Vegan autumn hazelnut cake

Nothing is more autumnal than nuts and chocolate to me, and red leaves (finally a season with colours matching my hair!). I really love autumn, maybe also because it’s my birthday season and I am still a child at heart.

I designed this cake because I wanted something a bit complex to deal with but also neat looking so I could have fun with decorations.

The cake is a hazelnut and chocolate cake, with a tunnel of hazelnut ganache inside, topped with home made blueberry jam and topped with hazelnut sable biscuits, fresh blueberries and sugar leaves! (And a couple of glacé cherries because why not.

I hope you will try and enjoy it, we loved it so much, it didn’t last more than 48h.

Hazelnut cake

100g hazelnut flour

100g almond flour

200g flour

220g brown sugar

5g salt

6g baking powder

3g bicarbonate

230g butter – vegan, I used stork

160g yogurt (I used alpro Greek coconut but any vegan yogurt will do)

100g vegan hazelnut cream

100g melted chocolate

100g vegan cream (I used oatly, but also emlea works well

100g oat milk (any veg milk)

1tsp vanilla extract

Mi all dry.

Beat butter and sugar, then add yogurt and then vanilla and hazelnut cream.

Add in alternate batches the dry mix and the cream.

Bake at 160C fan around 55 minutes. Let it cool down above 30 minutes until unmolding. Once the cake is completely cool, carefully carve a tunnel on the top side, so you can use the bottom side which is very nice and flat to decorate.

Hazelnut ganache cream

100g vegan cream

150g vegan dark chocolate

50g chopped toasted almonds

Melt the chocolate until 40/45°C. Bring to a boil the cream and pour over the chocolate. Mix well and then incorporate the hazelnuts. Pipe in the cavity of the cake and let set, possibly at room temp. It will take longer but the cake will remain moist.

Berry compote

150g blueberry puree

35g brown sugar

2g nh pectin

1g agar

100g blueberries

1 tbsp lime juice

Cook the blueberry purée and when it reaches 40C (if you don’t have a thermometer check that it’s warm and not hot) add sugar and pectin and the lime juice. Cook for a couple of minutes, then add agar and bring to a boil. Set aside covering with cling film until ready to use.

Hazelnut sablee cookies

80g gram all purpose flour

50g vegan butter

30g fine brown sugar

20g hazelnut flour

1 pinch of salt

20g melted vegan dark chocolate

Incorporate butter in the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the hazelnut flour, sugar and salt and finally the melted chocolate. Quickly shape the dough, wrap in cling film or reusable ziplock bag and let sit in the fridge for at least 1h. Once removed for the fridge let rest 30’ at room temp.

Roll out and cut your decorations, I didn’t have a leaf shaped cookie cutter (You cannot have every single cooking accessory!) so I hand cut them and used a toothpick to make the indentations. Bake at 170C fan for 10-12 minutes and let cool.

Spread the jam on the cake, add the biscuits and the fresh fruit and if you want some sugar decorations 🙂

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