My 3 Month Blogiversary and Ferrero Rocher Cake!

~ the britchy one

Today is my 3 month blogiversary – or blirthday if you will! I started this blog on February 1st 2018 and it seems like just yesterday and at the same time, much longer since I started this debacle!

I’m in awe of my followers and really appreciate all of you. I am STUNNED that I’ve had over 10,000 views, 3,500 visitors and 400 followers! I don’t usually pay too much attention to the numbers because as long as I’m having fun they aren’t really relevant.

What I enjoy so much is the connections with you, the comments and silliness. I’ve had a lot of happy hours with you all and I thank you very sincerely and humbly.

Anway, on to important stuff! You know what happens on Birthdays? CAKE!!! Cake happens on birthdays!

Much as I would love to, I can’t share cake with all over you but since I’ve slaved over a hot blog for this, I AM going to share a recipe I’ve inventerated all by myself! I’m very proud of this because it turned out fantastic. I’m not a chocolate lover but even I kinda wanted a second slice.

My Ferrero Rocher Cake.

This takes (at least) two days to make. You need to make the Nutella the day before you want to assemble the cake. I made this cake on a Wednesday then transported it 753 miles on the Thursday to be eaten on the Saturday. It held together perfectly on the journey and I think it tasted even better for a couple of days with the flavours getting the chance to really meld. I’ve written it as three recipes because I will use aspects of it in different creations going forwards.

Alcoholic Nutella

You really can’t do this without a food processor. The nuts take a long time to pulverise and I can’t imagine attempting it any other way. Don’t think this will be better if you change the oil to coconut or olive oil etc – bland is best so as not to influence the flavour. I did try it with coconut oil and it was nasty.

Ingredients

1 cup hazelnuts

14 ounces milk chocolate

1/2 cup vegetable oil or canola

3 tbsps confectioners’ sugar

1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Hershey’s Dark because I didn’t have enough Bournville)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 – 1 tsp salt to taste

1/4 cup Frangelico (or more to taste.)

1-2 tablespoons Amaretto

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Spread the hazelnuts in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast them in the oven for about 5-10 minutes until they’re browned but not burned. You really do need to keep a close eye on this as they burn in nanoseconds.

Wrap them in a tea towel about half at a time and rub vigorously to remove as much loose skin as possible. If only this worked in tummies eh?!

You will not get all of the skin off. You’re aiming for 75%-ish – not the nutlympics.Let the nuts cool completely.

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Don’t let the water touch the bottom of the bowl. You can also heat it in the microwave but that’s always a fail for me.

Stir the brown gloop until it’s smooth. Let it cool to lukewarm or room temp.

Get your trusty food processor, and grind the hazelnuts until they form a paste. This takes ForEVVVVER!! I found that pulverising them until they looked like coarse sugar granules and then adding the sugar, cocoa powder and salt and continuing processing really helped. Keep going until the mixture is as smooth as possible – or as smooth as you like. I like it to be slightly grainy. The nuts soften the longer they are in this spread so by the time we ate it there was no graininess.

Add the oil, vanilla and frangelico, amaretto and blitz until it’s all mixed. Taste and add more alcohol if you think it’s needed.

Add the melted chocolate, blend well, and then sieve the slop to remove any big chunks of hazelnut that remain. You can skip that if you don’t mind the odd bit of nut. I honestly liked the texture so left it as it was.

Pour into jars or containers before it cools completely and sets. That will help prevent air bubbles in the containers. It will thicken considerably as it cools.

I would suggest doubling the recipe so you have some for a secret stash. Labeling it ‘homemade marmite’ will protect it from most Americans!

Whatever you do, don’t keep it in the fridge. It’ll set harder than rock. Keep it in a cupboard out of direct light and it should last for up to two weeks (yeah right!!)

Hazelnut Cake

For the cakes – you need to bake six cakes, so divide the ingredients according to how many cakes you can bake at once. The breakdown per cake is below. I actually created this recipe based on 9” cake tins and then decided to use bigger tins. The breakdown for bigger tins is below the recipe.

Total ingredients for 9” cakes are as follows:

Ingredients

12 egg whites from large eggs

12 tablespoons fine sugar

12 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 cups ground hazelnuts

To make the cake:

You will also need a cake board for whatever size cake you’re making.

Preheat the oven to 340 degrees Fahrenheit.

Lightly grease the bottom of a 9” springform (or however many you can make at once) and line it with baking paper. You only need to line the bottom. I cut all the six liners at the same time as it just seemed easier.

