Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!

Sending you my warmest greetings for a new year filled with joy, love, and a lot of sweet moments!

For this New Year’s Eve celebration, I made this hazelnut sponge cake filled with caramel cream embellished with a gold glittered rose. 

Hazelnut Caramel Cake

Hazelnut Sponge Cake
makes 4 discs 8-inch

120 g whole hazelnuts, toasted

 120 g potato starch

10 eggs

140 g granulated sugar

4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Place the hazelnuts, cocoa powder and potato starch in a food processor. Process until the hazelnuts are finely ground.

Separate the egg whites and yolks.

In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks with half of the sugar until pale. In another large dry bowl, with a clean whisk, bring the egg whites to foam. Once they are white and frothy, add the remaining half of the sugar and continue to whip until firm.

Right away, gently fold the sugar and egg yolk mixture into the whipped egg whites with a rubber spatula. Sprinkle the ground hazelnut and potato starch over the mixture. Gently combine: start with the spatula in the center of the bowl, work up the sides of the bowl and bring the mixture back down towards the center, all the while turning the bowl regularly. Continue until you have a smooth and homogenous mixture.

Preheat the oven to 340°F/ 170°C.

Transfer the batter to greased 8-inch baking pan and bake for approximately 20 minutes until lightly colored. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Hazelnut Syrup

(from here)

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup hazelnut liqueur, such as Frangelico

Heat sugar, liqueur, and 1/2 cup water in a small saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Let cool completely.

 Caramel-Cream Filling
(from here)

1/2 cup sugar

2 cups cold heavy cream

1 cup whole milk

2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin

3 large egg yolks, room temperature

Heat sugar and 4 teaspoons water in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Continue to cook, without stirring, until very deep amber. Carefully pour in 1 cup cream, whisking. Whisk in milk.

Put gelatin and 6 tablespoons water into a small bowl. Let stand until gelatin has softened, about 7 minutes.

Prepare an ice-water bath; set aside. Whisk egg yolks into caramel mixture. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until mixture registers 165 degrees on an instant-read thermometer. Add gelatin, and whisk until smooth. Pass through a fine sieve into a bowl set in ice-water bath. Let cool, stirring occasionally, until thickened.

Beat remaining cup cream until soft peaks form. Fold the whipped cream into caramel cream. Cover, and refrigerate at least 30 minutes (or overnight).

Dark Chocolate Ganache 

18 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 cups heavy cream

Bring cream just to the boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat, add chocolate, stand until melted (5 minutes), stir until smooth and glossy. Refrigerate until firm yet still pliable (45 minutes-1 hour) then stir until smooth.

Assembly

Place one cake on a serving plate. Brush with 1/4 hazelnut syrup. Spread 1 1/2 cups caramel cream over top.  Repeat to make 2 more layers of each. Top with remaining cake half. Refrigerate 2 hours (or overnight). Cover with chocolate ganache.