Makes about 14 servings - very rich! It's flourless...duh
Baking pan: used a pan about 9 x 9 or 10 x 10 (don't have it with me to measure, it's to give you a general idea) for a 3 layer cake.
Pre-heat oven: 350 F/177 C.
Part I: Kaboom Cookie layer
2 cups/520 g crunchy peanut butter
1 cup/225 g white sugar
1 cup/225 g brown sugar
2 tsp/10 g baking powder
2 eggs
To taste curry powder
allspice
cinnamon
clove powder
Cream in a mixing bowl the peanut butter and both sugars - by hand, or, if you're lucky, with the help of a nice Kitchenaid. Mix in the eggs, baking powder, and the rest of the spices. Grease up the baking pan* and press in the dough to a flat layer. Pop in the oven for approximately 25-30 minutes and check if it's done by poking it with a toothpick and see if there's any batter on it when you pull it out. Yes, it will be soft. If firm, when it cools, it will be very difficult to cut through the bottom. Set aside and let it cool completely.
Part II: Nutella layers
2 cups/400 g salted sweet cream butter
1 cup/200 g Ghirardelli's 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate (Two 4 oz bars)
2 cups/400 g Nutella
1 cup/200 g brown sugar
2 tsp/1 cl espresso powder
12 eggs
Grease a baking pan.* Cut butter into chunks and break chocolate into pieces, melt in a double boiler or by 30-10 second intervals in the microwave and mix. When melted and well incorporated, add Nutella and espresso to the party and mix well. Separate the eggs, put egg whites aside, then mix the yolks with the brown sugar. Combine with the chocolate mixture until the ingredients are well integrated. Whip up the whites to nice firm peaks and envelope them into the chocolate mixture bit by bit. Pour 1/2 into your baking pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, until the toothpick comes out clear. Set aside and let it cool completely. Repeat for the 3rd layer.
Part III: Bourbon Nutella Cream Cheese Frosting
1 cup/ 230 g salted sweet cream butter, softened
16 oz/448g cream cheese, softened (Two 8 oz packs)
8 cups/960 g Confectioner's sugar
10 tbsp/15 cl Bourbon
Beat butter and cream cheese together to a smooth consistency, then add Nutella. When it is well incorporated, add confectioner's sugar and Bourbon, beat to a smooth consistency. This makes enough for a nice thick layer all around and in between the 3 layers. Build the layers and decorate how you wish! Put the cake in the fridge so the frosting can cool down again and have more of the cream cheese consistency.
Now, wait for the praises! Yes, you are SO welcome ;)
*If you only have 1 pan to bake in for same size layers, line the pan with aluminum foil or wax paper. This way, when it's done, you can delicately take it out, let it cool, and have the pan ready for the next layer. Yes, I ended up having to do this, and it worked out fine! Or course, as long as you actually let all the layers cool off before assembling it.
Redacciones:
- Originally, I wanted to make a Bourbon rose frosting. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the essence of rose. But, you can certainly use orange blossom, lavender, violet, elderflower, etc. instead of Nutella in the frosting.
- Try a hazelnut frosting.
- The new addition to the cookie recipe, crunchy peanut butter, made a wonderful crunch to go with the dense and smooth chocolate cake. I'm curious to make the cookie with cashew butter or almond butter - the almond should go wonderfully with a Bourbon rose frosting. The smooth peanut butter, or whatever nut butter you'd like to use, has the advantage that you can add whatever nut you'd like to the mix! This can be chocolate covered nuts, spicy nuts for a kick, candied pecans, etc.
- Add Bourbon to the Nutella cake? I'm not sure about this one...just putting it out there.
- Instead of Bourbon, use a maple liqueur, Grand Marnier, Framboise eau de vie, Tia Maria, Kahlua, Godiva, Bailey's, Pumpkin cream liqueur, or other liqueurs.
- When making the frosting, I realized that I was using salted butter and not the usual unsalted. To my surprise, the tang of the cream cheese and salt brought together the flavors and prevented the cake from being too sweet - I was worried about this when brainstorming the cake!
