Hazelnut Cappuccino Cream Cake

Today is celebration of our dear friends V’s and L’s birthdays. I previously promised L that I would make him a Chestnut Mont Blanc but Hero chestnut puree was out of stock in all stores I checked. Since I purchased hazelnut flour online with my almond flour order recently, and I have always liked the Hazelnut Cappuccino flavour, I decided to make it again. However, I was too tired to do anything else after my Chocolate class yesterday morning, plus the run around from chestnut search, I fell asleep early before I could work on the cake. It was a good move because I had no idea the next day would be so hectic.

After weekly Sunday dim sum with my mom, I picked up buttermilk on my way back home to make the cake. I’ve been wondering if I need to toast hazelnut flour a bit (like what I did when making it from whole hazelnut) before adding it to my recipe. Unfortunately I didn’t have the luxury of time and I sifted it in without the toasting part. Either I didn’t put enough hazelnut flour or I should have toasted it first, I couldn’t taste the nut at all. Luckily I added some caramelized hazelnut on top, otherwise, it would become a simple coffee cream cake. I was so much in a rush that the cream was not whipped to stiff enough stage to support the cake long. Therefore I volunteered to serve the cake. Otherwise, it would have fallen apart. Looked pretty though. Cake texture was moist and spongy. I’ll try it again with toasted hazelnut flour again.