Chocolate & Hazelnut Cake with Espresso Ganache (Chocolate Hazelnut Cake & Ganache with Coffee)

Preparation steps

• Part One - Hazelnut Meringue Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C, grease a 25cm diameter mold with butter and line with baking paper (bottom and sides). Weigh / prepare the ingredients at room temperature - then start in order :) Mix the egg whites for a minute, add a pinch of salt and continue mixing for 2-3 minutes. Gradually add sugar (maybe less than it says in rcp) and continue to mix for 3-4 minutes until you get a nice solid, shiny but wet snow. Lightly mix ground hazelnuts and sifted cocoa powder with a spatula. Pour the mixture (meringue) into the prepared mold and put in the oven for about 15 minutes. Remove the baked crust from the oven and set aside.
• Part Two - Chocolate Mixture While the meringue is baking, froth the butter with the sugar and gradually add the egg yolks one by one and continue mixing until you get a nice smooth pale yellowish mixture. Add melted chocolate and coffee to it. Combine everything and pour over the baked base (meringue), and put in the oven again for about 20 minutes. After 20-25 minutes, take the cake out of the oven, even though it seems that it could still be baked. When it cools down a bit, put it in the fridge, and during that time, the upper part will tighten nicely.
• Espresso Ganache Put the sweet cream and coffee to boil at a moderate temperature, just before it boils, remove from the heat and add the chocolate and liqueur. Stir until the chocolate melts and the mixture is finely smooth. Pour everything over the cake and return to the fridge for an hour or two.
• At least half an hour before serving, take the cake out of the fridge, put the strawberries on top, because in addition to so much chocolate, you really need a little fruit.
• Chocolate lovers will like it, the others have to serve a lot of raspberries and maybe a little lightly whipped sweet cream with the cake :)