Nutty Chocolate Cake With Mascarpone Icing

This delicious nutty chocolate cake smothered with a mascarpone topping is a wonderfully versatile recipe. Roast and grind your favourite nuts, then choose what chocolate you want to pair them with. Enjoy it at morning break, for afternoon tea or even as dessert.

What, I have been wondering this week, would go well with the black bottomed cupcake frosting that I didn’t use last week. Whilst perusing Linda Collister’s Divine, I found a recipe that I thought would be just the thing: a nut cake. I needed it for Valentine’s Day and CT is particularly fond of nuts.

Nutty Chocolate Cake

So, for the last few days I’ve been imagining the house filled with the scent of roasting hazelnuts. So picture my disappointment when I came to make it – I had forgotten to buy any hazelnuts – bah! Luckily, I had some cashews in stock so I substituted those instead – not quite such a wonderful aroma, but beggars can’t be choosers.

Not being too fond of coffee, I decided to replace it with orange as the flavouring. I also used a different preparation method to the one in the book. In short, the recipe was an inspiration rather than an exact copy. Come to think of it, I’m incapable of following a recipe exactly anyway. The cake was not meant to be iced either, but well, that was the point of it after all.

I was so right, the chocolatey crunchy nut cake and the cream cheese icing was a great combination. In fact, I was really pleased with this creation. Using cashew nuts worked absolutely fine. I now have a good excuse for making this again to see if it is even better (is this possible?) with hazelnuts.

The cake was baked to perfection, not something I always achieve. It was evenly cooked but beautifully moist. It also tasted quite delicious. CT was duly impressed. Five days on, the cake tasted even better. It certainly keeps well.

Nutty Chocolate Cake Method

Nuts

First thing is to roast the nuts. You can use whatever nuts you like. Almonds, walnuts, brazil nuts and hazelnuts are all delicious. I mostly use cashews though as they give a nutty flavour and texture, but don’t overpower everything else. They’re also really easy to roast. Mostly because you don’t have to skin them as you do with hazelnuts.

So roast them for about eight minutes when they should be golden, but not too dark. Then blitz them. Don’t worry if there are different sized bits. It’s almost impossible to get a fine flour type consistency. And in any case, you want some texture in the cake. Really you do.

I tend to use a coffee grinder to do this, but a blender or food processor will work too.

Mixing

I’ve given the standard creaming method for this cake, but I’ve actually made it in several ways and the differences are only slight. The easiest method is to melt the butter, chocolate and sugar together as you would when making brownies. Then beat in the eggs followed by the dry ingredients. This gives a slightly denser texture.

For a slightly lighter texture, whisk the eggs and sugar together until they’ve tripled in volume. Electric beaters are best for this. Melt the butter and sugar, and carefully mix into the eggs. Then fold in the dry ingredients.

Mascarpone Icing

The mascarpone topping is just dreamy. It’s also very easy to make. As long as your butter is soft, that is. Just cream the icing sugar and butter together until really light and fluffy, then beat in the mascarpone. That’s it, a simple three ingredient topping.

I like to dust mine with a little cocoa powder. But you could go wild and grate some chocolate on instead. Or just leave it plain. The choice is yours, as they say.

Chilli & Orange Nutty Chocolate Cake

Divine do a lovely dark chocolate bar with chilli and orange. I used it in the nutty chocolate cake you can see in the photos on this post. It’s a great combination. I added ½ tsp cayenne pepper to boost the chilli content, the grated zest of an orange and a tablespoon of orange juice instead of the water.

Other Nutty Chocolate Cake Variations

It’s best to use a high cocoa content dark chocolate for this nutty chocolate cake. Because without it, it won’t be particularly chocolatey. But other than that, use whatever flavour you like. Or just keep it plain. Here are a few suggestions.

• Almond & Raspberry. Use almonds instead of cashews and swap the orange chocolate for raspberry.
• For an extra nutty chocolate cake, add fifty to a hundred grams of finely chopped walnuts.
• Sea Salt & Walnut. Swap the cashew nuts for walnuts and the orange chocolate for a bar of sea salt chocolate. Or use plain chocolate and add half a teaspoon of sea salt.
• If you’d like more of a chocolate hit, add a tablespoon of cocoa powder along with the flour.
• Coffee & Hazelnut. Use hazelnuts instead of cashews and coffee chocolate instead of orange. Swap the tablespoonful of water for strong coffee.
• If you’re feeding a crowd, you’ll need a larger cake. Just double the quantities, use a slightly larger tin and bake for an additional ten minutes or so.
• Brazil Nut and Toffee. Swap the cashews for brazil nuts and use a bar of dark toffee or butterscotch chocolate.

