Happy Anniversary Pepper Delight…!!! And here’s to all my Chocolate lovers out there… Chocolate Cake with a Chocolate Hazelnut frosting in a semi naked style, topped with crunchy Ferrero Rocher and a dark chocolate ganache dripping around the edges …!!
Its celebration time… My blog turns 1 today…!! Wooohoooo……
That was pretty fast, it’s still unbelievable how a year went by. I still remember the many “firsts” during my blog journey, all as if they happened just yesterday; right from my blog going live, the first comment I received (I screamed with joy that day), being able to view my recipe in google search, Facebook, FoodGawker, Instagram and so on… Everything felt so special! Those were some of the best days of my life and I thank you everyone for your wonderful support! You guys are awesome, my inspiration to keep going with Pepper Delight and bring out the best of me…
As part of my blog’s anniversary celebrations, watch out for my “Behind the scenes” and “1 year as a blogger” posts to know all about my experiences and the fun I’ve had over the year. But for now, let’s celebrate with this beautiful cake which I have been planning for a long time, my chocolate hazelnut semi naked cake with chocolate ganache!
Semi-naked/Naked cake is one of the most preferred styles especially for celebrations, apart from the usual fondant cakes. These cakes are simple to bake and also have a finished surface but with a casual look unlike the fully frosted ones. Their highlight is being able to view the different cake layers through the finished cake, beautifully stacked on top of each other with the rich frosting in-between. And finishing off with the right ganache or toppings makes it even more elegant and party perfect! This is my first attempt with a semi naked style cake and, Boy am I happy with the outcome; It was damn delicious!!!
Mastering the art of baking a semi naked cake is quite easy as long as you keep an eye on the details. Here are a few valuable tips from my kitchen:
- Grease your pan properly to avoid any cracks or holes in your cake. This helps the cake to slide through the sides of the pan easily.
- Pick the cake with the prettiest bottom for your topmost layer. Use the ones with cracks or holes for the middle or bottom layers.
- Decorate the cake after placing on a turntable.
- Use a strong/sturdy scraper to scrape down the excess frosting on the sides to create the semi naked effect.
- Refrigerate the frosted cake to set properly before topping with ganache. You can even bake the cake in advance and frost the next day to manage time.
- And make sure to bring the cake back to room temperature before serving.
This is one of the best cakes I have ever tasted. They are moist inside, and the layered frosting makes it so rich with flavour. The dark chocolate ganache levels out the sweetness of the frosting and balances well with the chocolate cake and hazelnut flavour. And the crunchy Ferrero Rocher makes it perfect for any party/celebrations or even as your dessert.
Enjoy baking, Happy Caking…!!!
Don’t forget to check out my other Blog Anniversary special cakes:
- 2018 – Matcha Cake with Buttercream Frosting and White Chocolate Matcha Drip
- 2019 – Neapolitan Ombre Cake
Follow me on Instagram, try out the recipes and tag #pepperdelightblog to all your pictures of Pepper Delight recipes you prepare. Rate below if you love it…!
Chocolate Cake with a Chocolate Hazelnut frosting in a semi naked style, topped with crunchy Ferrero Rocher and a dark chocolate ganache dripping around the edges.
- 1½ cup flour
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- 1½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¾ cup cocoa powder
- ¾ cup unsalted butter (softened at room temperature)
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- 3 eggs (at room temperature)
- 1½ cup buttermilk (at room temperature)
- 3 tsp milk
- 1½ tsp vanilla extract
- 4 oz mascarpone cheese (at room temperature)
- 1¼ stick unsalted butter (softened at room temperature)
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar
- 1 cup chocolate hazelnut spread (like Nutella)
- 1-3 tbsp milk
- 4 oz dark chocolate
- ½ cup heavy cream (at room temperature)
- Ferrero Rocher chocolates
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Preheat oven to 350 degree F.
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Line three 6 inch pans with parchment paper, apply butter to the pan and set aside.
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In a medium bowl, combine dry ingredients by sifting flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt. Set aside.
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In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat butter until smooth and creamy. Add the granulated sugar and brown sugar, beat until combined.
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Beat in the eggs one at a time, followed by adding vanilla extract and milk.
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Add the dry ingredients alternating with buttermilk and beat until they combine well.
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Pour into the prepared pans and bake for 30-35 mins until a toothpick or a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
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Unmold the cakes carefully to a wire rack and allow them to cool completely.
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Beat butter until smooth and creamy.
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Add the powdered sugar, mascarpone cheese and hazelnut spread, beat until it turns out smooth and creamy.
