Name: Nutella Mousse Layer Cake
Prep time: 45 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 1 h 10 min
Yield: 16
Ingredients: 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips; 1/2 cup butter; 3/4 cup granulated sugar; 1/4 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 3 large eggs; 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder; 1/2 cup Nutella to spread on top; 1/2 cup cream cheese; 2 tbsp heavy whipping cream; 1 tbsp sour cream; 1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin; 3 tablespoons cold water; 1/2 cup Nutella Hazelnut Spread; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 3 cups Cool Whip; 1 cup butter, room temperature; 3/4 cup Nutella Hazelnut Spread; 3 cups powdered sugar; 6 tbsp heavy whipping cream; 1 tsp vanilla; dash of salt; 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips; 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

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This Nutella Cake is unreal! Layers of flourless chocolate cake, Nutella mousse, Nutella buttercream, chocolate ganache, and a Ferrero Rocher “cherry” on top.

I have been completely obsessed with Nutella in baking lately. So I decided to GO BIG with today’s recipe! My personal philosophy is that if you are going to make a dessert with Nutella, it needs to TASTE LIKE NUTELLA (not chocolate). So even though the top and bottom layers of this cake are purely chocolate, the Nutella Mousse and buttercream in the middle are the stars of the show, and I can promise you that this cake absolutely tastes like Nutella!!!!

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There are FIVE insanely delicious layers in this Nutella Mousse Layer Cake!

A FEW THINGS TO NOTE ABOUT THIS RECIPE:

I’ve simplified the process as much as I can, but no matter how you cut it– it’s still a little labor intensive to make 5 layers of cake (well, technically 4 since one layer is just straight-up Nutella). But don’t be scared! All the layers are very easy to make and don’t require too much hands on time. You could easily make this cake one layer at a time and get other things done in between layers (as in, you don’t need to prepare this cake in its entirety all at one time).
It’s hard to see the difference between the mousse layer and the buttercream layer, because they are almost exactly the same color. Which isn’t a huge deal and obviously doesn’t affect the taste at all. But for presentation purposes only, I’ll probably add 1-2 tbsp cocoa powder to the mousse layer next time (that should give the cake a nice gradient look).
I worked off of a few Nutella mousse recipes to cobble together the recipe that worked best for me. All of the recipes I researched called for mascarpone cream and homemade whipped cream. I don’t ever have mascarpone cream on hand, so I subbed a mixture of cream cheese, whipping cream, and sour cream. If you have mascarpone cream on hand, feel free to sub 1/2 cup of that in for the cream cheese/whipping cream/sour cream that I call for in the mousse recipe.
Also, I chose to replace the homemade whipped cream with Cool Whip. One) because it was more convenient, and two) I felt like it would make a “firmer” mousse which is a pretty important quality to the center of a layer cake. However, if you’d like, you can use 1-1/2 cups heavy whipping cream + 3 tbsp sugar whipped up.

What’s my favorite part?

That mousse filling!!! I would have been happy just eating it by the spoonful. ????