Double or treble the ingredients below if you have more than one 9” pan.

For each cake you will need 2 egg whites, 2 tablespoons sugar, 2 tbsps flour and 1/3 cup ground hazelnuts.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff. Slowly add the sugar and continue beating until you cannot feel your lips from the rattling anymore… or until the meringue peaks – whichever happens first.

Mix the flour and ground hazelnuts together and scatter on top of the meringue. Fold in carefully using a rubber spatula. (This is like a rubber hammer but less effective for bopping people on the head.)

Spread the meringue mix evenly in the cake tin and bake for about 15 to 20 minutes or until golden.

While they’re cooking, Release the Kraken. Not really, just seeing who’s reading!! Get the next batch ready because as we all know, a woman’s work is never done. Carry on until all six cakes are made or you resemble Quasimodo because your bloody back hurts.

Remove the paper from each cake and leave all six cakes to cool on wire racks.

If you want to make 10” cakes multiply the recipe by 1.5

If you want to make 11” cakes double the recipe for each cake.

Crusting Chocolate Fudge Buttercream Icing

Ingredients

1 cup salted butter, softened (2 sticks)

1 cup Crisco All Vegetable Shortening (you can use any other hard baking fat if you can’t get this. I tried with all butter but it didn’t “crust” and was much less workable)

3 tsps pure Vanilla extract

2 lbs. (8 cups) sifted powdered sugar, divided

1 cup sifted good quality Cocoa powder

1 tbsp Meringue Powder

15 tbsp heavy whipping cream

Cream butter and fake fat, add the vanilla and cream until smooth.

Sift together powdered sugar, Hershey’€™s Cocoa and Meringue Powder.

Add 1/3 of the powdered sugar to the butter mix and beat in until it’s blended. You’ll need to scrape down the sides and bottom well.

Add 1/3 of the heavy cream, mixing until blended.

Add 1/3 more of the powdered sugar mixture until blended and then another third of the cream.

Add remaining powdered sugar mixture and cream and beat for a few minutes until light and fluffy.

Cover the bowl with damp cloth until ready to use. When icing a cake, allow the crumb crust at least 15 minutes in the fridge before decorating further.

To Assemble The Cake

Add a splodge, about a tablespoon to the cake board and spread it about a bit. This is to help stop the cake sliding off the board.

Add the first layer of cake and spread a thin layer of Nutella on it.

Because the buttercream is a different consistency, I decided not to layer that on top of the Nutella so I added the buttercream to the smoother side of the cake and positioned it in top of the first. I then added the Nutella (as it spreads easily) to the “up” side.

I repeated this with all cakes but did NOT add Nutella to the top cake.

I then added a thin layer of buttercream all over the cake. This was by no means perfect, it was only to provide a base for a thicker layer to adhere to. I shoved the cake in the fridge for fifteen minutes to set it quicker.

When it came out I decorated it and added Ferraro Rocher to the top. You don’t have to do that, it was just quick and easy!

You can refrigerate the cake but I would absolutely leave it out of the fridge for at least an hour to come to room temp before serving to maximise the flavours.

Published by the britchy one

A PROUD American Citizen who was born and bred in England and now resides in the US. I’m married to an American who really didn’t have a clue what he was letting himself in for - poor sod! I’m a cranky bitch who loves cats and books and hates chocolate, politics and Dave’s. Oh and mosquitos. I hate those blood sucking parasites but since I’ve already mentioned politics I’m repeating myself! I’m a short, skinny redhead, 3 kids, 2 dogs, not enough cats and a mouth with a death wish. Blood group - certifiable.

80 thoughts on “My 3 Month Blogiversary and Ferrero Rocher Cake!”

  3. I’m beyond impressed! The cake looks like a chocoholic diabetic sweet tooth dream death! I’m not surprised by your soaring popularity for your infant blog. Seems like you’ve been doing this for ages…..because honestly you have. You do you and we love YOU!!! Congrats and here’s to more more and more!!!

    Liked by 3 people

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    1. Your cake is absolutely amazing, wowza…..I fancy a slice right now (maybe two!!). Congrats on your 3 month blogiversary!! Well done…:-) ….I’m not surprised your blog is so popular, as it’s brilliant xx

      Liked by 2 people

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  5. Congratulations. I thought you had been blogging for ages, you have the confidence of a seasoned pro 😉 Your stats are amazing, I am way behind that!
    That recipe looks absolutely delicious. But I am way too lazy for that. I’ll stick to my rock cakes. Anything that takes longer than an hour of labour is beyonde me.
    All the best x

    Liked by 3 people

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  9. Happy birthday! That was one of the more fun recipes I’ve read…and that cake is nothing short of spectacular. I can’t believe you transported it that far and it was in tip-top shape. Impressive!

