Cook With Us #3: Decadent sponge-cake with Nutella fillings

Hello everyone and particularly those participating in the Cook With Us challenge. How are we all feeling? Pumped and ready to splurge into some really succulent and mouthwatering desserts? I know I’m pumped. I must admit I have a sweet tooth or more particularly I have a penchant for desserts; for making them to eating them. After an unsuccessful entry in the Week #2 contest; I thought I would have another crack at it more in the spirit of sharing recipes than anything else to be honest.

Before I make my submission for the decadent sponge-cake with Nutella fillings I thought I would provide some background to its inception. After I gave birth to my daughter I took on a cake decoration course, on a part time basis, to keep myself otherwise busy. The course was roughly 3hrs a week and was focused on trying different approach to decorating the traditional cake. However, I felt that 3hrs was not enough to master all the techniques involved and I had to give myself more practice. So during the week, after I’ve tucked my daughter in for her midday nap, I’ve tried over and over again to improve my piping techniques and decoration skills.

Needless to say that this trial and error approach resulted in a lot of waste at first but it eventually paid off as I became more proficient and skilful. So now I feel more confident to attempt new desserts (not limited to traditional cake). I’ve been telling my husband that I wanted to have an entry for Week #3. And last week, on his way to lunch, he saw this appealing dessert. He took a picture and sent it to me with the text:"How about this for Week #3?" I thought great and answered: "What’s the ingredients?" He replied: "You make your own dessert it just needs to look like this one!"

And here we are for the @cookwithus Week #3 entry.

I really hope I’ve done the picture justice!

Hazelnut Sponge Cake Ingredients:

1/4 cup whole hazelnuts
3/4 cup sugar
9 tbs cake flour
6 tbs cornstarch
3 large eggs
3 large eggs yolks
3/4 teaspoon coarse salt
3/4 cup vegetable oil

Cream cheese and Nutella Ingredients:

125g cream cheese
3 tbs Nutella spread

Ingredients for decoration:

Chocolate melts
Coconut oil

Method:

Put the hazelnut and 1/4 cup sugar in a food processor and grind.

In a bowl sift together the flour, cornstarch, and newly made hazelnut mixture. Set aside for later.

In a mixture beat the 3 large eggs, 1/2 cup sugar, salt on high speed until thick and pale yellow in colour. Fold in the flour mixture while gradually drizzling oil while mixing.

Pour the batter into a cake pan (sprayed with vegetable oil and lined with baking sheet) and baked for 25 to 30 minutes. Remove cake from oven and allow to cool down on a wire rack for 1hr.