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Add milk as needed for desired consistency. Make sure that the frosting is not runny or too thick, it should be spreadable.
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If the frosting seems loose, refrigerate it for some time to thicken.
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Break the chocolate into small pieces and combine with heavy cream.
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Temper the chocolate mix by either setting the bowl over a pan of simmering water, or microwave at a 30 second interval and stirring continuously until it completely melts.
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Ensure not to overheat or burn the mix as it will split and become unusable. Once melted, keep stirring to bring its temperature down until smooth and silky.
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Level the top surface of all the cakes by shaving off the uneven portions.
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Place your cake base on a turntable/cake stand.
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Apply little frosting on the center of the base and spread. This helps the cake to stick and not slide off.
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Place the bottom cake on the center on the cake base.
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Apply a generous amount of frosting on top of the cake in the center and level it leaving ½ inch gap from the edges of the cake with a ¾ to 1 inch thickness.
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Place the middle layer cake on top and press gently so that the excess frosting oozes out of the sides. Repeat step 5.
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Place the third/final cake upside down on top of the frosting, so that the flat bottom of the cake faces upwards. Gently press and using a spatula spread the oozed out frosting around the sides of the cake.
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Now apply a very thin layer of frosting on top and around the cake, starting from the bottom to the top. Scrape down the excess frosting using a scraper to create the semi naked effect. Finish with a small coating on top.
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Refrigerate it for 30 minutes to set properly.
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Pour the ganache over the chilled frosted cake. Quickly spread the ganache to the sides to create a polish finish on the top and to create the drip effect. Avoid further spreading.
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Decorate with Ferrero Rocher.
- Grease your pan properly to avoid any cracks or holes in your cake. This helps the cake to slide through the sides of the pan easily.
- Pick the cake with the prettiest bottom for your topmost layer. Use the ones with cracks or holes for the middle or bottom layers.
- Decorate the cake after placing on a turntable.
- Use a strong/sturdy scraper to scrape down the excess frosting on the sides to create the semi naked effect.
- Refrigerate the frosted cake to set properly before topping with ganache. You can even bake the cake in advance and frost the next day to manage time.
- And make sure to bring the cake back to room temperature before serving.
This cake was the best cake I had till date. Lucky me to have a master chef in your neighborhood!!
HaHa…I am lucky to have you here to experiment all my recipes…Thank You Apoorv 🙂
This comment has me very excited to make this cake for my dad’s name day soon!
I will let you know how it turns out!!
Sure Monika, Hope everybody likes it…!
After 35 minutes inside still liquid. What did I wrong?
Hi Koko, few factors contribute to your cake being uncooked; Over temperature is the most likely problem, in such cases increase the cooking time and bake till a toothpick test comes clean.
Looks yummy. Happy First Anniversary
Thank You so much Praseeth 🙂
Happy anniversary!
Too bad I’m not in the neighborhood like Apporv, I need a slice!!!
Hey Makos, let me know if you happen to be in town. I would be happy to bake one for you. Thank You so much for your wonderful comments !! 🙂
Wow wow!!! This cake looks amazing and too delicious. We will catch a flight to your place, the next time you plan to bake something. 😀 Kudos!!!
Sure, anytime 🙂 … Thank You chetta…!!
Amazing recipe! It was my first semi naked cake, and we preferred on top to be hazelnuts not Ferrero Rocher, everything is absolutely stunning about this recipe – the taste, the texture! I was just not so sure what it is the buttermilk in Bulgaria so I used just a normal milk.
Thank You so much Michaela for trying out my recipe and posting your feedback. So glad that you liked it. You made my day :-).
You can easily make buttermilk at home, by mixing milk with lemon juice, which is infact removing the cream content from milk.
If you don’t have buttermilk just use normal greek yogurt and thin it with milk till it has the consistency of thicker than milk but thinner than yoghurt.
It’s pretty much just drinkable yoghurt. In the NL we drink it like you would with a glass of milk in the morning..
Hi I was wondering what brand of cocoa you used and what brand of chocolate
Hello Rubi, I have used Nestle brand for both cocoa powder and chocolate; Nestle 100% Pure Cocoa powder & Nestle Chocolate Baking Bar (62% cacao).
Hi, Do you have any suggestions on how to modify the recipe for an 8 inch cake pan? Thanks!
Hello, it again depends on how many 8 inch cakes you plan to layer, and will have to accordingly calculate it manually. For a single 8 inch cake recipe I can point you to my Chocolate Cake with Dulce De Leche recipe. That is for a 9 inch cake, but pour the batter upto 3/4th of ur pan’s height and discard the rest.
