Hello everyone!
Today is a special day for the Boy and I. Coinciding with Easter Sunday, is our actual Bloganniversary.
It’s been 6 years since I decided to start a personal blog. 3 years since I decided to share more of myself and my love of food and travel into something bigger. 3 years since the Boy decided to spend countless hours migrating all my old blog posts from my blogspot domain and editing all my photos and posts before hitting the “publish” button.
The blog has grown at an incredible rate and I couldn’t have done it without all of you lovely readers, friends and family. Indeed all of you loyal followers are like my friends and family now.
You’ve been through the low-lows with us and the ups on our roller coaster journey in life. Deaths, births and marriages, we should start dedicating some of the more poignant posts to the government agency that handles it *wink*.
As our dedication to you grows, we would like to announce a change to the blog name (it should have been done years ago) to “The Chronicles of Ms I-Hua and the Boy”!!!
It’s fitting and apt considering the hours that we both put into this blog. I’ve had to beat the idea into the Boy as he didn’t want any spotlight cast his way, but I believe in sharing the limelight with my soul mate (we wouldn’t have amazing photos of #yolkporn if it weren’t for him!).
I would like to thank the beautiful Iron Chef Shellie for designing our new blog header (it’s so beautiful and lifelike!)
As part of this celebration, I would like to share with you my amazing rendition of Nigella Lawson’s Nutella Cake!
Cheers and enjoy the merry feasting. Here’s to another wonderful eventful year ahead!
Nigella’s Nutella Cake Recipe
(Adapted from Nigella.com “Nutella Cake”)
Ingredients:
For the cake
6 large Eggs
1 pinch of Salt
125 g Unsalted Butter (soften)
400 g Nutella (1 large jar)
1 Tbsp of Frangelico liqueur
100 g ground Hazelnuts (I bought a packet of hazelnuts, peeled them and grinded them in my coffee grinder 🙂 )
100 g Dark Chocolate (melted)
For the icing
100 g Hazelnut (peeled weight)
125 ml Double Cream
1 Tbsp Frangelico liqueur or Water
125 g Dark Chocolate (chopped)
Procedure:
Preheat the oven to 180ºC (degrees Celsius).
In a large bowl, beat the butter and Nutella together, and then add the Frangelico, egg yolks and ground hazelnuts and set aside.
In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites and salt until stiff but not dry. I found this to be the most difficult part of the process as it took much longer than usual to whip up.
As with most chocolate cakes, fold in the cooled, melted chocolate to the Nutella mixture, then lighten the mixture with a large dollop of whisked egg white, which you can beat in as roughly as you want, before gently folding the rest of them, bit by bit.
Pour into a greased 23cm/ 9 inch round and lined springform tin and cook for 40 minutes or until the cake’s beginning to come away at the sides, then let cool on a rack.
Toast the hazelnuts in a dry frying pan until the aroma wafts upwards and the nuts are golden-brown in parts: keep shaking the pan so that they don’t burn on one side and stay too pallid on others.
If you are using hazelnuts with their skin on, there’s a handy trick of transferring the heated nuts onto a tea towel and rubbing them together. Their skins will naturally fall off. I left some of them half peeled (for aesthetic reasons).
Make sure you transfer the hazelnuts to a plate and let cool, if you don’t do this and place them straight onto the ganache, it’ll turn oily.
To make the ganache, simply put a heavy-bottomed saucepan onto the stove and add the cream, Frangelico (or water) and chopped chocolate, making sure that you stir continuously until the chocolate has melted.
Take it off the heat and whisk until it reaches the right consistency (should be a smooth cream like texture).
Release the cooled cake from the mould carefully, leaving it on the base (as it is wet and heavy and will break). Slowly glaze the top of the cake with the chocolate ganache, taking care to run the chocolate cream to the edges so it dribbles dramatically down the sides 🙂
Finish it all off by placing the toasted (and cooled) hazelnuts onto the cake.
Voila! A chocolate masterpiece 🙂
So what do you think? Are you keen to attempt it? There wasn’t a single piece of the cake left when I took it into work by lunchtime.
Happy Blogniversary! (I think I spelt it wrongly…) I remembered reading your blog back then. It looks so different from now. I guess we sort of influenced each other in a way. But unlike you, I’ve retired from this. You have moved on, which I feel is impressive because it’s not easy running a blog.
I wished we could have meet up more often and talked more about food. But yeah. I apologized if I sounded a bit off. Haha. 🙂
My god, this comment is turning romantic. = =
Aww thank you! Hahaha I think everyone on the web that’s been running for this long has done well 🙂
Happy Easter!
Happy Blogaversary thingo (however you spell it)
Happy new blog header!
LOVE the styling in the last shot…I REALLY don’t know who you are!! x
I LOVE YOU! NUFF SAID!
Congrats on your blog anniversary! (: More years of amazing recipes and reviews to come! hehe xx
Ps : this cake is making me drool early in the morning! hehe Happy easter!
Oops.. drool is good, yes?
Happy Anniversary Miss Hua… looking fabulous!! The cake is totally droolworthy! Happy Easter xoxox
Thanks Jackie!
Happy 6TH Blogaversary!!! Happy Easter and I love the new headers!
