Amazing Vegan Chocolate Hazelnut Cake (Ferrero Rocher Cake!)
This is the ultimate vegan chocolate hazelnut cake recipe. It’s made in just one bowl, super easy, and is full of rich, nutty, and buttery sweet notes, like a Ferrero Rocher, layered with a homemade dairy free Nutella buttercream frosting! This is truly the best chocolate hazelnut cake recipe ever!
The easiest one bowl chocolate hazelnut cake recipe
If you love Nutella or anything hazelnut, then you’re about to become absolutely obsessed with this easy one bowl vegan nutella cake recipe. It’s full of that wonderful nutty aroma, rich and buttery yet light and tender, and so easy to eat.
Not to mention, this chocolate hazelnut cake is entirely vegan, dairy free, egg free, and can be gluten free! Don’t let that scare you: it’s actually made with the simplest ingredients.
Just hazelnuts, flour, cocoa powder, applesauce (to replace eggs), and a homemade dairy free buttermilk.
You’ll be shocked at how easy this ferrero rocher inspired cake is to make, and how amazing it is in taste.
Get ready for the best vegan cake recipe you’ll ever make!
How to make a vegan chocolate hazelnut cake
The full written instructions and ingredient measurements are found down below in the recipe card. However, we’ll go over the best tips and tricks for making sure that this hazelnut cake comes out amazing each time!
Like all of my vegan cake recipes, this vegan vanilla hazelnut cake is deceivingly easy and simple to make.
- Use room temperature ingredients: this is crucial for ensuring that this hazelnut cake’s texture comes out light and tender. Using cold ingredients vs room temperature will drastically alter the texture of the cake.
- Make it gluten free! You can easily make this easy hazelnut cake entirely gluten free as well by swapping in a 1:1 gluten free baking flour. I recommend Bob’s Red Mill or King Arthur Flour.
- Whisk together the dry ingredients: This ensures that all of the dry ingredients are evenly distributed throughout the cake, especially the leavening agents.
- Make your own hazelnut flour: you can absolutely use store bought, but making your own I think adds more of a hazelnut flavor than store bought. This is because it’s freshly made so the aroma of the hazelnuts hasn’t worn away. Just simply pulse the nuts in a food processor for 60 seconds until they become ground into a rustic flour. If your food processor is extra powerful and grinds it faster, go with that! You don’t want the hazelnuts to turn into a nut butter.
- You can bake this cake into two, three, or four layers: I loveeee making super tall and elegant cakes. I went with four layers, but you can absolutely bake it into two 9″ layers, two or three 8″ layers, or three 6″ layers!
- Make sure your cakes are FULLY COOL before frosting: no one wants to see a cake slip and slide onto the ground! The cakes should have absolutely no warmth to them when you’re ready to frost.
Vegan Nutella Buttercream Frosting
So on the inside of this chocolate hazelnut cake, as I mentioned, there’s actually a vegan chocolate hazelnut buttercream that fills and coats the cake.
To make a dairy free buttercream, it’s actually quite similar to making a regular buttercream!
We’ll simply cream together the vegan butter until light and fluffy. Then add in the vegan nutella, and cream together again. Sift in the powdered sugar and cocoa powder, and mix again until everything is smooth and fluffy.
Then when frosting your chocolate hazelnut cake, you’ll create a frosting dam between the layers and add in extra vegan Nutella. Place another layer on top and repeat. Then frost the entire cake!
How to decorate this cake
This is my all time favorite part of the cake baking process. Making an art piece from your cake!
The first year I made this cake, I went for a holiday theme because I made this cake during the holidays. This year, I wanted a more New Year’s theme, so I went for topping the cake with homemade vegan chocolate ganache and homemade Ferrero Rocher chocolate hazelnut bites on top!
For my Christmas version of this vegan hazelnut cake, I piped the remaining frosting onto vegan ice cream cones, and studded them with vegan French dragees from India Tree.
I also used a vegan ganache as the drip, which can be found in my vegan Yule log cake recipe.
You can also pipe little swirls on to the top of the cake and top each with a whole hazelnut!
Or use the leftover hazelnut flour and press a bit of it onto the sides of the cake.
My favorite cake decorating tools are:
- cake turntable
- bench scraper
- Wilton piping tips
- piping bags
- offset spatula
- pretty cake stand or cake plate
Because my hazelnut cake was four layers, I decided to go with a cake plate because putting it onto a cake stand would make it a VERY tall cake ha!
You’re going to just love vegan chocolate hazelnut cake as much as I do! It’s perfect for New Years Eve, New Years Day, Christmas and Christmas Eve, birthday cakes, graduations, and even weddings!
If you make it, let me know how it goes down below in the comments section, as well as giving it a rating so that others may find it!
