Rich and silky nutella buttercream frosting top this delicious and easy fluffy chocolate cake. You'll want to try this cake ASAP.
Why You'll Love this Cake
- The fluffy chocolate cake layers are amplified by coffee within the batter. Not to mention the cake is incredibly easy to make - we're talking only two bowls, no fancy equipment!!
- Who doesn't love nutella? I for one can eat it by the spoonful straight out of the container -- so adding it to my Swiss meringue buttercream recipe was a no brainer.
- It's a simple spin on a classic chocolate cake recipe that will impress your friends and family. I'm positive your kids are going to love this one!
How to Make Nutella Buttercream Frosting
- Wipe down your mixing bowl, paddle and whisk attachment with a small amount of white vinegar. This will prevent any fat residue from coming into contact with the meringue. If your meringue comes in contact with fat residue it can cause your whipped up, puffy meringue to deflate—the opposite of what we want!
- Do not let any egg yolk into your egg white/sugar mixture. Egg yolk = fat = not good for your meringues stability! If yolk gets into your mixture, your meringue will not fluff up.
- Make sure your butter is room temperature. Butter that is room temperature incorporates into the meringue fully. If your butter is too warm or too cold your buttercream will not whip up properly —initially that is! (see below, troubleshooting)
- Use a candy thermometer to monitor the temperature of your egg white and sugar mixture to make sure you cook it to 160 degrees F. If you do not have a candy thermometer you can use the finger dip test. Take your index finger and thumb and dip them into your warm mixture. Rub your fingers together to feel for any sugar granules. If there are palpable sugar granules, continue to heat your mixture. Stop when you can no longer feel any sugar granules between your two fingers.
TROUBLESHOOTING SWISS MERINGUE BUTTERCREAM:
If your buttercream frosting initially looks soupy or too soft, your butter was likely too soft when you added it. Don't worry, this is fixable.
- Place the entire mixing bowl into the fridge for about 15 minutes
- Remove the bowl from the fridge and re-whip it in your electric stand mixer using the paddle attachment for about 5 minutes or until it's light and fluffy.
- Don't worry if it looks curdled at this point. Continue to whip it until the buttercream warms up and comes together.
If your Swiss meringue buttercream curdles, your butter was too cold when you added it. Here's how to fix it! We need to warm the buttercream up, so.
- Continue to mix it on high speed. Place your hands on the outside of the mixing bowl. The warmth from your hands will warm up the mixture and help it come together again more quickly. Eventually your buttercream will come together, however this may take 3-5 minutes of mixing on high speed.
- If this is taking a long time, you can use a hair blowdryer on the outside of the bowl to warm it up. Please note, I have a blowdryer strictly for warming my mixing bowl. Do not blow warm air right onto the buttercream, only the outside of the bowl.
How to Assemble the Cake
- Place your first chocolate cake layer on your cake board.
- Apply your nutella buttercream frosting to the top of the cake.
- Using a piping bag, drizzle nutella on top of the nutella buttercream frosting. Make sure you don't drizzle too close to the edge of the cake or the nutella will slip out the sides when you stack your next cake layer on top.
- Repeat with remaining two cake layers. Cover cake in nutella Swiss Meringue buttercream. Chill cake after completing crumb coat to ensure your cake isn’t wobbly and doesn’t accumulate a lot of crumbs while you are smoothing it out.
- Apply your base frosting and chill cake for at least 25 minutes. It's important to have a very cold cake when applying your chocolate drip.
- Spoon chocolate ganache drip to the top of the cake. I prefer to use a spoon to achieve my drips because I can better control the quantity of chocolate in each drip. Next I pour the remaining ganache on top of the cake and spread it evenly with my offset spatula.
- Decorate the cake with dollops of buttercream using the Wilton 1M piping tip and ferrero rocher chocolates!
Find the recipe for the chocolate ganache here and the chocolate cake I used as the base for this cake below.
