Nutella Pound Cake

You can probably relate to this but you know when you come across a recipe and think, oh my gosh that sounds amazing, that’s exactly what I thought when I saw this recipe for Nutella Pound Cake. Could anything sound better? Especially for those of us who adore Nutella and like myself are guilty of eating it out of the jar with a spoon. The eager and excited baker in me couldn’t wait to make this cake and went into town just to buy the key ingredient, Nutella.

Unfortnately my much excitement was soon diminished when after adding the layers of batter and Nutella I realised there was way too much mixture for the size pan the recipe gives but it was too late to remedy. Of course as expected the mixture over-flowed. My next incident came when it was time to turn out the cake and half was left in the pan. Luckily I was able to rescue the half from the pan in one piece and do some first aid patch work. Unbelievably I read online about others having similar problem with this recipe and someone had posted about using grease-proof paper to bandage her cake while it cooled and it amazingly reattached the two halves. At this stage I was willing to give anything a go to salvage my cake and guess what? It worked!!

I won’t be defeated and I will be making this cake again but next time I will use my bigger loaf tin and also line the loaf pan. After its traumatic start this moist buttery cake swirled with luscious Nutella really delivered everything I imagined it would and more. The pics don't do the flavour or cake justice but we all have the odd baking disaster, you bake and learn!

Nutella Pound Cake

Ingredients
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
¾ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 ¼ cups sugar
One 13-ounce jar Nutella

Preheat the oven to 325°. Lightly grease and flour a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan, tapping out any excess flour. In a glass measuring cup, lightly beat the eggs with the vanilla. In a medium bowl, whisk the 1 1/2 cups of flour with the baking powder and salt.

In a large bowl, using a handheld mixer, beat the butter with the sugar at medium-high speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. With the mixer at medium-low speed, gradually beat in the egg mixture until fully incorporated. Add the flour mixture in 3 batches, beating at low speed between additions until just incorporated. Continue to beat for 30 seconds longer.

Spread one-third of the batter in the prepared pan, then spread half of the Nutella on top. Repeat with another third of the batter and the remaining Nutella. Top with the remaining batter. Lightly swirl the Nutella into the batter with a butter knife. Do not overmix.

Bake the cake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Invert the cake onto a wire rack, turn it right side up and let cool completely, about 2 hours. Cut the cake into slices and serve.

Recipe from Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman