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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Hi! I’ve been following your blog for a while now, and I love it! What I love the most is that the recipes look good and taste great. I tried this one out yesterday, and it was just incredible. Hard to believe its low carb, gluten free, sugar free etc. Thank you!
I’m new to low carb baking and was wondering if I could use EZ-Sweetz liquid sweetener in place of the Stevia extract, as that is what I have on hand?
Yes, but I am not sure exactly how much. I think EZ Sweetz may be more sweet than stevia. It should work just as well, though.
I am curious and want to know why in some recipes including this one it calls for swerve and then for stevia extract? Why not just use swerve only?
Thanks
Several reasons…because when I first started baking low carb, I tended to use a combo of erythritol and stevia and I got very used to that. I also found that they enhanced each others sweetness. And because Swerve is expensive and this helps my readers stretch it out longer. But you are free to sweeten any recipe as you see fit.
I have a question. could i use anything else instead of the whey protein powder?
I haven’t been able to find that in any of my stores i’ve searched every blimpy store here in Germany so far, and it’s just simply not to find… it must be super easy to get in the states, but here a pack of 200 g is so incredibly expensive… there must be something to use instead…
i have been able to get whey powder, but i guess there is a big diffrence in whey powder and whey protein powder… right??
i would appreciate any kind of help…
Not sure about just whey powder, not sure what that is. You can skip the protein powder here, but it may sink a little after baking. I’d add at least one additional egg to help with structure, if you can.
Thanks so much. Will try that.
Hi Carolyn,
Just did a dry run of this cake in anticipation of my birthday. I followed your directions nearly to the T, but added a bit more erythritol and Stevia drops to both the cake and icing. It looked amazing and tasted even better. I would warn people to bake only 40 minutes and if in doubt, take out-even if it still looks a bit wet on top. Thank You!
Whoa, I was worried when I saw the start of your comment. Glad it turned out well! It’s one of my faves.
OK I made this cake today. It was incredible. I will be making this again. (and again and again.)
I don’t have any hazelnut oil, can I add more butter instead?
You bet!
Hi Carolyn;
Could you tell me how much sugar would be used, rather than the other sweeteners? I would like to use maple sugar, agave, brown sugar or even honey. Thank you.
I’d go for 3/4 cup sugar in the cake, and then the same amount of powdered sugar in the glaze. Or if you don’t want to use powdered sugar, agave in the glaze would make it really smooth, but you probably wouldn’t need the extra oil at the end.
Glad you were able to bake this scrumptious bundt cake before the power went out. It would definitely make hunkering down a little easier. As we know now, the Boston area and our friends and relatives who live there fared much better than NYC or NJ.
Ok. I’m sure you appreciate all the comments but did anyone MAKE the cake?! Was it as delish as it looks?!!!!! 😉
Glorious indeed, there’s nothing quite like the combination of chocolate and hazelnuts!
pass me a fork, I really want some of this!
This looks so good right now 🙂
Well, if you’re going to be cooped up, I guess having a cake around is a good thing 😉 It looks amazing, by the way!
Okay I’ve been searching the web for hazelnut extract for the past month… Where did ou buy yours??
I just bought mine at my local grocery store. Surely amazon sells it???
Thank you so much for the rapid response!!..For now I will get the Truvia..and definitely try the coffee grinder-to-powdered sweetener approach…I need to research and will definitely be on the lookout for the Swerve so prominent in many of your amazing recipes!..Have a lovely autumn week and thanks again!