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oday I’m making delicious egg free chocolate and hazelnut cake enriched with hazelnut crunch and gianduia chocolate ganache. Yummy!
What is a Travel Cake?
In France this sort of cake is usually called gateau de voyage – in translation – a travel cake. These are baked in a loaf pan, like, for example lemon cake or fruitcake.
Now, why they are called travel cakes, you ask? That is a great question and I’m happy to report that I know the answer! You see, in 17th century there was this French aristocrat by the name of Marquise de Sévigné, and in her correspondence with her daughter she started to use the term “gateau de voyage” (or travel cake). The thing is, at that time it took a long time, in fact a whole week, to travel from Brittany – a French region where madame Sévigné lived – to the Palace of Versailles in Paris. That was a journey that the Marquise made several times a year.
To make her long journeys more enjoyable, she had asked her pastry chef to prepare cakes that could be kept over longer period of time such as pound cake or fruit cake. The rest is – as they say – history! Now – I bet that you don’t know which highly popular cake is one of the earliest travel cakes ever created? It’s the financier! This delicious, yet unbelievably easy to make little wonder is one of my personal favorites!
My Egg Free Chocolate and Hazelnut Cake
Now, the egg free chocolate and hazelnut cake I’m making today is also very simple to make! We will start with making delicious hazelnut crunch that will be the bottom of my cake. Then, we’ll make a soft, moist and incredibly tasty chocolate and hazelnut cake. Finally, we will improve it with gianduia chocolate ganache filling! OMG, does the yumminess ever end!? Let’s find out! So, let’s make a delicious egg free chocolate and hazelnut cake!
Egg Free Chocolate and Hazelnut Cake Recipe
by:Tereza Alabanda,The Pastry Maestra
PRINT PDF (EN) ISPIŠI PDF (HR)Prep. time : 15 minutes
Cook time : 45 minutes
Ready in 60 minutes plus cooling
Level : Basic
Ingredients: Hazelnut Crunch:- All purpose flour 30g (1oz)
- Soft brown sugar 25g (0.9oz)
- Softened butter 30g (1oz)
- Finely chopped hazelnuts 40g (1.4oz)
- All purpose flour 100g (3.5oz)
- Hazelnut flour 55g (2oz)
- Soft brown sugar 85g (3oz)
- Cocoa powder 25g (0.9oz)
- Baking powder 5g (1Tsp)
- Unsweetened apple puree 100g (3.5oz)
- Sour cream 85g (3oz)
- Honey 55g (2oz)
- Rum 6g (1.5Tsp)
- Butter, melted 55g (2oz)
- Dark chocolate, melted 30g (1oz)
- Gianduia chocolate 270g (9.5oz)
- Cream (35%) 120g (4.2oz)
- Butter 55g (2oz)
- To make hazelnut crunch put softened butter into a bowl, add soft brown sugar and mix with a spatula. Add flour and finely chopped hazelnuts and continue mixing until the mixture becomes uniform. Put crunch onto a sheet of parchment paper, cover it with another piece of parchment paper and press it lightly with your palm. Roll out the pastry to 3mm (1/8″) thickness using an adjustable rolling pin. Then put it in the fridge for about 20 minutes, until it sets.
- When the crunch is cold, cut out two 9cmx9cm (3.5″x3.5″) squares that will be the bottoms of your cakes. Transfer the crunch squares onto a baking tray lined with perforated silicone mat and place 9cmx9cm (3.5″x3.5″) mold onto each square so the crunch doesn’t spread during baking. Bake them at 180°C (350°F) for 5 minutes.
- While the crunch is baking make chocolate and hazelnut cake. Put soft brown sugar, flour, hazelnut flour, cocoa powder and baking powder into a bowl and stir well with a whisk. In another bowl put apple puree, honey, sour cream and rum, and stir well with a whisk.
- Add liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients, and stir with a spatula to combine. Finally mix in melted butter and melted dark chocolate.
- Line the molds with parchment paper, and distribute the cake mixture onto the baked crunch using a piping bag without tip. The molds should be filled to about 2/3 of their height. Then, I smooth the top using a flat silicone spatula. Cover the molds with another perforated silicone mat, and put another baking tray onto it. To make it heavier, fill the tray with baking weights. That will prevent your cakes from bulging in the middle during baking.
- Bake cakes at 170°C (340°F) for about 40 minutes. Then take them out and leave them to cool down.
- To make gianduia chocolate ganache, melt gianduia chocolate in the microwave on low heat. Add warm cream, and stir with a whisk until the mixture becomes uniform. Then add softened butter and stir until it melts.
- Make a hole in the middle of each cake using 3cm (1.2″) in diameter round cutter. Be careful not to cut through the crunch – you just want to make a hole in the cake. Put half of the ganache into a piping bag without tip, and fill the hole all the way to the top. Shake the cake to level the ganache and put everything in the fridge until the ganache sets.
- When the cake is chilled put the remaining ganache into a piping bag fitted with star tip, and pipe some rosettes onto the cake. Decorate it with some chopped roasted hazelnuts.
- There, your delicious egg free chocolate and hazelnut cakes are done! Enjoy!
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