Halo - Nutella Mousse Cake

Onyx Hive Vs Nutella

Well, it happened, I decided to create a Nutella, chocolate hazelnut mousse cake. Nutella fusions in any bakery is not new nor original I must say, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to create a flavour with an iconic brand.

Early Testing

The idea stemmed from a long awaited idea that started in 2021 that I wanted to create large donut shaped cake in two flavours, chocolate and strawberry, the idea become a side project as I was re-creating the same mousse flavours (such as my Onyx, chocolate / cherry cake) but in different shapes which I didn’t want to do.

The second hurdle was to find a mould that suited my brand as I didn’t want a generic, smooth donut shape, luckily I found a brand, Silikomart which sold a perfect donut mould that I could use!

The Challenges: Creating the Cake

I am usually quite stubborn when it comes to flavour, as I wanted the mousse to have a strong, nutella flavour as I have noticed that Nutella baked goods from other bakeries don’t have that Nutella hit. This was a huge challenge to get the balance right as the milk and cream in the mousse dilutes the Nutella flavour.

The other challenge is that Nutella hardens in the fridge as I wanted to have a marble cream and Nutella cream center, mixing the Nutella and cream, the cream would stiffen up and I ended up scrapping this idea.

(Also read: Imperial - Mango Mousse Cake Now Available!)

The Glaze

While the donut mould gave a nice geometric look to the cake, I needed to have that extra layer of flavour, texture and aesthetics of a glazed donut. This is where cake glaze comes in.

The glaze conists of: water, sugar, glucose syrup, nutella and chopped hazelnuts. The hazelnuts gave the cake depth and amazing crunch and texture.

Though, unintentionally, the cake does taste like a Fererro Rocher which isn’t a bad thing at all!