Attempt #3: "Nutella" cake with white chocolate buttercream and raspberry filling

Alright, Jared. Alright. I'm updating the blog. Are you happy now?

A couple of weeks ago, Jared and Heather came to visit (YAY) and it was awesome. Some of the highlights of the weekend:

I have no idea. 

Hezz looking at her iPad while Mugsy cases the joint. 

We had a wonderful time wearing sleeveless tops, buying Heather's wedding dress (woohoo!), eating wonderful meals (Cap'n Crunch French Toast, anyone?) and just generally having fun hanging out and being together. I am SO EXCITED that I get to see them again in a few short weeks when Jeremy takes me to Columbus as my 1 year anniversary present. He knew exactly what I wanted!

While they were here I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to give them a cake tasting. They tasted (thawed) pieces of the two cakes I've previously blogged, along with a cake that I baked fresh while they were there. I used the chocolate-hazelnut cake recipe from the Sky-High Cakes cookbook and the same white chocolate buttercream recipe as the first cake (which they both agreed they loved). I wasn't so sure how the recipe was going to turn out because I had to scale it myself from being a 3 layer 9" cake to being a two layer 6" cake, but it worked out in the end. Here are some pictures of the cake in progress:

toasted, ground hazelnuts combined with cocoa powder and other dry ingredients

white chocolate buttercream in progress

This time when I made the white chocolate buttercream I used the whisk attachment on the KitchenAid instead of the paddle attachment, and that made all the difference! The frosting whipped up nice and fluffy and light. I'll definitely continue to use the whisk attachment for buttercreams in the future. 

The cake turned out really well and I got a chance to use my cake comb  to create a nice texture on the side of the cake. It reminds me of old-fashioned cakes and I really liked it...although it took a really long time for me to get the frosting on the side of the cake thick enough to make the pattern without just scraping all the icing off.

Again, I used my shell tips to pipe the borders on the top and my straight tip to pipe the french dots/pearls along the bottom. I learned a new way to do that since this cake though and I think it'll be better for next time. 

Here's the finished cake:

I think everyone agreed that while they enjoyed the Nutella-esque chocolate hazelnut flavor, they didn't quite love the texture of the ground nuts in the cake. It made for a slightly gritty texture that wasn't very pleasant on the palette. So I think when we do the actual cake, we'll go with a straight chocolate instead of adding the hazelnut element. Jared, how does that sound to you?

So we had a very productive weekend. Lots of drinking, eating, cake baking, cake eating, wedding dress shopping and buying, and general loafing. I hope they enjoyed themselves enough to come visit soon and I hope they're looking forward to my and Jeremy's impending visit to Columbus :)