Tessa's Recipe Rundown
Taste: Like a chocolate hazelnut dream!
Texture: The cake itself is ultra rich, moist, and fudgy, while the frosting is thick and creamy.
Ease: I think this is among the easiest homemade cakes – and both the cake layers and the buttercream can be made in advance.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe: Beautiful, decadent cake worthy of any special celebration.
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This homemade Nutella Cake is what every Nutella-lover’s dreams are made of.
Rich, ultra-moist chocolate cake layers, iced with plenty of creamy Nutella frosting, make for a decadently nutty, chocolaty indulgence.
Topped with edible flowers, this is a true show-stopping cake. You can also top with Ferrero Rocher candies, Easter eggs, or anything you like!
This heavenly cake is the perfect Easter dessert, Mother’s Day cake, birthday cake, or stunning centerpiece for any special occasion.
Sprinkle of Science
How to Make Nutella Cake
How to Make Moist Cake
Be sure to measure your dry ingredients properly. This is key to ensuring your cake is moist. I highly recommend measuring using a digital kitchen scale, but if you don’t have one, use the spoon and level method.
Also, do not reduce the sugar. Sugar doesn’t just sweeten; it is crucial to the texture of your baked goods, too. Learn more about sugar in baking here.
The Cocoa Powder
We are using unsweetened cocoa powder in the Nutella Cake batter and the buttercream. Unsweetened cocoa powder is the same thing as natural cocoa powder. You can learn more about the differences between Unsweetened and Dutch-Processed Cocoa Powders here.
The Nutella
I have not tested this Nutella Cake recipe using any natural or store-brand chocolate hazelnut spread, so I can’t say for sure how well those alternatives will work here. I recommend sticking with real Nutella, but if you do experiment with substitutions, let me know in the comments below!
The Best Cake Pans
I love my Fat Daddio’s anodized aluminum cake pans for any cake recipe!
Making the Cake Layers
This cake recipe doesn’t use the typical “creaming method’ where you beat butter and sugar together. Instead, we boil half of the ingredients together. This makes this recipe super simple and practically foolproof. Be sure to allow the mixture to cool slightly before proceeding with the recipe.
Leveling & Cutting Cake Layers
To make this Nutella Cake as seen in the photos, trim the tops of each baked, cooled cake layer and then slice each layer in half horizontally, for a total of 4 even layers. A cake leveler like this one makes easy work of leveling and cutting your layers. If you don’t have one, a serrated knife will work too.
Alternatively, feel free to simply make a 2 layer cake.
The Nutella Buttercream Frosting
A stand mixer makes easy work of making the Nutella Buttercream, but a hand mixer will work too – just be sure to use a deep mixing bowl.
Do not skip sifting the sugar and cocoa – it’s essential for a smooth frosting!
How to Decorate Nutella Cake
This cake is ridiculously easy to decorate! Simply scoop the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a large plain decorating tip and pipe an even layer of frosting on each piece of cake. Using a plain tip (instead of just spreading it on with a spatula) creates those clean-looking frosting layers.
Edible flowers are such a fun, beautiful, and easy way to decorate this cake for Easter, Mother’s Day, or birthday parties. You can find edible flowers during the spring season at your local farmer’s market or some specialty gourmet or bakery supply stores.
You could also decorate with seasonal chocolates, like Easter eggs or Valentine’s Day hearts. Ferrero Rocher chocolate candies are another fun decoration on top! I like to pile these on and scatter some lightly toasted whole and chopped hazelnuts, for added crunch and hazelnut flavor.
Can I Frost the Whole Cake?
Sure! To frost the whole cake, increase the buttercream recipe by 1 1/2 and follow my cake assembly and decorating instructions from my Valentine’s Day Cake post.
How to Make Nutella Cake Ahead of Time
The cake layers can be made a day ahead of time before assembling. Cover each layer, uncut, with plastic wrap and store at a cool room temperature until you’re ready to assemble. Do not refrigerate unfrosted cake layers as this will dry them out.
You can also wrap each layer well in plastic wrap, store inside an airtight container, and freeze for up to 1 month.
The buttercream can be stored inside an airtight container and refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 1 month. If frozen, defrost in the fridge overnight. Let come to room temperature, then re-whip for a couple of minutes before using.
Serving Nutella Cake
Nutella Cake can sit in a covered cake stand for up to 8 hours at a cool room temperature. After that, it should be refrigerated. If you plan on serving at an outdoor gathering, chill well beforehand, so it’ll slowly come to room temperature and avoid the frosting melting.
