This cake has been adapted from a recipe I stumbled across by Skye McAlpin. A beautifully easy recipe that feels incredibly festive for this time of year but would work perfectly at any time. I made it for my Christmas Eve celebrations with the leftovers nibbled alongside coffee on Christmas morning. Then gain on New Years Day to have later on in the day for afternoon tea.
So, you see it is very versatile. Breakfast, dessert and afternoon tea are all covered here! You will notice that the cake mix doesn’t contain butter or oil but instead decadent mascarpone. A first for me baking this way, but I can assure you it works perfectly and creates a wonderful, smooth tasting cake with a good crumb.
Decorate the cooled cake simply with a dusting of snowy icing sugar for a simple yet classy cake that suits every eventuality.
- 330g mascarpone
- 240g golden caster sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 330g self-raising flour
- 1 1/3 tsp baking powder
- A generous pinch of salt
- Zest of one large orange
- 80g toasted hazelnuts, coarsely chopped
- 100g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
- Icing sugar, for dusting
- Butter or olive oil, for greasing
- Grease your bundt cake tin very well with butter or olive oil. Preheat your oven to Gas 4/180 C.
- In a large bowl beat the mascarpone, sugar and eggs together until you get a smooth cream. Add the flour, salt, baking powder and orange zest and mix thoroughly. Add in the chopped hazelnuts and chocolate and combine.
- Bake for 45-50 minutes or until golden brown on the top and a skewer inserted comes out clean. Cool the cake in the tin and then turn out onto a serving plate or cake stand.
- Dust with icing sugar and serve.