Just as we finish a good meal with something sweet, so shall we round out the month of madness with one of the kookiest recipes I’ve seen lately.  And here it is:

Looking at that photo, I know what you are thinking.  And you know what?

Some of you are mean!!!!

Have you been taking lessons from my family?

So these are not the best looking cakes in the world.  There is a definite dip in middle of all of them.  The texture is kind of rough….then again….that rough texture is also kind of crispy and there is a delicious fudgy layer in the middle. And who doesn’t love a fudgy layer?

But remember the Twinkie Defence?  I’m about to launch the Picnic Defence. The Picnic is one of the best chocolate bars ever. Chocolate, caramel, wafer, peanuts.  So good.  The only problem?  It looks like a big old turd.

But so good to eat.

And the Nutty Nutella Cake is the Picnic bar‘s next door neighbour in “Dammit we taste so much better than we look” Street.

You know what else makes this cake so special?  I’ll tell you in a moment but first, let’s take a walk down Pronunciation Avenue and talk about Nutella.  In Australia ( and I believe England), we call this super delicious chocolate hazelnut spread Nut-ella.  Because it’s made of nuts.  And….ella.  Ella being an Italian euphemism for a shit ton of sugar.

However, definitely on The Splendid Table Podcast and I’m sure a few others I listen to, I have heard Americans call this stuff Noo-tella.

WTF?  I can get over that whole tomato / tomayto thing.  But Noo-tella is a step too far.
It’s NUT-ella.  End of.

I first found this recipe on the Masterchef site.  However, it has since been taken down.  Only a picture remains. And yep, phew…Matt Preston’s cake is as ugly as mine…

http://tenplay.com.au/channel-ten/masterchef/recipes

Possibly even uglier.

But I was able to find a copy in Matt Preston’s latest book and in the same spirit of adventure in which I made muffins from ice cream and flour a few years back I decided to give it a whirl.  And you know what else….there’s obviously some weird psychic connection between Matty P, and me because in the same book, he has a recipe for “bread” made from you guessed it, ice cream and flour!

So, you wanna know what’s in these ugly but delicious sweet treats?

• Nutella…or if you’re cheap like me, supermarket brand hazelnut spread.
• Eggs
• Vanillla

That’s all folks.  C’est tout.  Three ingredients.  To get this….

And you know what?  That little dip….don’tcha just want to fill it up with all sorts of deliciousness?

I went for a contrast – still warm cake with some of my ancho berry sorbet and a couple of leaves of chocolate mint – direct from the garden!!!

But you could have any flavour of ice cream, or some salted caramel sauce..or even some normal frosting…

Or what if you added a big dollop of nutella into the dip and then made a meringue over it?  OMG.  I am so making that….stay right here.  I”ll be back…..

Just got to fill these cakes….

Then whip up a meringue….

And bung ’em in the oven for a bit….

And then…..

I am giggling like a little girl and dancing round my kitchen.  My, face, my hands, my camera are all smeared with chocolate and meringue and am feeling both a little nauseous and like I have died and gone to heaven….

We only had three of the cakes left and I have just eaten two of them….they were that good!!!!

Scuse the fingers….but you’re lucky there are any photo’s I was so busy shoving these into my gob taste-testing to ensure the highest possible quality standards.

And look at that…the light as air toasty on top meringue, the oozy melty nutella and the cakey base….

What a way to end the month!!!!

I am racing to get this out because I am heading up to the sunshiney Gold Coast very early tomorrow morning for a couple of days – sadly mostly work and not much play – but by the time I can post again it will be February….which is as scary as hell.  Where did January go????

Have a great week where ever you are and what ever you get up to.

Nutella Meringue Cake

Print Recipe

A delicious chocolate cake with a base of three ingredients. Good by itself or topped with your favourite flavours for a super delicious treat!

• Author: Taryn Fryer
• Yield: 10 1x

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

For the Cake

• 4 large eggs
• 240g Nutella or chocolate hazelnut spread of your choice
• 1 tsp vanilla

For the topping

• Additional Nutella – 1 tsp per cake
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2cup of sugar

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

For the cake

1. Preheat the oven to 175C.
2. Lightly grease your cupcake liners and place in a tray.
3. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs on top speed until they have tripled in size (approx 6 minutes but this will depend on the power of your mixer).
4. Place the Nutella in a metal bowl with the vanilla extract and stir over a pan of boiling water until the Nutella softens. (You can also do this in a microwave – use a microwave safe bowl and heat for 1 minute, stirring every 15 seconds).
5. Turn the mixer down to low and drop spoonfuls of Nutella into the egg mixture. Repeat until all the nutella has been added and the Nutella is completely mixed in.
6. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl with a spatula to ensure there is no Nutella sticking to them and stir a few times by hand.
7. Pour the Nutella mixture into the prepared cases, filling them about 3/4 full.
8. Bake for approx 15-20 minutes until a skewer inserted into a cake comes out clean.
9. The cakes will look lovely and round when they come out of the oven but they will collapse as they cool.
10. Once cool, add a spoonful of Nutella into each dip.

For the Meringue

1. Separate the eggs and place the whites in a clean, dry bowl.
2. Beat until the mixture forms stiff peaks.
3. Gradually add the sugar and beat until the mixture is thick and glossy.
4. Spoon or pipe this mixture onto the cakes.
5. Place under preheated grill for 1-2 minutes or until lightly toasted. Alternatively, use a culinary blow torch to lightly grill the meringue

Notes

• This cake is also great topped with a scoop of your favourite icecream, would be awesome with a salted caramel, berries and cream etc.
• I used a coconut oil spray to grease the cupcake liners which added the slightest hint of coconut to my cakes.
• The meringue quantities above will cover an entire batch of cupcakes.