Chocolate Cake with Salty Hazelnut Brittle and Mocha Buttercream

Chocolate Cake with Salty Hazelnut Brittle RecipeDespite my best efforts to nibble away at a collection of recently acquired cookbooks, the stack stands tall enough to function as an end table in my living room.  I actually read my cookbooks, which when I share this tidbit of information with certain people, their faces kind of screw up into this look of part confusion and part disbelief.  Give a person who is passionate about food a cookbook, and they will devour it from cover to cover.  It’s not just about the recipes and photos alone.   Actually , some of my favorites are the ones that have no photos at all.  They are the books that transport me to a time long ago or on a journey to distant places that I may never have the opportunity to experience any other way.  In actuality,  I’m not all that particular.  If it’s a book and it’s about food, especially baking, it garners my attention.
Just a few of my "must read" cookbooks.Another reason it has taken me so long to make a dent in the stack of publications that has now become H’s favorite place to sit a wet glass, (what is it with the lack of coaster  etiquette these days?) is because I welcome each one as a new friend into my home.  I want them to feel special, and appreciated, and pampered.  One by one they get my attention, and unless I have the time to devote, they must wait for a rainy day, quiet evening,  or a lazy weekend.
Chocolate Cake with Salty Hazelnut Brittle RecipeWhile I was home visiting with my sister over the Christmas holiday, I spent some leisurely hours in front of the fire and ate up the pages of One Girl Cookies.  There is a love story to be found within the covers of Dawn Casale and David Crofton‘s book; a love for each other and a love of baking that took Dawn from the confines of her home kitchen to opening her own neighborhood bakery in Brooklyn. Her story is what baking dreams are made of – at least what my baking dreams are made of.  And the recipes – well, there was no reason to dog-ear the pages of my favorites because there wasn’t a recipe in the book I wouldn’t make.
Chocolate Cake with Salty Hazelnut BrittleI must confess that although I gave One Girl Cookies much time and attention while I was on vacation, once home, it landed on the stack along with all the other food and baking books I had received as gifts over the holidays.  And as life would have it, I got busy and did not have the time to return to it until just this week.  My sister was as enamored with the book as I was and copied the recipe for Rich Chocolate Cake before I absconded with it back to LA.  She has made that cake recipe more than once and in varying ways.  After bending my ear over and over again about how much she loves this cake, about how moist and chocolatey it is, I finally decided it was time to try it for myself.  There was good reason for Bec to rave as much as she had.  I will also be making this cake over and over again.
Chocolate Cake with Salty Hazelnut Brittle

Source:  One Girl Cookie by Dawn Casale and David Crofton

 

 




10 thoughts on “Chocolate Cake with Salty Hazelnut Brittle and Mocha Buttercream

  1. I also have a stack of cookbooks waiting my attention. But One Girl Cookies is new to me! I will delve further into my oversight as this cake is just perfect for a birthday looming on my horizon!

  2. Reminds me I have a new cookbook waiting for me, wish I had a piece of this amazing cake to eat while I am reading it. The recipe sounds fantastic.

  3. First – I resemble your remark about Coaster Etiquette. I will make sure to more carefully protect the growing stack of baking books.

    Second – Before you launch your immediate handouts to neighbors and friends of all your delicious constructions – please consider your forlorn husband and save me a slice, from time to time, of these most delicious treats. I’m somebody too !

    H

    • Ahh, pour Baby. From now on I will make sure you get the first bite of everything that comes out of the oven. After all, you are my biggest fan. XX

  4. Wow! I`m in love with your collection! I have a few baking books I just can`t wait to look through, but I never manage my time well enough to have time to read them! Haha~

    This cake looks simply fantastic! It looks deliciously moist and decadent with the mocha buttercream.

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