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Banana Choco Hazelnut Cake

July 29, 2014 by Tessa Huff

Our contributor, Tessa Huff, is sharing a chocolate hazelnut cake recipe. Banana cake with chocolate ganache filling and chocolate hazelnut buttercream.

Banana Chocolate Hazelnut Cake | Recipe by Tessa Huff for TheCakeBlog.com

Banana Chocolate Hazelnut Cake | Recipe by Tessa Huff for TheCakeBlog.com

It’s the peak of summer, and I am sure we are all starting to feel the heat.  You are most likely reaching for all your favorite frozen treats every afternoon.  One of my favorites is a frozen chocolate-dipped banana.  Yumm!  I’ve been seeing recipes for bite-sized varieties pop up on several of the desserts blogs lately, so I was inspired to make you all a cake version.

Banana Chocolate Hazelnut Cake | Recipe by Tessa Huff for TheCakeBlog.com

So this cake might not actually be frozen or super cool and refreshing, but it is extremely flavorful.  And fairly sinful.  So if you can’t beat the heat, then you might as well indulge.  If you are courageous enough to brave turning on the oven, then you deserve a slice of this rich and extremely moist cake.

Banana Chocolate Hazelnut Cake | Recipe by Tessa Huff for TheCakeBlog.com

Like the frozen treat, layers of banana cake are paired with dark chocolate.  To elevated this cake, I created a chocolate-hazelnut buttercream.  The buttercream was used in the filling as well as frosting.  Might as well send a spoonful straight to your mouth while you are at, it’s that good.  I’ve garnished the cake with chopped, toasted hazelnuts for added texture and extra crunch.  Serve with salted caramel sauce to tie it all together.

Banana Chocolate Hazelnut Cake | Recipe by Tessa Huff for TheCakeBlog.comBanana Chocolate Hazelnut Cake | Recipe by Tessa Huff for TheCakeBlog.com

BANANA CHOCO HAZELNUT CAKE
a recipe by Tessa Huff

For the Banana Cake:
3 ripe bananas
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt or sour cream

  1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter and lightly flour two 6″ round pans.
  2. Mash ripe bananas in a small bowl with a fork and set aside.
  3. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt until well combined. Set aside.
  4. Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter until smooth.  Add sugar and beat on med-high until pale and fluffy (2-3 minutes).
  5. With the mixer on low, add eggs one at a time, fully incorporating after each addition. Add vanilla extract.
  6. Stop the mixer.  Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.
  7. With the mixer on low, add in half of the dry ingredients.
  8. Mix in the yogurt or sour cream.
  9. Add in the remaining dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
  10. Fold in the mashed bananas until combined.
  11. Pour batter into prepared pans and bake until golden – about 22-25 minutes for the recommended size.
  12. Place cakes on wire rack to cool for 10 minutes then turn out onto wire rack to cool completely.

 

For the Chocolate Ganache:
8 ounces chocolate – about 65% cacao
6 ounces heavy cream

Chop the chocolate and place in a heat-safe bowl.  Heat the cream over medium-low until it starts to simmer.  Be careful not the burn the cream!  Once it starts to come to a low simmer, pour over the chopped chocolate.  Let sit 30 seconds before whisking together until smooth.  Let cool before use.

 

For the Nutella Buttercream:
3 egg whites
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, cubed and softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup chocolate hazelnut spread

  1. Place egg whites and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer.  Whisk until combined.
  2. Fill a medium saucepan with a few inches of water and place over medium heat. Place the mixing bowl on top of the saucepan to cream a double-boiler.
  3. Whisking constantly, heat the egg mixture until it registers 160 degrees on a candy thermometer. Carefully transfer the bowl onto the stand mixer.
  4. Using the whisk attachment, beat the egg white mixture on high speed for 8 to 10 minutes until the bowl is no longer warm to the touch and the meringue is fluffy, glossy and holds a stiff peak.
  5. Swap out the whisk attachment for the paddle.
  6. With the mixer on low, slowly add cubed butter and mix until incorporated.
  7. Add vanilla and chocolate hazelnut spread.   Whip on medium-high until silky and smooth, about 3 to 5 minutes.

NOTE: The buttercream may look like curdled or runny after adding the butter.  Keep mixing until it is completely smooth.

