These hazelnut praline ganache cupcakes are the epitome of rich and decadent. Moist chocolate cake filled with hazelnut praline ganache and topped with the smoothest Gianduja Swiss meringue buttercream. Best part – the ring of chopped hazelnuts on a chocolate glaze.
A quick update
Whoa. It’s been a long time since I’ve been here.
So umm… Hi!
Yenno how sometimes you have so much to do that you get super overwhelmed and then nothing really happens cuz you kinda ignore the stress by immersing yourself in Instagram for 4 months? Yeah, so that happened half of the time.
The other half of the time I was doing actual stuff (not saying that scrolling through Instagram isn’t actual stuff, you go do that if you want to buddy). At the beginning of July (when I last posted), something happened at work that required me to do an extra 100hours of work over two month. Doesn’t sound like a lot but this was on top of 2 jobs that already took up about 35hrs/week. Annnnd, around that time I had to start preppin’ for my friends wedding which I was catering dessert for. The wedding was in August and after that I was so exhausted of baking that I didn’t want to make anything ever again. Then school started up again in September which, naturally, meant an increase in my Instagram productivity.
So yeahhhh, that’s what happened. I wish I had a more legit reason for you but to tell the truth I was just being lazzzzyyyyy.
About these Hazelnut Praline Ganache Cupcakes
Alright, now on to these hazelnut praline ganache cupcakes ahhhh. I’ve been dreaming bout these for a long time and I finally got around to bringing them to life! Any of you do that? Sit around daydreaming of different food combos and how to do it, which components would deliver it best? Food bloggers, you know who you are 😉
As some of you may know, I have a major obsession with hazelnut and chocolate. It’s like, my all time favourite thing to pair with chocolate. I created a hazelnut praline ganache chocolate cake last year and it has been super well received. You’d be surprised to hear how many emails I get from bakers around world about that cake! I certainly am! And this is why I love doing what I do, I love sharing recipes with you guys.
When I used to work at a bakery, I had a lot of down time between rush hours to dream up new flavours. If I had the chance to contribute to the menu, THIS is what I would’ve made. Inspired by my love for Ferrero Rocher of course!
Let’s break it down! What do we have here… we got a moist chocolate cake base (my favourite recipe), cored then filled with a rich hazelnut praline ganache, dipped in dark chocolate ganache and roasted hazelnuts, and topped off with a silky smooth Nutella swiss meringue buttercream.
I know. I can’t even deallll. This is not for the weak. Also, if you’re gonna share these, people are gonna LOVE you. If you’re the type that doesn’t like too much human contact… you’ve been warned.
More Decadent Cupcake Recipes:
Berries & Cream Cupcakes with Ganache Drip
Earl Grey & Cream Cheese Cupcakes with Edible Gold
Bacon Weave Chocolate Caramel Cupcakes
Recipe for Hazelnut Praline Ganache Cupcakes
Hazelnut Praline Ganache Cupcakes
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup cocoa
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 cup strong black coffee
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Hazelnut Praline
- 100 g hazelnuts
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
Hazelnut Praline Ganache
- 300 mL and 700mL heavy cream separated
- 10 oz. milk chocolate best quality you can find
- all of the hazelnut praline
Dipping Ganache
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup dark chocolate best quality you can find
Roasted Hazelnuts, chopped
Nutella Swiss Meringue Buttercream
- 5 large egg whites
- 1 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 2 cups unsalted butter room temp, cut into cubes
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup Nutella
Instructions
For the Chocolate Cake
- Preheat oven to 350°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
- Pour batter evenly into prepared cupcake pans
- Bake 15-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean
For the 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
For the Hazelnut Praline Ganache
- 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.
For the Dipping 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
For the Nutella Swiss Meringue Buttercream
- Combine sugar, egg whites, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer
- Place over simmering water (but not IN simmer water)
- Whisk by hand until sugar is completely dissolved
- Transfer bowl to mixer and beat until you reach medium peak consistency
- Slowly add butter one piece at a time
- At some point, the buttercream will look curdled and gross, THIS IS NORMAL DON'T PANIC
- Keep adding butter and beating the buttercream until you reach a silky smooth texture
- Mix in Nutella, until desired intensity of flavour.
- Transfer to a piping bag and decorate cupcakes
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
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm………………
(excuse my drooling)
How long did it take you to make a batch of these beauties?
hmmm i don’t know the exact number of hours since I was taking photos along the way, but i say no longer than 3.5 hours!
These look beautiful! And they way you decorated them reminds of of Ferrero Rocher chocolates!
Thank you! ahaha yep that’s what i was going for, glad it’s recognizable! #nailedit
Oh wow, these cupcakes look so far beyond delicious I can’t even describe them!! Clearly I need these in my life, immediately.
ahaha!!! YES YOU DO. go make em! good thing you got your cake pants on 😛
dying. I’m dead. You can disappear anytime so long as you come back with recipes like THIS every time! oh my GOD I NEED THEM
How many cupcakes does this make and what is the best order to assemble them?
I got about 28 cupcakes from this, of course it might vary a little bit depending on how high you fill your cupcake pan.
This is the order I decorated!
1. bake the cupcakes, cool and core the center
2. dip the perimeter of the cupcakes in regular chocolate ganache then roll in the chopped hazelnuts
3. fill the cored center with hazelnut praline ganache
4. top off with buttercream
hope that helps!
These look beautiful and I can only imagine how delicious they are! Definitely a recipe to try 🙂
aww shucks, thank you Kirsty!
