Aunt Ellie's Nut Cake

Ingredients for 10 servings:

• 11 m.-sized eggs
• 180 g sugar
• 2 vanilla sugar
• 500 g hazelnuts, ground
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 200 g dark chocolate (block chocolate)
• Breadcrumbs and fat for the form
• Dark chocolate coating

Instructions

Working time approx. 20 minutes; Total time approx. 20 minutes

(without butter and flour)

Preheat oven (fan assisted) to 195°C. Separate the eggs and beat the egg yolks in a large bowl with the sugar and vanilla sugar until frothy. Mix the nuts and baking powder well. Roughly chop the chocolate block and fold it into the egg yolk mixture along with the nuts and baking powder. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks and fold them into the mixture. Pour the batter into a carefully greased and breadcrumb-dusted, tall Bundt pan (e.g. Kaiser) and bake on the second rack from the bottom for approx. 50-60 minutes. Check after 30 minutes whether the cake is getting too dark, then cover with baking paper. After 50 minutes, do the skewer test; if nothing sticks, the cake is done! Turn out immediately onto a wire rack. Once cooled, brush off any excess breadcrumbs with a brush, otherwise you’ll have unsightly crumbs in the icing. Cover the cake with the dark chocolate coating and enjoy. This cake stores well in a cool place and tastes better every day. The recipe comes from my aunt Ellie Echterbecker from Remscheid (although I can’t say where she got it from—I think it’s a tried-and-true recipe), who passed away long ago and left us her nut cake recipe, which was always a huge secret. It’s without the block chocolate and without the couverture…but it tastes delicious right now! Happy baking!