Id like
To know this too as I have 3, 8 inch pans to make this cake and don’t know how long to bake them for. Can someone please tell me?!
Hi Amy, for an 8 inch cake you can use a 9 inch recipe and fill the batter to 3/4th of the pan’s height, and discard the rest.
I suggest you follow my Chocolate Cake with Dulce De Leche recipe as it’s the same cake in a 9 inch size, and multiply the measurements by 3.
Hi, this cake looks amazing! Can the frosting be made a few days in advance? Or is it better to frost the entire cake and then serve it the next day?
Yes Sana, you can do both. You can refrigerate the frosting in advance, but will have to bring it back to room temperature and whisk it once before spreading onto the cake.
The cake can also be refrigerated in advance, make sure its at room temp before serving. You can refer my recipe notes for details.
Hello, your cake looks yummy!! We don’t have mascarpone cheese available here.. so , can I use cream cheese instead!! Please help
Hi, it looks so yummy… we don’t get mascarpone cheese here easily can I use almarai cream cheese instead… please help…thank u
Sorry for the late reply Mahwish, I am currently traveling on vacation with limited internet access. Mascarpone cheese can be found in any International stores, but otherwise you can make your own with cream cheese. Check this link https://www.nigella.com/ask/substitute-for-mascarpone-in-tiramisu. I haven’t used Almarai, but if it’s a spread then your frosting might become runny, so I suggest using original cream cheese.
This cake was amazing! I used the cake batter recipe and made a naked cake with vanilla frosting. Came out wonderful!
Thank You so much Tziona…I am so happy that you liked it 🙂
This looks fantastic. Could you please write me the recipe in grams rather than cups?
Thank You Megan!!
I generally follow cup measurements and use tools like the link below to covert when needed:
http://dish.allrecipes.com/cup-to-gram-conversions/
Hello love your site,,,haven’t tried your recipes yet,,, but would like to know how long
I can keep the Semi Naked Cake for,, as I make them for the family which I have to travel afew days to get to. Thanking you
Thank You Maureen…!
This being a frosted cake, has to be refrigerated once baked so that the frosting/icing stays tact. I wouldn’t recommend storing it refrigerated for more than 4-5 days.
Hi! I made this cake today and it turned out soooooo soooooo good. Was gone within minutes. Thank you!
This is going to be my go to chocolate cake recipe forever.
That’s wonderful. Thank You Asma for trying out my recipe and posting your feedback. So glad you liked it 🙂
Made this Sunday for my sons 16th it was gorgeous I used 9 inch cake tin and doubled the quantities so had 5 layers! I used plain flour so hope this was correct as didn’t raise much but was delicious x
That’s GREAT…I am so glad it turned out well. And Yes, I have used plain flour, which dont rise too much.
Thank You so much for trying out this recipe and posting your feedback.
Hi,
Planning to make this cake, just need to ask u what difference will it make if I don’t use brown sugar and use granulated sugar instead..
Nd is there a substitute of eggs in this cake..
Btw, the cake looks yum..
Hi Rashmi,
Brown sugar has it’s own distinct color and flavor and that will change a bit when substituting with granulated sugar, but you can definitely substitute and the sweetness will remain the same.
I have not tried out any eggless cakes and so cannot guarantee how it will turn out, but some of the common substitutes are tofu, bananas, and applesauce.
I don’t have an electric mixer. Can I make this without an electric/standing mixe?
Hi Cassie, you can still make this cake even though you do not have a stand mixer. Just that you will have to put in more manual effort to beat the ingredients manually so as to achieve the right consistency.
Hi Akhila I’m working on the the chocolate hazelnut cake right now and unfortunately the cake in the oven wasn’t set and liquids I don’t know what went wrong but I really appreciate if you give me some hints or any explanation will be appreciated.
Thanx , Amal
Hi Amal, multiple factors contribute to a cake not baked properly; wrong measurement of ingredients, batter not mixed well, oven temperature, etc. I wouldn’t be able to exactly tell what went wrong, but if your cake isn’t cooked enough I would suggest you extend the bake time till the toothpick test comes out clean.
I really like the look of this cake and wondering what is the best option to modify as I would like at least 30 min small serves. Just larger cake tins or different shape? Thanks
Thanks Nat. It’s up to you, i would probably do two batches as there would be no confusion with the measurements. Enjoy!
Please can you cobvert cups to grammes?
Thank You Imogen for reaching out to me. I generally follow cup measurements and use tools like the link below to convert when needed:
http://dish.allrecipes.com/cup-to-gram-conversions/
This cake looks amazing!