If you try this recipe, make sure you take a photo and tag BAKED by Blair on social media and use the #bakedbyblair. I would love to hear how you enjoyed the recipe, so comment below! If you want to pin this recipe and save it for later, go ahead and click the pin button above and save it to your favourite desserts board on Pinterest! ENJOY!
Nutella Buttercream Frosting
This nutella buttercream frosting is rich, silky, smooth and absolutely delicious! For this recipe, I've paired fluffy chocolate cake with nutella drizzled between cake layers, nutella buttercream frosting, a chocolate drip and ferrero rocher chocolates on top.
Equipment
- Electric Stand Mixer
- Heat Proof Rubber Spatula
Ingredients
- 1½ cups granulated sugar
- 5 egg whites
- 2 cups unsalted butter at room temperature
- 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup nutella
Instructions
- Wipe down your mixing bowl, whisk and paddle attachments with a small amount of white vinegar.
- Create a double boiler on your stove by filling a medium saucepan with a couple inches of water. Do not let the water touch the base of the bowl. Put your egg whites and sugar in your bowl and place on top of the saucepan. Give them a whisk to combine.
- Cook your egg white and sugar mixture over medium heat stirring constantly until the mixture reaches 160 degrees F on a candy thermometer or until you can no longer feel any sugar granules between your fingertips. The mixture will be hot but should not burn you.
- Transfer your egg white and sugar mixture to the bowl of your electric stand mixer with the whisk attachment in place and whisk on high until the outside of your mixing bowl is no longer warm and you’ve achieved stiff peaks in your meringue. This can take between 8-12 minutes.
- Switch to the paddle attachment. Turn your mixer to low speed. Add in your cubed butter (2 tablespoon in size) one at a time, allowing each to be incorporated before the next addition.
- Scrape down the sides of your bowl, turn mixer to low speed and add in your vanilla. Mix to combine.
- Turn your mixer up to medium to high speed and mix for about 5 minutes until buttercream is completely incorporated, silky, and smooth.
- Add in nutella and mix on medium until fully incorporated.
- Turn the mixer onto low speed for 8 minutes. This helps to remove air bubbles that may have formed when whipping your buttercream.
- Remove the mixing bowl from the mixer and use a spatula to push the buttercream into the sides of the bowl. This helps remove any remaining air bubbles.
vindhya subramanian says
Best buttercream I have ever made
Blair Braz says
Thank you so much!
Tami says
I’d like to spend hours writing poetry about how good this is, because that’s how long it would take to adequately describe this bliss... Unfortunately, I’m in a haze of ecstasy and can’t find the words right now. Just take my word for it, and make this recipe 😉
Jen says
I wasn’t sure about the coffee part but it really did deepen the chocolate flavor. Loved every bite!
Blair Braz says
Incredible! I'm so happy you love it!
maryanne says
Smooth and silky, but not too sweet, this nutella buttercream frosting recipe is a keeper!!
Blair Braz says
Wonderful! Thrilled you enjoyed it!
Michelle says
What a beautiful cake -- my kids love nutella so I will have to make buttercream soon!
Blair Braz says
I can't wait to hear how you all like it!
Maike says
Oh, my word, 'Nutella Buttercream Frosting'. It's so insanely good. It was super easy to make and is now going to be my go-to recipe for chocolate frosting. We have a couple of birthdays coming up, and I can't wait to make all those birthday cakes with this frosting.
Blair Braz says
Yahoo!!! Thrilled it's going to be your go to recipe!
Beth says
This cake is gorgeous and looks so yummy. Perfect for my hubby’s birthday and it turned out great, so delicious too! Making this cake again!
Tara says
Looks delish! I might make this for my boyfriend's birthday but I was wondering, did you separate some of the buttercream for decoration before adding the nutella or is that extra? In either case, if I want to replicate it, how much buttercream should I make for that amount or how much should I separate? TIA!