Wow, you must almost be and original blogger :0!
Love the look of this cake… I am sure I am almost a sugar overload… but maybe just one bite 😉
TQ TQ! No such thing as the original 😛
Oh my gosh! Congratulations on your 6th blogaversary! Your new header couldn’t be more perfect! 🙂
Cake looking just mouth-watering as well…Droooolllll!
Hee hee every strand of his hair is in it!
Congratulations and Happy Anniversary 🙂
What a fitting name 😀
Thank you!
Happy 6th anniversary, happy Easter, happy new blog name and header! I love the new clean look, it’s lovely, and it’ll be so nice to read even more about your + The Boy’s experiments in the kitchen 🙂
I’ve loved reading your blog since I first found it a few years ago. Just keeps getting better and better.
And yes, I WILL be making this cake. And I don’t expect it to last long.
Aww that’s a really big compliment as I think you have one of the best blogs out there too! I love your recipes!
I love it I love it I love it. A perfect way to continue the twining of your lives and joys. And the header is wonderful!
Makes me think of tea. TOFU ANGLE BABE RAKE SWAY HEARTS!
Wowwie!! 6 years!! Happy blogniversary!! And yes about time the boy gets his name in. 😛 now you can make him blog more – “oi your name also on the header!” haha!! 😛
Awwwww thank you! I told him that and now he make sad face!
Oi, I sense a conspiracy here and it involves “slavery”.. lol.
And I love the new header!!!!
All due to the awesomeness of Iron Chef Shellie! <3
Pity that Isabel is allergic to nuts….but I may attempt it anyway, and “meanly” eat it in front of her 😛
On another note, the book nerd in me is trying to read the title of the first penguin classics book in the last shot…which one is that one?
Which one? I’ll take a pic and send you all of them that I have 😛
Congrats I-Hua and Aaron!
Love the new blog name and the header (maybe I should get Shellie to design one for me too hahaha). May there be many more happy years of eating and beautiful photos!
Aww thanks Libby! Hear hear!
Congratulations, and Happy Eastblogniversary! Love the new header!
That cake looks spectacular! ok, we need our potluck soon! can i request for some dishes, pretty please pretty please?
Ooh that’s a new congratulations 😛 Okay i know Fried chicken.. what else 😛
Congratulations on the blogiversary!! I’ve always wanted to make that cake and the one you’ve made looks so delicious.
Love the new header, and congrats to Zeboy for making the team!! 😉
xox Sarah
Thanks Sarah! He was always on the team.. just never wanted to be acknowledged 😛
Go H-Town and hello to my new fellow blogger Aaron! Now I gotta make up a new thug nickname for zeboy other than zeboy. Give me some time….
I want this cake now! I will stick my face in it.
Bahahaha you blew his cover right there 😛
First of all, a big congratulations are in order! 😀 And secondly, love the blog header-Shellie is very talented. And thirdly, yes I’d love a slice of this (or several).
Thanks Lorraine! She is super talented!
Congratulations on your blogaversary! Love the new look as a great way to celebrate
Thanks Cara!
Congratulations indeed guys! What a great way to celebrate with the new look too- just lovely 🙂
Thank you thank you!
Happy Blogversary 🙂 Congratulations! Wow 6 years! That’s a long time! I had no idea you’ve been blogging for so long!
I love the new name and the new header it’s perfect for the blog!
You guys are seriously doing an amazing job and great team work!
We are so old 😛
So pretty. Happy blogbirthday Haz and Gaz. 🙂 Here’s to more adventures! x
Thanks DD xoxo
Happy Bloganniversary! I’ve only recently discovered this blog, but I already love it. 🙂 Great recipes, insights, funny stories and more. You have a new follow on your hands and I cannot wait to see what more you have up your sleeves. (And the Nutella cake is to die for, I couldn’t believe you didn’t need any flour!). And the new header is top. 🙂 Go team!
Thanks Deana *blush* 🙂
Loving the new heading, name and layout. And the cake’s swoonsome too! Sooo cute seeing the tops of your heads in the logo, I could actually recognise your fringes! :p
Happy Bloggiversary, you’re such a soldier with your posting, have to teach me how to maintain steam!
Thanks Boo! Hahaha Michele did a fabulous job!
Happy bloggy day and great looking header! To many many more years to come.
Thanks Penny!
OH MY GOD. I made nutella cheesecake recently. amazing. happy anniversary~!
Oh yeah! Thanks!
“Today is a special day for the Boy and I. Coinciding with Easter Sunday, is our actual Bloganniversary.”
Love your blog, but this sentence should be “for the Boy and me.” You wouldn’t say Today is a special day for I” would you?
Ahhh I was always thought that “I” was more formal… like “King and I”, maybe it’s all in the context! Oh well. Thanks!
Congratulations on your blog birthday:)
This cake looks so beautiful. It has risen really well and evenly.
I MUST MAKE IT!
Thank you so much for sharing. I am getting excited about making it already:)
Hooray! And thank you 🙂 YOU MUST!
I baked it some weeks ago. So good! I will bake another one tomorrow and take it to a party:) *excited*
Hooray! So excited for you!
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