It’s my son’s 19th birthday in a few weeks so I have been doing some research on flavours he asked for. After showing him a number of cakes, yours is the one he wanted 🙂
I must admit, this is not the normal type of cake we would eat. A little too much sugar and other ingredients we don’t normally use however, it’s his birthday and the stomach wants what the stomach wants 🙂 🙂
I’m quite sure everybody will love it!
Thank you <3
Hi Nitsy, This is no regular cake and its a party special which I baked for my blog’s anniversary and I guess a little extra sugar can go with every celebration! I really hope your son loves it, Happy Birthday to him in advance.
Ah yes, everything in moderation 🙂
Thank you for the well wishes!
The best cake ever! I tried this for my son s second birthday and turned out really well. Thank you so much ☺️
Thank you so much Karthika..so glad it came out well 🙂
Made this for my brother’s birthday cause he loves decadent chocolate cake. This did not disappoint! Awesome recipe. Doubled the recipe to make 8” in 3 layers. I had one layer left over so frosted it and sent it home with birthday boy. I meant to add chopped hazelnuts in between layers for some crunch and more hazelnut flavor but forgot…oops. This cake was such a hit. Will definitely make it again for the next chocolate lover!!
I am so glad you loved this recipe 🙂 Adding chopped hazelnuts sounds like a wonderful idea. I am pretty sure that crunchiness takes this cake to next level. Thank You so much Joann for trying out this recipe and posting your wonderful feedback. You really made my day <3
Hey! Can’t wait to make this on the weekend but theres only 4 of us so I’m going to make a mini one using my 4 inch cake pan. Do you know what the measurements would be for 4 layers of 4 inch cake?
Many thanks!
Hello Leana,
Honestly I havent worked with a 4 inch pan before. So I calculated pan volume measurements and found out that you can use half the measurements of this whole recipe for two 4-inch cake pans. Or you can use my Chocolate Cake recipe from here (https://www.pepperdelight.com/chocolate-cake-with-dulce-de-leche/), which is equivalent to two 4-inch cake pans and pour the batter by giving it some it some space to rise. If there is any leftover batter, you can either discard it or make some cupcakes.
(Please note, these are according to volume calculations).
This cake was hands down the best cake I have ever tasted! To say it was divine is an understatement! I made this cake for my twin boys birthday and everyone loved it and where all asking me what bakery I picked it up from. If you are thinking of giving this cake a try, don’t think. Do it! Thank you so much Akhila for sharing your wonderful recipe! ❤️❤️
Thank You Thank You so much Tia! Your comment just made my day. Am so happy to know that everybody loved it, and belated birthday wished to your boys… ❤️
My 12 year old daughter Zara made this cake all by herself and no one could believe it was homemade. She followed the instructions to the T.
Thank you for such a fantastic recipe.
That’s so lovely Pamela, your feedback just made my day :-). Way to go Zara!!
This cake is amazing!!! I have already commented once before, that was after making the cake twice. And since then I have made it everytime there is a birthday in the family. It never disappoints. Perfect texture and the Nutella frosting is one of a kind! Thank you so much for your recipe.
Aww That’s a huge compliment Asma 🙂 Thank You so much for this wonderful feedback.
Hi I am from Delhi, when you say buttermilk what does that mean?? Please suggest a brand or something that I can buy. Trying this recipe for a friend’s birthday.
Hi, Buttermilk a.k.a unflavoured/unsalted Chaas, you can easily make it at home as well. I am based out of US and so not familiar with the local brands there.
Hi Im in the middle of making this for hubbys 50th tomorrow How much is 1 1/4 stick of butter???
Hi Tracy, here is the conversion for 1 1/4 stick butter – 1 cup + 4 tbsp
Do you use cake flour or all-purpose?
All purpose flour
hocolate Hazelnut Frosting
4 oz mascarpone cheese (at room temperature)
1¼ stick unsalted butter (softened at room temperature)
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 cup chocolate hazelnut spread (like Nutella)
1-3 tbsp milk
hi, could I know how many grams is 1 1/4 stick of butter?
I live in Australia, I will use australian cups but really I do not have idea sbout stick of butter
thank you
serena
Hello Serena,
1 stick of butter is 113 gm and 1/4 stick butter is 28.3 g. So you need 141.3 gm butter for this recipe. Also you can use online conversion tools for the same if you have any doubt.
I have made the wonderful cake 3 times and all three times the center collapses once it starts to cool. I’ve calibrated my oven and using fresh ingredients. What am I doing wrong? How long do you beat the butter then sugars. How long do you mix once everything comes together? I’m at a loss. Greatly appreciate any advice you can provide. Thank you