Nutella Cake with Nutella Buttercream Frosting

With the world’s favorite hazelnut spread in the cake and the frosting, this Nutella Cake recipe doubles down on deliciousness. Incredibly moist, this cake’s topped with a thick layer of buttercream for chocolate and hazelnut flavors in every scrumptious bite.

It’s never fun being sick. It’s even less fun when you can’t figure out what’s wrong with you. My Covid test came back negative, my pregnancy test came back negative and my IQ test: also negative. Apparently I’m too dumb to know why I feel like death. According to WebMD, my symptoms call for shopping for a coffin ASAP. But before I check if Amazon Prime sells pine boxes, I need to clear my browsing history.

Despite a raging fever burning my brain cells, I still have enough mental faculties to know my web searches could get me posthumously accused of a crime. Once I’m 6 feet under, I want to stay put. If life is about shattering glass ceilings then the afterlife should be about leaving dirt ceilings in tact. A girl cannot sprout where she’s planted if somebody’s digging her up with a giant backhoe over an innocent typo. I mean, doesn’t everyone miswrite ‘poisoning rat’ as ‘poisoning ratatouille’ on French food night?

You can’t blame me if my husband put enough ratatouille on his plate to feed 3 people and a hungry horse. I’ll go to my grave insisting he got ill from binge eating eggplant. And there’s no reason to be suspicious that I skipped dinner because everybody knows I don’t care for vegetable stew. Or any other conglomeration of vegetables. Or stew, for that matter. I also don’t care for our Harley Davidson falling like Humpty Dumpty after my husband parked it in a soggy grass patch.

So I ate the money to fix the motorcycle, and he ate the ratatouille. Coincidence? I think not. Oh snap, scratch that! I meant to say yes, it is 100% a “coincidence”. The cheeky quotation marks are in no way an admission of guilt, I feel compelled to state that for the record. I also feel compelled to change the subject. And since my favorite subject is dessert, let’s talk about making my guilty pleasure: Nutella Cake.

You don’t have to be guilty to enjoy this chocolate cake, although stirring Nutella into the batter and buttercream frosting makes it so good that it borders on criminal. A must for lovers of chocolate hazelnut spread, this unique sheet cake recipe is super moist and super delicious. And with twelve big slices per batch, you can make this cake for a crowd or to make amends with your spouse.

Before sharing the recipe for Nutella Cake, here are a few tips to help you out:

Cake Ingredient Tips

If you don’t have buttermilk, you can make a sour milk substitution by stirring 1 teaspoon of fresh lemon juice into 1 cup of whole milk then letting it set for 5 minutes before use.

Eggs need to be at room temperature before beginning. If you’ve forgotten to take yours out of the refrigerator ahead of time then speed up the process by placing it in a bowl of warm water. Don’t use hot water; we want to warm the eggs, not hatch them.

Cake Preparation Tips

Always use the spoon and level method to measure flour. Scooping flour overpacks flour into the measuring cup which results in a drier, denser cake than the moist, tender cake you get from properly measuring flour.

Cool cake completely before adding Nutella frosting.

Nutella chocolate cake can be made 2 days in advance. Cover the cooled, unfrosted cake in plastic wrap then store in the refrigerator until ready to frost and serve.

How to Store Nutella Cake with Nutella Frosting

Cover and store cake at room temperature up to 3 days or in the refrigerator up to 5 days.

You can store this cake in the freezer up to 3 months. First cover with plastic wrap then with a layer of aluminum foil and place in an airtight container before freezing. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator then bring to room temperature before serving.

I hope you enjoy this Nutella Cake recipe. Please leave a comment and rating below when you try it out. And, while you’re at it, sign up for my weekly Recipe Newsletter so you never miss a tempting recipe.

Finally, if you like chocolate sheet cakes then check out this recipe for Chocolate Zucchini Cake. Packed with moisture-rich zucchini, this heavenly cake is frosted with a thick layer of chocolate buttercream and bakes up perfectly every time.

Nutella Cake with Nutella Buttercream Frosting

Heather Wolf

With the world's favorite hazelnut spread in the cake and the frosting, this Nutella Cake recipe doubles down on deliciousness. Incredibly moist, this cake's topped with a thick layer of buttercream for chocolate and hazelnut flavors in every scrumptious bite.

5 from 1 vote

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 35 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 5 minutes mins

Course Cakes and Cupcakes

Cuisine American

Servings 12

Ingredients

  

Nutella Cake

• 2 cups all-purpose flour unbleached
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp sea salt fine
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs room temperature
• 1/3 cup Nutella
• 2 tsp vanilla extract pure
• 1 cup buttermilk room temperature
• 1 cup hot coffee freshly brewed

Nutella Buttercream

• 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter room temperature
• 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 tsp vanilla extract pure
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup Nutella
• 1/8 tsp sea salt fine

Instructions

 

Nutella Cake

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9 x 13 metal baking pan with nonstick baking spray. Set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl, sift together dry ingredients: flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together oil, eggs, Nutella and vanilla until smooth and lump free.
• Add buttermilk to wet ingredients then whisk until combined.
• Add the dry ingredients to the bowl of wet ingredients and stir with a spoon until just combined. Take care to avoid overmixing.
• Carefully pour hot coffee into the batter and stir until evenly incorporated.

  Note: batter will be thin.
• Pour batter into prepared baking pan and bake for 35 minutes or until a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Avoid overbaking.
• Place cake pan on a wire rack to cool completely, approximately 2 hours, before frosting with Nutella buttercream.

Nutella Buttercream

• Beat butter with an electric mixer on medium speed until creamy and smooth, approximately 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as needed.
• Add powdered sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla, heavy cream, Nutella and salt. Beat on low until incorporated then increase speed to high and beat until fluffy, approximately 2 minutes.
• Frost cake then slice and serve.
• For pristine slices, clean knife blade with hot water in between cuts.
• Cake will keep covered at room temperature up to 3 days or refrigerated up to 5 days.

Keyword cake, nutella