As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there!
Happy hazelnut cake baking!
More vegan cake recipes:
Secretly Vegan White Chocolate Cake
Ultra Rich Vegan Chocolate Cake
Want to save this recipe for later? Add it to your favorite recipe board on Pinterest!
If you make this recipe, please be sure to leave a comment and a rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ below. This helps others to find the recipes! As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there as well!
Print
One Bowl Easy Chocolate Hazelnut Cake (Vegan)
- Prep Time: 25
- Cook Time: 29
- Total Time: 54 minutes
- Yield: 18 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This is the ultimate vegan chocolate hazelnut cake recipe. It’s made in just one bowl, super easy, and is full of rich, nutty, and buttery sweet notes, like a Ferrero Rocher, layered with a homemade dairy free Nutella buttercream frosting! This is truly the best chocolate hazelnut cake recipe ever!
Ingredients
- 240 mL dairy-free milk, room temperature
- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 275 g all purpose flour or gluten free 1:1 baking flour, sifted
- 100 grams hazelnut flour
- 60 grams cocoa powder
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 200 grams granulated sugar or coconut sugar
- 113 grams vegan butter, room temperature
- 190 grams unsweetened applesauce or dairy free yogurt, room temperature
- 85 grams water + 1 tsp dissolvable espresso powder (or 1 cup coffee, room temperature)
Vegan Nutella Buttercream:
- 1 1/2 cups vegan butter, room temperature
- 3/4 cup vegan chocolate hazelnut spread (such as Nocciolata)
- 3–4 cups sifted powdered sugar
- 1/2 cup cacao powder
- 1/2 cup vegan chocolate hazelnut spread, for the filling
- Decorations: vegan French dragees, vegan ice cream cones for trees, etc.
Instructions
- Prep: Make sure you’ve combined the dairy free milk and apple cider vinegar first to begin, and allow the mixture to sit for 5 minutes to curdle. Preheat the oven to 350F and line 3-4 six inch cake pans with oil and parchment paper. You can also make this cake into an 8″ or a 9″ cake. However, the bake times in the directions are for a 6″ cake so you’ll need to bake for a few minutes longer.
- Whisk the dry ingredients: In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, hazelnut flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and baking soda.
- Make the batter: In a stand mixer or a large bowl with hand mixer, cream together the vegan butter and sugar until fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Add in the dairy free yogurt and vanilla, and mix again until combined. Then sift in the flour and pour in the vegan buttermilk. Mix until just combined. You can use a rubber spatula to help scrape the bottom of the bowl.
- Bake: Divide the batter evenly amongst the cake pans and bake the cake for 27-29 minutes, or until the toothpick comes out clean. The cakes should be able to bounce back at a light touch.
- Cool: Remove from the oven and let cool in the pans for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to fully cool for at least 30 minutes.
- Frost: Before beginning to make the vegan buttercream, make sure that your cakes are completely cool to the touch. There should be absolutely no warmth on either side of the cakes. Once fully cool, you can make the vegan buttercream. Cream the vegan butter until light and fluffy using a hand mixer or stand mixer, about 2-3 minutes. Then add in the vegan Nutella, and mix again. Add in the sifted powdered sugar into the butter mixture, and begin mixing again until you get a light and fluffy buttercream. You can use the tablespoons of dairy free milk here, adding 1 tablespoon at a time until you reach the desired texture of smooth and moveable buttercream. Then finally add in the cocoa powder, and cream together until the cocoa is evenly distributed.
- Fill the cake: Using a piping bag, pipe a wall around the top of the first layer of cake to create a frosting dam. Spoon about 1/4 cup of the vegan Nutella spread into the middle, and place the second cake layer on top. Repeat the process, then place the third cake layer on top.
- Frost the cake: Use the remaining frosting to create a crumb coat around the cake. Chill the cake and then frost the cake again for a clean look. Place the cake into the fridge to chill for 20 minutes.
- Decorate and enjoy! Top with vegan chocolate ganache and homemade vegan ferrero rocher balls or decorate for the holidays with buttercream ice cream cone trees! Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Notes
To make hazelnut flour: pulse the hazelnuts in a food processor for 60 seconds until they become a crumble flour. You want to stop it right before it becomes a hazelnut butter.
Hi maam, I just love your recipes and this one specially looks delicious .
My question was , how much would the total weight of the cake be if we use this recipe ?
I plan on making this recipe for my husband’s birthday. Do you have a recipe for the homemade vegan ferrero rocher balls? That sounds fantastic but I have no idea how to make them.
Hi Erin! Yes, you can find the details for the Vegan Ferrero Rocher Balls here. Hope your husband has an AMAZING birthday!!