Easy Nutella Cake

Ingredients

• 8 ounces butter ((or 2 sticks))
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla essence
• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup Nutella
• 1/3 cup whole hazelnuts

Instructions

1. 1

   Preheat the oven to 1325F/160C (fan oven - increase to 355F/180C in a conventional oven). Line a loaf pan (roughly 9 x 5 inches) with baking paper and set aside.

2. 2

   Leave the butter out of the fridge for a while to soften. Then add it to a large bowl with the sugar. Cream it together with a hand-held whisk until light and fluffy (two or three minutes).

3. 3

   Add in the eggs one by one and whisk until well combined, then whisk in the vanilla.

4. 4

   Add the flour and baking powder and stir in with a wooden spoon until well mixed (don’t be tempted to over-mix).

5. 5

   Pour roughly ⅓ of the cake batter into the bottom of the loaf pan. Then warm the Nutella in a microwave (15 seconds or so should do it) and pour half of it over the batter in the pan. You can swirl the Nutella into the batter with the tip of a knife if you like.

6. 6

   Pour another ⅓ of the batter over the Nutella layer, followed by the rest of the Nutella. Finally, top with the last layer of cake batter.

7. 7

   Sprinkle with hazelnuts, pressing lightly into the top, then bake the cake for about fifty minutes or until the cake is well risen and has begun to pull away from the sides of the pan.

8. 8

   Let cool for ten minutes in the pan, then remove and let cool on a wire rack before slicing.