“Chocolate–Nut” Cake for a Special Occasion
Sesame sponge cake, a coffee-nut layer, and velvety coffee-chocolate cream. Three different types of nuts—walnuts, hazelnuts, and peanuts—add a depth of flavor that you just don’t get with just one kind of nut.
What Does It Taste Like?
The sesame sponge cake is different from the usual kind: it has a light nutty note and a barely noticeable hint of bitterness that pairs well with the chocolate. The coffee enhances the chocolate flavor without adding sweetness, while the nuts provide texture. The cake is rich—it’s best enjoyed slowly.
What Occasions Is It Suitable For
Adult anniversaries and birthdays, fall and winter gatherings, New Year’s Eve dinners, business meetings, and as a gift for a man. This is one of the most “masculine” cakes in the catalog: low in sugar, rich in depth.
Weight and Servings
A whole cake weighs 1.5 kg and yields 12 servings of approximately 130 g each. It’s enough for a group of up to twelve guests.
How to Order in Kharkiv
The price for a whole cake is 1320 UAH, and for a slice is 110 UAH. The cake is prepared for your specified date; orders must be placed at least two days in advance. Delivery within Kharkiv or pickup available.
Note: This cake contains nuts, peanuts, and sesame seeds—please let us know if any of your guests have allergies.
The History of the Chocolate-Nut Combination
Chocolate with nuts isn’t a culinary invention, but rather a consequence of a military blockade. Europe’s most famous chocolate-nut flavor was born precisely because of a shortage of cocoa.
Turin, 1806
When Napoleon imposed the Continental Blockade, cocoa supplies to Europe nearly dried up, and prices skyrocketed. Turin’s pastry chefs—and Turin was the chocolate capital at the time—began diluting the expensive cocoa powder with what was readily available nearby: ground hazelnuts from Piedmont.
The result exceeded expectations. The nut oil made the mixture smooth and pliable, and the flavor—softer and richer. The new product was named gianduja, after the Piedmontese carnival mask Gianduja, and was officially introduced in 1865.
What Came of It
It was from gianduja that the entire genre of nut-chocolate pastes eventually emerged, and with it, the custom of adding ground nuts to chocolate cakes. The principle remains the same as it was in 1806: nut oil softens the dryness of the cocoa, while roasted nuts add warmth to that same cocoa bitterness.
Why Add Coffee?
Coffee plays a technical role in chocolate desserts: it isn’t detectable on its own, but it enhances the perception of the cocoa. This is a well-known pastry-making technique—a little strong coffee in the chocolate batter deepens the flavor without making it sweeter.