Deliciously tender low carb hazelnut cake with chocolate chips and a sugar-free chocolate glaze.
As you read this, Hurricane/Megastorm/Frakenstorm Sandy is barreling up the East Coast, and we are all under orders to stay home and hunker down. My kids have no school of course, much to my chagrin. We spent a restless Sunday already cooped up too much indoors, and I am kicking myself now for not getting them outside more while I could. It was wet, but not so much that we couldn’t have run around a little more and worked out some of that excess energy. Another day at home inside with all three is going to tax all of my inner strength. It always sounds like a charming prospect, everyone cozy at home, snuggling together while a storm rages outside. But those of you with small children know the reality, which is more along the lines of little monkeys swinging from the chandeliers while harried, exhausted parents try to come up with yet another activity to burn up half an hour and keep them from bickering and tearing the house to shreds.
I know I shouldn’t complain. I know that many of you are likely in the same position and feeling much the same way. And those of you directly affected by the storm and its chaos, I hope and pray you are safe and sound. I hope we all are. I hope we all get through this as unscathed as possible. And for those of you cooped up with small children, if your house hasn’t fallen due to wind and rain, I hope it hasn’t been completely torn apart by your kids! I know that this is serious and dire, and I shouldn’t joke about how my kids drive me crazy in the face of a national emergency. But humour gets me through good times and bad, so I will throw myself upon your mercy and hope you will forgive me.
And then I will distract you with cake. And what a glorious cake it is. Really, truly glorious. I originally envisioned it as a loaf cake, and I also envisioned it with cocoa powder in the batter, to make it chocolate all the way through. But as is my wont, I changed horses mid-stream and found myself buttering a bundt pan and chopping up chocolate to sprinkle throughout. I skipped the cocoa powder for the batter, and I am glad now I did. I find that hazelnut flour can easily be overpowered in flavour, and I wanted the hazel-nuttines to shine through. To that end, I emphasized it as much as possible, going with some hazelnut oil and hazelnut extract in addition to the flour.
And then, of course, I made a rich chocolate ganache and drizzled it over the top of the cake and down the sides. And I got the action shots to prove it. There is something about bundt cake that cries out for glaze. I’ve seen them without glaze, but I’ve never made one myself. Indeed, I think I would be incapable of making a bundt cake without glaze. Truth be told, the flavour of this cake was so good, it would have been fine without the chocolate glaze. Less decadent, yes, but really good nonetheless. But I just couldn’t resist the pull of chocolate oozing down the sides. Which took it from tea cake to dessert in a matter of moments.
And I’m thinking that as long as Sandy hasn’t knocked out my power, making this again would be a very productive use of my day.
Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake – Low Carb and Gluten-Free
Ingredients
Cake:
- 3 cups hazelnut flour, (I used Bob's Red Mill)
- 1/3 cup unflavoured whey protein powder
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
- 1/4 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 cup Swerve Sweetener, or granulated erythritol
- 1/4 cup hazelnut oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp hazelnut extract
- 20 drops stevia extract
- 1/2 cup almond milk
- 1, 3.5- oz high cacao chocolate bar, gluten-free, chopped
Chocolate Glaze:
- 5 tbsp butter
- 2 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
- 2 tbsp powdered Swerve Sweetener, or powdered erythritol
- 3 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 15 drops stevia extract
- 1 to 2 tbsp hazelnut oil
Instructions
For the cake:
- Preheat oven to 325F and grease a bundt pan very well, making sure to get in all crevices.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together hazelnut flour, whey protein, baking powder, baking soda, salt and xanthan gum.
- In a large bowl, beat butter and Swerve until lightened. Beat in hazelnut oil, eggs, hazelnut extract and stevia extract.
- Beat in hazelnut flour mixture in two batches, alternating with almond milk, until well combined.
- Stir in chopped chocolate.
- Pour batter into prepared bundt pan and bake 40 to 45 minutes, or until browned and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Let cool in pan 20 minutes, then flip out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
For the glaze:
- Melt butter, chocolate, and powdered Swerve together in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring until smooth.
- Stir in cocoa powder, vanilla extract, and stevia extract. Mixture will thicken considerably.
- Stir in hazelnut oil until mixture smooths out and is pourable.