    Liked by 2 people

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  10. Happy blogiversary!!! 🎉🌸 Your blog is well worth all those stats and I believe once your one year comes round it’ll be even more unbelievable. All the same, you should believe it ‘cuz you deserve it! 😁 ~Kelsey

    Liked by 3 people

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  13. Happy blogiversary! If that cake can travel so well for eating on Saturday, will it travel well in the mail to Canada? Because I want it all lol

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    1. I’m not a fan of chocolate at all. I tried it just to see how it turned out and ended up eating a whole slice! I don’t think I’ve ever eaten a whole slice of chocolate cake other than Black Forest gateau before lol

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  16. This is everything I need in life. Thank you so much for writing up the recipes. Now, excuse me while I imagine getting my car keys driving down to the supermarket to get the ingredients (imagine because I’m far too lazy to leave my house right now).

    Liked by 2 people

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  19. Happy birthday! You’re an inspiration to this fellow blogger who started to walk this path one month after you. And you’ve been, and continue to be, a beacon to me from day one.

    Thank you thank you thank you!

    And awesome-looking recipe. Beyond my baking-patience level. But gorgeous!

    Liked by 3 people

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  22. Happy Bloggerversary! You’ve done incredibly well with Bitchin In The Kitchen & should be very proud with yourself. As for that cake… wow… very impressive, and so very, very tempting!! 🙂
    Caz xx

    Liked by 1 person

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  23. As I was reading this the primary thought I had was “YOU CAN MAKE NUTELLA!?!?”. Call me spoiled, because well I pretty much am, but it genuinely never occurred to me that there was such a thing as homemade Nutella. I’m stashing this recipe as one to try for my actual birthday! I’ll probably end up just eating Nutella because I can’t bake cake to save my life but hey, still a win-win because I get Nutella!

    That looks freaking beautiful and I wish food could be shared via internet. I’d be so happy in life ha! Happy Blogiversary!!!

    Liked by 3 people

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  24. I’ve just reached 1 year (since creation of blog) the other day. (Anniversary of first post coming in a few days/ weeks. I actually took some time to figure things out before actually writing.)

    CongratZ on your milestone. It seems like yesterday and forever ago at the same time.

    The cake looks super complicated to make, but it looks delicious. What kind of host are you that you make us bake our own cake for YOUR party? Do you at least provide chips and guac?

    Liked by 3 people

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    1. I’m a sneaky one that’s for sure!! The cakes actually really easy, it just looks harder by virtue of the three recipes. I’m going to use the cake one with almonds instead of hazelnuts, a home made raspberry jam and almond buttercream so it’s very versatile!

      Liked by 1 person

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  28. Congratulations your blirthday! The cake looks amazing, can I just have some?
    It looks wonderful and it seems like it would take forever for someone who doesn’t own a food processor.

    Was it for an actual birthday? Did you make the move?

    Liked by 2 people

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      1. Just an update. I really really wanted to make (scratch that) – eat – I wanted to eat this delicious looking cake..So..I went to the store and bought two different chocolate cakes. It was no one’s birthday! Celebrating self! 😛

        Liked by 1 person

  29. You started only three months ago?WOW…… because those amazing stats!!!!!!
    And then I was checking for the alcoholic recipe because… Click bait but I don’t see the alcohol on ingredients list is that because you will be drunking it as you get baked????

    ~B

    PS give this recipe for a vodka cake a look 😂 thank me later wp.me/p3NqTj-1K

    Liked by 2 people

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  31. I have no idea if it’s kosher to post a link in someone’s comments or if it will even work…..sorry if it’s bad form but I just read this this morning, my significant other sent this to me and then I read your post not an hour later!! It was fate LOL!!
    https://www.apost.com/en/blog/research-shows-eating-chocolate-cake-for-breakfast-is-good-for-your-brain-and-waistline/6312/?un_id=1525244585103&utm_source=fb&utm_medium=fb_1503815046562182_apost_en&utm_term=USA_en&utm_campaign=blog_6312&utm_content=528
    So…nutritionist approved!!! Feel free to delete if this was inappropriate. And Congrats!!! You’re doing an awesome job!!!

    Liked by 1 person

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  34. Hot damn girl!! 400 followers in 3 months, that is quite an achievment, I have been at it almost 2 years and only have 250….The cake looks incredible!

    Liked by 2 people

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