I “borrowed” you ganache recipe for the filling of a flourless hazelnut torte, and it was a huge hit. Thanks!
Yay, glad that worked out! btw, that torte of yours sounds droolingly-delicious 😉
Did anyone else have issues with the hazelnut praline ganache? Are the measurements off for the cream? Mine came out like slightly flavored whipped cream and I had a ton left over. Next time I would cut the cream in half at least to have more of the praline flavor come across.
Hi Angela, sorry the recipe didn’t work out for you. Measurements aren’t always exact for everyone depending on brand and qualities of ingredients, type of equipment and the baker’s own skills. There will always be some discrepancies between measurements for 2 different bakers. Is it possible that you didn’t make enough praline or didn’t use enough chocolate? This is the exact same recipe that I used for my hazelnut praline cake and I have received many positive comments from other readers about the ganache
Hello, Connie! I have sooo many things I want to say! First off, you are such a gift to bakers all over the web. I regret that I have come across your blog only this month (through Buzzfeed). Exactly a day after discovering your site, I found myself in the kitchen, simultaneously making 2 of your recipes, this and homemade Pocky. I fell in love with both! So here are some I want you to know:
1. I’m not a big fan of chocolate cakes and cupcakes, but I fell in love with this. I had to use almonds in place of hazelnuts though because that’s what I had in the kitchen. I agree with Angela that the measurements were a little off as I had plenty of it left. No complaints though! I made cookies out of the leftover hazelnut praline ganache, and they’re just perfect as sandwiches for the ice cream we got yesterday! I inverted the praline ganache with the Nutella buttercream though because I couldn’t get the latter to fluff up. Might be my fault though because I decided to halve the recipe, then midway, I decided to add more egg whites using a whisk that’s already got chocolate on it, so there. But yeeeah, definitely the best cupcakes I’ve had, store-bought or homemade, so super thanks!
2. My family thought I just bought the biscuits!!! So so so gooood, I’m actually making some tonight, just waiting for them to get out of the kitchen. I made different flavors though, and I still had some praline left over from the cupcakes, so I used that as “toppings” for the Pocky. Everyone who tried it loved it! I’m going to experiment with other variants such as strawberry chocolate, chocolate-coated caramel, and peanut butter chocolate. Can’t wait! The measurements were also off, in such a way that there was higher yield, so again, no complaints haha! I ended up making really long ones with thick chocolate coating. So a bit different from Pocky, but sooo much better. Can you believe how expensive Pocky is?!
If it’s possible to be proud of somebody you haven’t met, then that precisely encapsulates how I feel about you. I wish I knew you in real life. My 22-year old self would have been both jealous and inspired. I hope you keep doing the great things you’re doing! Take care! And please keep the recipes coming!
Hi Jansie,
When I first read your comment a couple days ago, I was blown away! Thank you so so so much for your kind words, you made my day! I’m so glad that Buzzfeed led you here, I’m always happy to meet new baking ethusiasts 🙂 I’m sure if we ever met in real life, we would be BFFs!
Wow you got creative with this cupcake recipe, I love how you put the leftover praline ganache into cookies, how did those turn out?
Yay, way to knock it out of the park with your homemade pocky! I was quite surprised by the results too, had no idea that homemade pocky could taste even BETTER than store bought.
Ummm, I am really confused as to your measurements. Why do you go back and forth between cups and mL and ounces – and Fahrenheit and Celsius? Nuts need to be roasted at 350F. 150 C seems much too low a temperature.
Hi JP,
Cups and ML are pretty much the same thing, they measure volume. Ounces are different and measure weight. I just have different preferences for weighing out different things. For example, I like to weigh chocolate but for things like flour and butter, I use volume. This method is actually pretty common among most bakers, but I can see it can be confusing!
I didn’t want the nuts to be too crisp, so I used a lower temperature. Feel free to toast your nuts at whatever temperature you want.
As you can tell, I don’t bake by the book. I alter my recipes and adjust temp/volume/weight as I need to.
Hope that helps to answer your questions!
– Connie
Hi Connie! May i know how long will the hazelnut praline keep? – Sunny
Hi Sunny! Sorry for the late reply, I’m currently backpacking the world. The praline can keep for about a week on the counter but try to use it in your ganache as soon as possible 🙂 hope that helps!
Thanks Connie! Have fun backpacking! 🙂
I am a bit confused with this recipe. The praline ganache seems to be a recipe for a ton of ganache, how much is actually used to fill the 28 cupcakes baked and how much will be left over? Can this recipe be scaled down so there is no leftovers.
Hi Aly,
I’m sorry for any confusion that the recipe caused! I do agree that it is a bit more complicated due to the multiple steps just to achieve a ganache!! You’re right, there was quite a bit of ganache leftover, you can definitely half the recipe! and judging by the comments that I have received from two other readers, it appears that they had some trouble with getting a thicker thickness/consistency. Here is what I would revise for you:
100g Hazelnuts
¾ cup of granulated sugar
Hazelnut Praline Ganache
800ml heavy cream, separated into 400ml and 400ml
10 oz. milk chocolate, best quality you can find
and then follow the same instructions! the recipe was revised to take out 320ml of heavy cream to reduce concentrate the flavour and volume. Hope this helps!
Connie
When you say “cocoa” in the recipe, what type do you mean? Thanks!!! These look amazing.
Hi Laura,
Any type of cocoa will do! I usually use dutch processed but in this recipe it doesnt matter which type you use 🙂
Connie