- Pour over cooled cake and let set 1 hour.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer
Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I am simply recounting and sharing my own experiences on this blog. Nothing I express here should be taken as medical advice and you should consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program. I provide nutritional information for my recipes simply as a courtesy to my readers. It is calculated using MacGourmet software and I remove erythritol from the final carb count and net carb count, as it does not affect my own blood glucose levels. I do my best to be as accurate as possible but you should independently calculate nutritional information on your own before relying on them. I expressly disclaim any and all liability of any kind with respect to any act or omission wholly or in part in reliance on anything contained in this website.
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I do not have any hazelnut ingredients and do not prefer hazelnuts but really want to make this cake. Can I use Almond flour? What would you use instead of 1/4 cup hazelnut oil? Also for the frosting I am new to this kind of baking and do not have powdered Swerve Sweetener or powdered erythritol? I just ordered erythritol on line but did not see powdered? Where can I get this or what can I use instead so I can make this cake now? It is my birthday next week and want to make a cake that is Low Carb. Which Chocolate recipe from your site would you recommend? I am looking for easy and fast but good!
Thanks Heidi
Yes, you can easily make this with almond flour. It’s actually yet another variation of my Almond Crusted Butter Cake https://alldayidreamaboutfood.com/2012/01/almond-crusted-butter-cake-low-carb-and-gluten-free.html and you can just use more butter in place of the hazelnut oil. You can just put it in a bundt pan, and you can do vanilla extract in place of almond, and leave out the almond crust. Whatever you like.
If you want to do the chocolate ganache without powdered erythritol, I’d suggest grinding the granulated as fine as you can in a coffee grinder or food processor. Your glaze may be a touch grittier, but will still be decent.
Do you think I can use Peanut flour instead of Hazelnut flour? I have a bag of peanut flour that came in a gift basket and I have no idea how to use it. Do you have any recipes that use Peanut flour?
That depends…is it just ground peanuts or is it the really fine, powdery, defatted peanut flour? If it’s the latter, then no, you can sub it in because it’s much denser and will need a lot more eggs and liquid. I have plenty of recipes that use peanut flour…just use the search function to find them! 🙂
I have the roasted, defatted peanut flour (Protein Plus brand), 12% fat. Are you saying I cannot use it or I can use it? Also I searched your site and the recipes that came up did not specify which type of Peanut flour to use.
Oops…forgot to ask an important question about the Swerve in the recipe…I cannot find it in France…but have noticed two sweeteners featuring erythritol…”Truvia” and “Purvia” or “Provia”?! ..They seem to have a bit of stevia in them as well…but the main ingredient seems to be erythritol…Any advice/recommendations!…I do so want to respect the integrity of your recipe and hopefully mimick it as closely as possible to obtain equally spectacular results!!…Thank you in advance for any enlightenment!
Truvia would be fine. You may find you need to sweeten a bit more, because it doesn’t measure exactly like Swerve. As for the powdered version, you may need to grind it in a coffee grinder, and your glaze will be a touch grittier.
As far as chocolate/hazelnut combinations are considered…this gorgeous bundt beauty clearly surpasses Nutella!..Bravo..it is my pre-programmed holiday cake thanks to your generous sharing of your culinary wizardry!…
Absolutely no one at the table will guess this is low-carb!
This looks amazing! I was just wondering what percent chocolate you used when calculating the nutritional info.
I use 90%. I often use Lindt when I can’t find gluten free, but there are a few brands that have 85% GF chocolate.
Holy chocolate goodness, come to me!! That bundt looks incredibly delicious!
I love the combination of chocolate and hazelnut. This cake is totally gourmet!
Stay safe my US friends, cake looks amazing!!
Perfection!! Just looking at it, you’d never know it was gf and low carb!
this is one of the first things i saw on Pinterest this morning. WOW
Carolyn!! This is soooo gorgeous!!
Oh my … will be making this for sure 🙂 I was just eyeing a beautiful bundt pan from Nordic and thought … na … I won’t be making any bundt cakes. Guess I’ll run back out and get it 😉
A low-carb chocolate cake? Didn’t realize it’s possible! The cake looks amazing!
What happens if you skip the whey protein?
The protein helps it rise and stay risen. So it might sink and be a lot more dense without it.
Stay safe! We’re just getting the tail-end of it here–lots of wind and rain! This is definitely a glorious cake. Ooh, that ganache!
I am not sure low-carb has ever looked so good. Ever.
a big slice of this cake would make me way happier while dealing with Sandy.
Stay safe Carolyn (hope your little monkeys don’t tear the house down)