More Cake Recipes You’ll Love:
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Ingredients
For the cake:
- 2 1/2 cups (500 grams) light brown sugar
- 8 ounces (227 grams) unsweetened chocolate, chopped
- 2 sticks (227 grams) unsalted butter
- 1/3 cup (33 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup (137 grams) Nutella
- 2 teaspoons instant espresso powder (optional)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 cups (472 grams) water
- 4 large eggs, at room temperature
- 3 cups (381 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
For the buttercream:
- 16 ounces (454 grams) unsalted butter, at a cool room temperature
- 4 cups (500 grams) powdered sugar, sifted
- 1 cup (100 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
- 1 cup (275 grams) Nutella
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- Edible flowers, for decorating
Instructions
Make the cake:
- In a large saucepan, stir together the sugar, chocolate, butter, cocoa powder, Nutella, espresso powder, baking soda, and water. Heat over medium heat for 3 minutes and stir until the sugar dissolves. Increase heat to high, bring to a boil, then remove from heat. Pour mixture into a large heatproof mixing bowl and set aside to cool for about 20 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Generously grease and line two 8-inch cake pans with parchment paper rounds.
- Once cool, stir in the eggs one at a time. Gently stir in the flour and salt. Divide the batter between the prepared pans. Bake for 40 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted to the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes then flip the cakes out onto cooling racks to finish cooling.
Make the buttercream:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the butter and sifted powdered sugar. Mix on low speed until well blended and then increase the speed to medium and beat for another 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add the sifted cocoa powder, Nutella, and salt and beat on medium for 1 minute, or until smooth.
Assemble the cake:
- Use a large serrated knife or cake leveler to level the top of each cake, then cut each cake layer in half horizontally, to make 4 layers. Place the first cake layer on a cake platter or turntable. Spread with a fourth of the buttercream and top with another cake layer. Repeat with all four cake layers. Spread the remaining frosting evenly over the top of the cake. Decorate with edible flowers, seasonal candy, Ferrero Rocher, or whatever your heart desires.
Photos by Constance Higley.
And then frosted with buttercream frosting? Thank you
Thanks for sharing. I love this Cake and the way you present make me uhmmmm!
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How can i make it eggless??
Thanks Tessa, I made this for a 2nd birthday! It was a real hit, there were lots of chocolate and Nutella lovers there. I added a sprinkle of dark chocolate bits on top of the Nutella buttercream.
I will tag you in my post, feel free to share.
I made this cake for a co-worker that loves Nutella. The cake was very rich and tasted great, definitely have a glass of milk with it! My only small complaint was that I took notice of the gram quantities listed with the ingredients. I measured the flour and powdered sugar the way I always do and found that they weighed less than the grams indicated. I didn’t use the full weight stated for either but did add a little extra. I believe that was a mistake. The cake turned out dense and the frosting was too thick. If I make this again, I will stick to using the measuring cup method for the flour and powdered sugar in the hopes of making the cake a little lighter and the frosting easier to spread.
I made it for church and they loved it. So easy to make. Five stars from me
James
I loved it, chocolate nutella cake. Thansk for sharing the information with us.
good chocolate-nutella cake. We loved it. Thansk for sharing the information with us.
This recipe looks delish! I’m going to give it try this weekend. I have a question regarding the powdered sugar… when you say “4 cups (500 grams) powdered sugar, sifted” do you measure 4 cups of powdered sugar and then sift it or do you sift powdered sugar and then measure it ?
thanks and looking forward to trying this 🙂
Yikes! Just made this cake. It’s a disaster. What happened? Weighs a ton, greasy, and didn’t rise. Also not very sweet. Is that the way it’s suppose to be? never had a failure and have done A LOT of baking. Your recipes have always served me well.
It definitely sounds like something went wrong here!!
It happened the same to me.
I left the chocolate mixture cool for more than 20 minutes. It was still warm but I thought it was ok because I left it more time. I whisk the eggs one at a time and then the flour and salt slowly with the whisker but it still had lumps, so I did a little more whisking. Could It be that was the reason to be like that, heavy and not fluffy at all.
This looks amazing!
how many cups of batter does this yield?
Can the Nutella layer cake be made in a bundt pan? And then frosted with buttercream frosting? Thank you
This recipe wasn’t formulated for a bundt pan, I’m not sure if that would turn out well.