For the Assembly:
salted caramel sauce of choice
toasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped

  1. Slice cooled banana cakes in half, horizontally, to create four layers of cake.
  2. Spread a layer of ganache on top of the bottom layer of cake.
  3. Add a layer of buttercream on top of the ganache.
  4. Place the second layer of cake on top of the buttercream and repeat.
  5. Ice with the remaining buttercream.
  6. Garnish with chopped, toasted hazelnuts – if desired.
  7. Serve with salted caramel sauce!

 

Banana Chocolate Hazelnut Cake | Recipe by Tessa Huff for TheCakeBlog.com

Banana Chocolate Hazelnut Cake | Recipe by Tessa Huff for TheCakeBlog.com


 

YOU MAY ALSO ENJOY:
Chocolate Turtle Cake
London Fog Cake
Banana Split Cake
S’mores Cake
Chocolate & Peanut Butter Cake

July 29, 2014 by Tessa Huff

Tessa Huff , CONTRIBUTOR

Tessa Huff is a professional cake designer and lover of all things art and design. She particularly enjoys creating edible decorations, sugar flowers, and unique flavor pairings with fresh, seasonal flavors. Read more about Tessa on her bio page.

connect with Tessa :

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Comments

  1. Melanie @ Carmel Moments says

    July 29, 2014 at 4:43 pm

    This looks amazing! Love the flavor combo. Pinned!

  2. Carmen quinquilla says

    July 29, 2014 at 6:31 pm

    Wow…this looks delicious. Thanks for sharing!!!

  3. Rachel Skvaril says

    July 29, 2014 at 10:04 pm

    Love this recipe combo!!

  4. Carrie Pacini says

    August 8, 2014 at 6:30 pm

    This cake looks amazing!

  5. Alissa says

    August 19, 2014 at 8:00 am

    I made a gluten-free and dairy-free version of this cake and it turned out wonderfully! The flavor combination was wonderful, I got great feedback on it, and my uncle even ate it for breakfast the next day 🙂 Thanks for the recipe!

    • Alyssa says

      February 13, 2017 at 11:42 am

      How did you make it dairy free? How did you substitute the yogurt? (I have to do the same thing this weekend)

  6. Lissa says

    September 28, 2014 at 6:29 pm

    This looks absolutely amazing and divine! Pinning!

  7. Monika says

    November 5, 2014 at 10:53 pm

    hi, is there supposed to be some hazelnuts in the sponge or something? i can only see some hazelnuts on the outside of the cake for the whole recipe? Looks great!

    • Carrie Sellman says

      November 7, 2014 at 7:15 am

      There is chocolate hazelnut spread in the frosting. Yum!

  8. Mrs. Baker says

    December 3, 2014 at 2:56 pm

    I made this cake, following the recipe exactly. To prepare my cake pans, I sprayed them with Pam Baking Spray with flour in it, then lined the bottoms of the pans with a circle of baking parchment and sprayed it. My cakes fell right out of the pans, no issue. The cakes took much longer to bake than the recipe said; I just kept checking until a toothpick came out of the cake clean. The top edges became hard and crusty when cool, so I just used a sharp steak knife to trim them off, no sweat.This recipe made way more ganache than you need to apply a “smear” to each layer, I would recommend cutting it down to 2/3 or even 1/2, unless you want a ton left over. The Nutella frosting came out perfect, my husband and I were licking the bowl! Assembled, my cake looked almost just like the recipe’s picture, and my family enjoyed it very much; rich, moist, dense, delicious! If you refrigerate it, as I did, make sure you leave it out for an hour before serving. Thank you for a great recipe, Tessa Huff!

  9. CW says

    December 10, 2014 at 10:12 pm

    I’ve tried to make this cake twice, both times the buttercream icing has turned out super runny and I don’t know why or how to fix it. Any thoughts/suggestions?

    • Carrie Sellman says

      December 11, 2014 at 9:06 am

      This buttercream is meringue based, meaning you make a meringue first and then add the butter and flavorings.

      You should have nice peaks after beating the egg and sugar mixture. Then it will ‘break’ and look runny or curdled when you add in the butter. Just keep mixing until it comes back together into a silky smooth texture. This can take 10 minutes sometimes!

      If it is still too runny, it can be caused by the mixture being too hot. Simply refrigerate it for a few minutes to cool it off (but don’t let it get cold and set up into a solid). Then mix it again.

      Hope this helps!

