'm no native speaker
no need for apologies! im impressed that you could read my entire post when english is your second language!
the “creme” that is on the outermost layer of the cake is actually ganache. My recipe is two parts chocolate, 1 part heavy cream. Chop up chocolate and place in a bowl. Warm heavy cream in a pot until simmering, then pour the cream over the chocolate. Stir until all chocolate has melted.
i’ve never seen any other kinder bueno cake recipes. but it would be quite simple to adapt the recipe and place actual kinder bueno chocolate in the cake! Here’s one of my ideas: make a low sugar swiss meringue and spread a thin layer of it on the cake layers, then sprinkle with chopped up bueno pieces and top it with the next layer of cake!
hope that helps! feel free to ask me more questions!
i tried the recipe and everything worked great.. that was my first big cake but it worked 😮 and it looks great.. a little wilder than yours but still pretty 🙂 thank you alot for this recipe and your kinder bueno idea- i’ll try that one too. wish you a happy new year
thanks maxi! happy new year to you too! oh it makes me so happy when people tell me that they’ve tried my recipes! keep it touch! xoxo
The cake looks nice 🙂
Thanks for the recipe…
you’re welcome! hope you’ll like the cake!
I love this recipe. When. Hoc cake is cooling add some Tia Maria drizzled over cake.
Thanks for the suggestion, Therese!
Hi there, I wanted to ask you about icing the cake with both types of ganache. When you’ve finished mixing the praline ganache should you apply it to the cake right away? And what about the chocolate? It looks like maybe you just poured it over the cake and let it set? (I’ve never made ganache before and am making this cake for a baking competition with my friends this weekend)
Hi! I’m so sorry for the late response! I hope your competition went well!
After you make the praline ganache you should use it as soon as possible to avoid separation of the mixture since it is whipped cream based. And the “chocolate” that’s on top of the cake is actually a ganache. While it was cooled and still liquid I poured it on top of my COLD cake and just let it set. Let me know if you have any more questions!
Hey this looks ridiculous! Oh my god so yummy… Ive got a baking blog too and am obsessed with the idea of having my own cake shop! My friends birthday is coming up and she loves happy hippos (similar to Bueno) so i want to make her a happy hippo cake. Trouble is i cant find the bloody things anywhere. I think i might make this one for her instead! What piping nozzle did you use for the little bits underneath the bueno pieces? And did you just spread the hazelnut buttercream on with a knife? 😀 x
Hi Rozzy! Thanks so much for dropping by and sharing that story! Hmm, I wonder where I can get some happy hippos in Vancouver, discovering new chocolate bars is so exciting (prob only to me though ahah)!
I used a 1M star tip from wilton to pipe the icing underneath the bueno pieces. and to spread on the icing I used a non-offset spatula! Hope this helps!
Also, im wondering what an alternative to ‘heavy cream’ is? Is it just double cream? x
Hi Rozzy! not sure what double cream is but heavy cream is just whipping cream 🙂
Oh my goodness this looks like the most indulgent amazing cake!! I was just wondering how you stored your cake and how long it stayed ‘good’ for as I’m worried about the cream going off quickly, or the cake drying out in the fridge. Your recipe is travelling far- it’s my boyfriends birthday this weekend over here in England so this is what he’s getting! Can’t wait to try it, thanks for sharing 🙂
Hi Jessica from England!
Thanks so much for dropping by! You’re gonna win huge girlfriend points with this cake 😛
You’re probably gonna cringe when I tell you this but I actually kept mine out of the fridge on the counter for about a week and it was still good! Yea… I’m not the most diligent when it comes to food safety ahaha. Of course, I would recommend keeping it covered in the fridge to maximize freshness and it should keep for 5-7 days… though you probably won’t need to for that long 😉
Oh good- a woman after my own heart! I never follow the food safety rules either so I was hoping that would have been your answer and it was fine left out! I doubt it will last more than 3 days with us to be honest anyway! 🙂 yum, can’t wait- roll on Saturday 🙂 thanks again x
ahah im glad you don’t think im gross! just to clarify, of course you should refrigerate the cake for a couple hours right after you finish assembling it just to make sure the frosting is set. you don’t want your cake layers to slide and move around! if your frosting is thick enough and is stable, feel free to leave it out!
lemme know how it goes! would love to see pics too!
Hey, I made the Hazelnut Praline Whipped Ganache back in November (with some very helpful tips from cookie monster, thanks!!) and I have to say the recipe is absolutely foolproof. It was the most delicious filling/icing I ever made, and the cake was polished off by my family in two days…I made it with two pistachio cake layers and one almond cake layer instead of chocolate (I was trying to replicate a Mozart Kugel candy, my bro’s favorite) but I did cheat, I used a can of Love n Bake hazelnut praline instead of making my own. In any case, it really was stupendous!!! I am going to try your Oreo Cake for Mother’s Day!
Hi Gloria!
Why thank you! I’m so glad that your family liked the cake, my family on the other hand does not like dessert… whattta bunch of weirdos! ahaha
ooo nice complement flavours! maybe i should try something other than chocolate cake too
lemme know how the oreo cake turns out 🙂 happy baking!
Reblogged this on inksplatis: this is my design.
thank you so much!!
Hey, I am planning on making this cake for my GF on her birthday but Im not sure whether I could process step 5 (Break up praline into pieces, process in food processor until it reaches a super fine consistency.) without a food processor. Are there any alternatives for this step? Does the praline has to be super fine or can it be lumpy so it has a crunchy texture in the ganache?
side note: if Im making it a night before what is the best option for storing?
Hi Anthony,
That is so sweet of you, your girlfriend is in for a treat! If you do not have a food processor, the next best option would be a blender or you can smash it with a rolling pin/bottle. You want to get it as fine as you can, try to not have any large lumps left. Ideally, it’s best if you can get it as fine as turbinado sugar so that your ganache can whip up properly.
If you’re making this the night before, store it in the fridge so that the ganache can settle. After one night of refrigeration, it can stay covered in room temperature.
Good luck!
Hey there! After hearing all the great reviews, I’ve decided to bake this cake for my friend’s birthday. The black magic cake tasted real good but it seems like my hazelnut praline ganache was a little runny when I was trying to frost it on my cake. And now my cake looks like a real mess. I’ve already chilled the whipped ganache till it hardens but it melts and gets runny real fast at room temperature. 🙁 Please advise, thank you!! 😀
Hi Abigail,
Thanks for dropping by! So sorry this cake didnt work out for you 🙁 For now, what I would suggest is keeping it chilled and only take it out of the fridge when youre ready to serve. For future baking, I would reduce the amount of heavy cream. I’m not sure how the rest of your ganache is turning out, maybe not enough of the solid parts like chocolate and praline. So in the future either increase the chocolate to get a thicker ganache or decrease the heavy cream. Good luck! And lemme know how the chilling works out for you!
what is the dark chocolate cake recipe? It is no longer embedded. thanks.
Hi Teresa,
It is embedded, the link just failed to change to a different colour. Here’s the link! http://www.chocolateandconnie.com/black-magic-cake/