Chocolate Nutella Cake with Whipped Cream

The chocolate base for this cake is the same as in the “Nutella” Brownies which I posted a few months ago… You can bake the “brownies” in a round cake tin if you want to use it as a cake.

After cooled, you can top it with sweetened whipped cream, turning it into a delicious cake.

It’s advisable to make this whipped cream cake a day in advance, and keep it, covered, in the refrigerator till serving time. Alternatively, you can serve the basic chocolate “brownies” as they are (cut into diamond shapes, or squares, or wedges, as you like, with a dollop of whipped cream on the side (or on top). In this case, you don’t have to prepare the cake a day in advance.

I will repeat here the basic recipe for the “Nutella” Brownies, but baked in a round cake tin.

Ingredients:

Brownie base

• 150 grams (5.25 ounces) butter
• 150 grams (5.25 ounces) bittersweet chocolate (in the U.S. use semi-sweet chocolate)
• 175 grams (6.10 ounces) “Nutella” chocolate-nut spread
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup of flour
• pinch of salt

Whipped cream topping

• 1 cup whipping cream
• 1/4 cup sugar
• some bittersweet chocolate for decoration

Preparation:

1. In a medium size pot, placed on another pot with water (the top pot should not touch the water in the bottom pot), place the butter and the chocolate. Heat carefully, until the chocolate and butter melt. Mix with whisk or large spoon.
2. Add the sugar and the Nutella spread, and mix with whisk.
3. Add the vanilla extract and the 4 eggs, one after the other, mixing with whisk till all four eggs are mixed into the chocolate mixture.
4. Add the flour and salt, and mix with whisk only till all the flour is incorporated.
5. Prepare a round baking pan – size: approximately 26 cm (9 or 10 inches). Grease the pan.
6. Pour in batter and bake in medium oven 180 C (350 F) for approx. 30 minutes, till firm.
7. When ready, remove from oven, and let cool on rack.

Preparation of whipped cream topping

1. Beat cold whipping cream in small bowl of mixer, beating till frothy.
2. Start adding, slowly, the 1/4 cup sugar, and beat till stiff.
3. Either spread the prepared whipped cream on the cooled cake, and then with prongs of fork, make nice lines for decoration, or alternatively, you can put the whipped cream in a pastry bag with a “flower tip” and make nice shapes of whipped cream on the top of the cake.
4. Can decorate with shaved chocolate, or alternatively (as in the photo above), you can melt some bittersweet chocolate, spread evenly in a thin layer, on a cookie tin lined with aluminum foil, place in refrigerator or freezer for 15 minutes till completely firm, and then quickly with a sharp knife, cut out triangles in different shapes and sizes. Place those triangles carefully and quickly (before they melt), on a plate or in a box, and freeze. While preparing the triangle decorations, be careful not to allow the chocolate to melt. You’ve gotta work fast here.
5. If making the chocolate triangles, after re-freezing them, stick them randomly around the top of the cake.
6. Serve and enjoy!