Other Chocolate Nut Bakes You Might Like

• Chocolate baklava
• Chocolate walnut pastries
• Giant chocolate macadamia nut cookies
• Hazelnut chocolate crinkle cookies
• Henk’s chocolate nut cakes
• Pistachio chocolate biscotti
• Praline coffee chocolate cake
• Roasted hazelnut brownies

Keep in Touch

Thank you for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make a version of this versatile nutty chocolate cake, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. Do you have any recommendations or advice for making it?

Please rate the recipe. If you post pictures of your creations on social media, use the hashtag #tinandthyme so I can see them.

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If you’d like more trayake recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious and nutritious, of course.

Choclette x

Nutty Chocolate Cake. PIN IT.

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5 from 5 votes

Nutty Chocolate Cake

A delicious nutty chocolate cake smothered with mascarpone icing. It's wonderfully versatile. Just roast and grind your favourite nuts, then choose what chocolate you want to pair them with. Enjoy it at morning break, for afternoon tea or even as dessert.

Cook ModeToggle to keep screen awake

Prep Time30 minutes mins

Cook Time35 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr 5 minutes mins

Course: Afternoon Tea, Dessert

Cuisine: British

Keyword: cake, cashews, chocolate, icing, mascarpone, orange, traybake

Servings: 12 modest slices

Calories: 349kcal

Author: Choclette @ Tin and Thyme

Ingredients

• 100 g cashew nuts
• 100 g spicy orange dark chocolate broken into pieces (I use Co-op's fairtrade version or Maya Gold)
• 125 g unsalted butter softened
• 125 g light muscovado sugar
• 1 orange (optional)
• 2 large eggs (I use duck eggs when I can get them)
• 50 g wholemeal spelt flour
• ¾ tsp baking powder

Mascarpone Topping

• 100 g icing sugar
• 50 g unsalted butter softened
• 125 g mascarpone cheese or ricotta if you're feeling a bit more virtuous
• cocoa powder for dusting

Instructions

• Roast 100g cashew nuts in the oven at 160℃ (320℉, Gas 3) for just over 8 mins until golden. Leave to cool.
  100 g cashew nuts
• Melt the  chocolate in a bowl suspended over a pan of hot, but not boiling water. Leave to cool slightly.
  100 g spicy orange dark chocolate
• Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, then grate in the orange zest, if using.
  125 g unsalted butter, 125 g light muscovado sugar
• Beat the eggs in, one by one.
  2 large eggs
• Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold in. Throw any bits of bran left in the sieve into the bowl.
  50 g wholemeal spelt flour, ¾ tsp baking powder
• Grind the nuts in a blender or food processor (I use a coffee grinder for this), then stir in.
• Add 1 tbsp water or orange juice, if using. Stir in together with the melted chocolate until just combined.
• Spoon into a 20cm sq or round silicone cake mould or lined tin. Level the top and bake in a preheated oven at 170℃ (338℉, Gas 3) for 35 mins, or until the cake is well risen and firm to the touch.
• Leave to cool for ten minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Mascarpone Topping

• Cream the butter and icing sugar together until nearly white and fluffy.
  100 g icing sugar, 50 g unsalted butter
• Beat in the mascarpone or ricotta cheese.
  125 g mascarpone cheese
• Spread on top of the cake and then lightly dust with cocoa powder.
  cocoa powder

Notes

For an extra nutty chocolate cake, add 50-100g finely chopped walnuts.

Please note: calories and other nutritional information are per serving. They’re approximate and will depend on exact ingredients used.

Nutrition Estimate

Calories: 349kcal | Carbohydrates: 30g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 25g | Saturated Fat: 13g | Cholesterol: 69mg | Sodium: 24mg | Potassium: 205mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 22g | Vitamin A: 574IU | Vitamin C: 6mg | Calcium: 59mg | Iron: 2mg

Tried this recipe?Leave a comment below letting us know how you got on and do share a photo on Instagram. Tag @choclette8 or use hashtag #tinandthyme.

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