First things first, happy [belated] birthday Jolene!! Her birthday was actually last Thursday, but alas work commitments took her away to far flung and desperate lands so we had to postpone the day until Saturday. As is now traditional in the house Jo was allowed to choose what sort of cake she wanted and I must say I was delighted when she chose this rather simple Cinnamon and Hazelnut Cake … it’s been a long weekend, but that’s another story, or indeed another post!
This is an easy one, what you’ll NEED:
- 175g/6oz butter
- 175g/6oz caster sugar
- 3 eggs
- 200g/8oz self-raising flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3tsp cinnamon
- 4tbsp milk
- 4 rounded tbsp chocolate spread
- 50g/2oz hazelnuts, roughly chopped
What you need to DO:
- Whack your oven on to around 180c/Gas 4/fan 160c … I actually set my oven about 20c below this although whether that’s because it works better or simply because my oven doesn’t heat up right is a mystery, certainly a lower temperature avoids any nasty charring!
- Line the base of a 20cm/8in tin and grease the side and base … you’ll want a spring-form tin or one with a base that pops out.
- Pop all of your ingredients (excepting the hazelnuts and choc spread) in a mixer and whizz until fluffy … if you don’t have a mixer or a processor, pop them in a bowl and develop some of those under-used muscles in your fore arm!
- Tip 3/4 of your mixture into the pan and add four separate dollops of choc spread, top off with remaining mixture.
- Using the side of a spoon/skewer/butter-knife/some-such swirl the mixture around a bit … don’t go nuts though …
- … speaking of nuts, sprinkle the hazelnuts over the top.
- Cover the tin with foil.
- Place in oven for an hour, before checking, if it looks ready check it with a knife (push the knife in the middle, if it comes out clean it’s ready), if it’s not ready leave for another 15 minutes and check again.
- Let the baked cake cool for 10 mins before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Although we’ve not tried it I do reckon this cake would be great with a drop of custard on it … enjoy!
