chocolate hazelnut gianduja cake

You know those weeks where the days move by at a seemingly glacial pace, and you just aren’t able to bake because you’re too busy (and there’s a Crumbs around the corner, of course)? I was quickly falling into a rut- I’m not sure of what, exactly- perhaps just of life in general, until my parents’ birthdays rolled around and homemade cakes were in high demand around the Scolaro household.

I still owe my dad his cake, but my mom wanted the Chocolate Hazelnut Gianduja cake from Sky High. Seeing as almost everything that I post about typically concerns chocolate and some kind of nut, you all know I’d jump at the idea of a Gianduja cake (for those of you wondering exactly what Gianduja is, it’s simply hazelnut-chocolate). But despite the effort put into the cake itself, well, I didn’t really like it.

The frosting was delicious and the simplest thing to make, almost tasting of a nutella whipped cream, which, not coincidentally, was almost exactly what it was- melted gianduja chocolate folded into whipped cream. But the cake layers fell too short of my expectations for me to really enjoy- they were tough and slightly chewy, making cutting the cake alone an arduous task. While it certainly didn’t lack any hazelnut flavor, it didn’t have the richness, and fluffiness that I love so much in cakes. Although it’s pretty to look at (I’ve recently and not-purposely acquired good frosting skills), it was okay, but definitely not worth typing up 2 1/2 pages of a recipe for. I hate to say it, but  I think I’ll have to pass on this one.