Flourless Hazelnut Cake with Whipped Chocolate & Nutella Ganache

Nutty, fluffy, and fully flourless (and by flourless I mean there’s no wheat flour; it’s made with naturally gluten-free hazelnut flour), this tender and flavorful hazelnut cake has a soft, supple and satisfying texture and a swirl of fluffy whipped Nutella ganache on top, with candied hazelnut spikes for a showstopping finish.

Hazelnuts have a distinctive, earthy and nutty flavor compared to other nuts, and this cake showcases a triple dose of it, with a tender cake base made with hazelnut flour (or very finely ground hazelnuts), a cloud of whipped milk chocolate and Nutella ganache, and a sprinkle of candied hazelnuts on top for a little extra crunch and pinache.

Finally, my flourless cake trifecta is complete: pistachio, almond, and now hazelnut!

I topped this stunner with a swirl of fluffy whipped Nutella ganache and a sprinkle of candied hazelnuts for added texture and crunch (and also a few hazelnut spikes because, why not?)

There’s a reason I keep returning to to this kind of cake, where the magic of nut flour (in this case, hazelnut) combines with eggs, sugar, and butter and miraculously bakes up into a fluffy, tender cake with a texture unlike anything you’ve ever had before (unless you’ve made one of my other flourless cake recipes, of course!)

I feel like most other flourless hazelnut cake recipes out there are heavy on the chocolate, more a flourless chocolate cake with an undertone of hazelnut. This recipe, on the other hand, while it does bring in some chocolate in the topping (hazelnuts and chocolate do go oh so well together after all), it is, first and foremost, a hazelnut cake, and that’s the flavor that shines. (more…)