  10. Kris says

    February 14, 2015 at 9:10 pm

    The recipe instructions are not well written. The sponge I made following these instructions very carefully were no where near as thick as shown in the image. For the amount of chocolate you would spread on the layers, which is very little, there is way too much chocolate mixture left over – bit of a waste. As for the buttercream, very difficult to use as an icing, I believe something to set the mixture so it can be used as an icing is a must, especially if making/serving on a warm day.I believe the image presented of the cake is a bit deceiving to be honest. Although the flavour combinations go nicely, I would make some alterations to the recipe to make it more practical. Unless you are a very experienced baker – my suggestion is to think about this cake carefully before making it.

  11. Ellen says

    April 5, 2015 at 7:35 pm

    I made this cake today for my10 year old daughter’s birthday! It was fantastic!!!
    Thank you for a lovely free recipe!

  12. Secil says

    April 13, 2015 at 12:13 pm

    Hi Tessa,

    I follow your pinterest as well as your Instagram account and adore your cakes as well as all the photos.

    This one looks amazing too. oNE Question: How do you do the swirl pattern with the frosting on top of the cake? It looks so good but I can never find any tutorial on this type of technique. If you could describe it, I would appreciate it a lot.

    Thanks.

    Secil

  13. Joyce says

    May 15, 2015 at 4:13 pm

    The cakes are beautiful. However, I am more interested in the antique forks you photo the cakes with, especially the one with the banana choco hazelnut cake.. Do you know the maker and style of this fork. I am sure it is no longer available unless I get lucky in an antique store.

  14. Cynthia says

    May 20, 2015 at 4:09 pm

    That is the most amazing looking and sounding cake! Thank you for sharing!

  15. Kari says

    May 20, 2015 at 4:34 pm

    What a gorgeous cake!!
    Kari
    http://www.sweetteasweetie.com

  16. Sarah says

    May 20, 2015 at 4:46 pm

    This looks amazing!! Found this from Cupcakes & Cashmere’s post and I will definitely have to try this recipe out.

    xox

  17. simonacallas says

    June 22, 2015 at 11:49 pm

    I made this cake and I fell in love with it. It’s amazing, it’s incredibly rich in flavors and it tastes like Heaven! Thank you so much for the recipe <3

  18. Fiza Sheen Reyasat says

    July 22, 2015 at 2:27 am

    unusually amazing and teasingly mouthwatering!

  19. Aleta says

    August 17, 2015 at 1:28 am

    Thanks for the recipe! I made the cake and paired it with white chocolate cream cheese Italian meringue buttercream and salted caramel. SOOOOO good!! I will try the chocolate and hazelnut soon.

  20. Mary says

    September 14, 2015 at 9:13 pm

    I would suggest doubling this recipe for the cake or using a smaller pan. The layers were super thin and I wished I had double the recipe because they are waaaay too thing to cut in half.

    • Carrie Sellman says

      September 30, 2015 at 10:01 am

      This recipe calls for 6″ round pans, which are slightly smaller.

  21. Amanda says

    October 17, 2015 at 11:59 am

    Where is the caramel sauce recipe?

    • Carrie Sellman says

      October 27, 2015 at 10:17 am

      Since this recipe already involves several steps, we recommend using a store bought caramel sauce.

  22. Eden Passante says

    October 29, 2015 at 3:19 pm

    I love everything about this! The flavor combinations are amazing and it looks so pretty! Love!

  23. Rachel Beltz says

    October 29, 2015 at 10:33 pm

    I only have two 8 inch cake pans and one 9 inch springform pan… any help converting?

    • Carrie Sellman says

      November 10, 2015 at 8:18 am

      Generally speaking, you can multiply by 1.5 or 2 to bake this as an 8″ round.

  24. Sarah says

    January 11, 2016 at 9:28 pm

    I made this on the weekend, it turned out perfectly! Cake rose as expected and did not fall, however it did take quite a bit longer to bake. I only made half of the ganche, I find all recipes for this make way more than needed. The frosting was delish! Will definitely make again! Thank you for Sharing Tessa! 🙂

  25. Blososm says

    February 17, 2016 at 11:17 pm

    Have to say I’m disappointed in the directions. Especially for the buttercream, it isnt mentioned anyway to whisk until soft peaks. So now mine is super runny and I don’t think putting it in the fridge will help. Cake tastes nice though, took about an hour. I also had to double the recipe and used 20cm tins instead of 15

    • Carrie Sellman says

      February 24, 2016 at 2:50 pm

      We’ve updated the recipe to make things more clear. Thanks for the feedback.

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