Friday Dessert: hazelnut cake

My parents own a natural food store in Cooperstown, NY. That means that whenever they come to visit, they bring a huge amount of groceries: some things I need, and other things that they need to get rid of. This is awesome, since I love food and can always find a way to use unusual ingredients, but sometimes I get a little hard-pressed to think of new ways to use the same old stuff (remember when I had 7 quarts of Mimicreme to use up?).

Once, the hazelnut meal was about to expire, so they brought me 3 bags of it. I actually use it most often as a gluten-free, protein-containing substitution for breadcrumbs in a lot of recipes, and I like to toast it and mix it with a little nutritional yeast to make a parmesan-y topping for pasta dishes.

But sometimes you just have to make dessert. Like this Hazelnut Cake!

I doubled the hazelnut cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World for the batter. You can find an online version here at the Daily Meal, but really, why don't you own Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World already? Since I'm not really that into frosting, put blackberry jam in between the layers and on top. And of course, made it pretty with more hazelnuts.

I left the finished product out on our counter when we were having open houses in our old place. I like to think it helped sell the place.