Chocolate Hazelnut Bundt Cake with Ganache Drip

One bowl of chocolate batter, one bundt pan, one ganache pour at the end. The result looks like the kind of cake you’d see behind glass at a European patisserie and assume took an afternoon. It didn’t — twenty minutes of active prep, an hour in the oven, and about fifteen minutes of ganache work. The flavor is deep chocolate with the bitter-sweet edge that toasted hazelnuts give everything they touch. There’s Nutella in the batter, hazelnuts folded through it, ganache dripping into the ridges, more hazelnuts on top.

Prep: 20 minutes  ·  Bake: 55 minutes  ·  Cool: 1+ hour  ·  Serves 12

Three Things Worth Understanding Before You Start

Toast the Hazelnuts — This Step Matters

Raw hazelnuts are flat. Waxy, faintly bitter, almost no sweetness. Toasted hazelnuts are a completely different ingredient — they smell like a bakery, develop deep nutty sweetness, and have the crunch that makes the hazelnut-chocolate combination worth doing. Spread them on a sheet pan, toast at 350°F for 8 to 10 minutes, then rub in a kitchen towel to remove most of the papery skins. Getting every fleck of skin isn’t necessary. Eight minutes of toasting changes the entire character of this cake.

Hot Coffee in the Batter

Half a cup of hot brewed coffee goes in at the end. It doesn’t make the cake taste like coffee — coffee and chocolate share flavor compounds, and a small amount of coffee makes the chocolate taste more itself. The heat also dissolves the cocoa more completely than cold liquid would. If you don’t have coffee, hot water works; you lose a little depth but the cake is still good.

The 15-Minute Unmolding Window

Bundt cakes stick — usually because of timing, not greasing. Fifteen minutes in the pan after baking is the window. Less than that and the cake hasn’t set enough to hold together when inverted. More than that and steam condenses against the pan and the cake re-sticks as it cools. Set a timer for exactly 15 minutes when the cake comes out of the oven.

The Ingredient List

The cake:

• 2 cups (240g) all-purpose flour — spooned and leveled
• 3/4 cup (90g) Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (227g) unsalted butter, softened (2 sticks)
• 1 3/4 cups (350g) granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup Nutella or chocolate hazelnut spread
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup (240ml) buttermilk, room temperature
• 1/2 cup (120ml) hot brewed coffee or hot water
• 3/4 cup toasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped — folded into the batter

The ganache and topping:

• 150g dark or semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped (about 1 cup)
• 3/4 cup (180ml) heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon Nutella — optional
• 1/2 cup toasted hazelnuts, chopped — for the top

Total hazelnuts: about 1 1/4 cups raw — toast all at once and divide afterward. 3/4 cup into the batter, 1/2 cup on top.

On Dutch-process cocoa: if you only have natural cocoa, adjust the leavening — increase baking powder to 1 1/2 teaspoons and reduce baking soda to 1 teaspoon to balance the acidity difference.

this now & bake later ❤️

Making the Cake

Step 1: Toast the Hazelnuts

Spread 1 1/4 cups of raw hazelnuts on a baking sheet. Toast at 350°F (175°C) for 8 to 10 minutes until fragrant — watch them, they go fast. Tip onto a clean kitchen towel, bundle the corners, and rub vigorously for 30 seconds. Most skins will come off. Roughly chop and divide: 3/4 cup for the batter, 1/2 cup for the top.

Step 2: Prep the Pan

Grease a 10-cup bundt pan generously with softened butter applied with a pastry brush — get into every ridge, every crevice, and especially the bottom of the central tube. If using baking spray, choose one with flour built in. Don’t dust with flour or cocoa afterward.

Step 3: Whisk Dry, Cream Wet

Whisk the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl for a full 30 seconds — cocoa clumps and unmixed leavening causes uneven rise.

Beat the softened butter, sugar, and Nutella on medium-high for 3 to 4 full minutes until pale and fluffy. The Nutella turns the mixture a beautiful tan. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well and scraping the bowl between each. Add vanilla and mix briefly.

Step 4: Alternate Dry and Buttermilk

With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients in three additions alternating with the buttermilk in two — dry, milk, dry, milk, dry. Mix just until combined after each addition. Stop the moment you can’t see dry streaks; overmixing makes the cake tough.

Step 5: Coffee and Hazelnuts

Stir the hot coffee into the batter by hand until completely smooth. The batter will thin significantly — that’s correct and expected. Fold in the 3/4 cup of chopped toasted hazelnuts with a spatula. Pour into the prepared pan and tap the pan firmly on the counter two or three times to release air bubbles.

Step 6: Bake and Unmold

Bake at 350°F for 50 to 60 minutes. Check at 50 minutes — insert a toothpick into the thickest part of the outer ring. A few moist crumbs is the goal; wet batter means more time, bone dry means overbaked.

Set the pan on a wire rack and set a timer for exactly 15 minutes. At 15 minutes, run an offset spatula around the inner tube and outer edges, then invert onto the rack. Lift the pan slowly. The cake should release with a gentle nudge. If it resists, tap the top of the pan firmly. Cool completely — at least 1 hour — before glazing.

The Ganache

Place the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream in a small saucepan until just simmering — small bubbles at the edges, not a rolling boil. Pour over the chocolate and leave untouched for 2 minutes. Stir slowly from the center outward in small circles until glossy and smooth. Stir in the Nutella if using. Don’t whisk — it introduces air bubbles that dull the surface.

Cool for 5 to 8 minutes, stirring every minute or two, until the ganache falls slowly off the spoon rather than pouring. Pour over the top of the cooled cake in a slow circle. Immediately scatter the remaining hazelnuts over the wet ganache — once it sets, they won’t stick. Leave 15 to 20 minutes before slicing.

Make This for Something Special

This is the cake to bake when you want a dessert that actually pulls focus — a birthday, a dinner party, any moment that needs a centerpiece. The ganache drip looks impressive; the toasted hazelnuts scattered over the top look deliberate. Most of the work is hands-off baking and cooling time. The active work is genuinely about twenty minutes.

Leave a comment with how the unmolding went and how much of the ganache made it to the top versus the counter. Rate the recipe, save it on Pinterest, and subscribe for more.

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