Nutella Sponge Cake

Ingredients

• 225 g Unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing the tin
• 225 g Caster sugar
• 4 Free range eggs, medium
• 225 g Self raising flour
• 150 g Nutella

To top

• 75 g Hazelnuts
• 100 g Nutella

Instruction

1. Pre-heat the oven to 160C (fan or 180C non fan).
2. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in the eggs, don’t worry if it curdles.
4. Gently stir in the flour.
5. Remove about a third of the mixture into another bowl and add the 150g of Nutella. Gently stir in until combined. (If the room is cold, pop the Nutella in a bowl in the microwave for 15 – 20 seconds first to warm it and soften it slightly.)
6. Put the two thirds of the batter into a well greased and lined cake tin and add the Nutella flavoured batter. I put the batters side by side, lengthways down the tin.
7. Swirl the batters together using a knife.
8. Bake for about an hour or until a skewer comes out clean. This time may vary by up to 15 minutes either way depending on your oven so just check the cake at 45 minutes onwards.
9. When the cake come out of the oven, leave the oven on and toast the hazelnuts in the oven until golden. If they are in their skins, toast until the skin is very dark brown and you can smell the nuts, then gently roll the nuts around in a tea towel until the skins fall off. Chop very roughly, leaving them still quite large.
10. When the loaf is cold, turn out of the tin and slather on the remaining Nutella with a knife and top with the remaining toasted nuts.