Eggless Ferrero Rocher White Chocolate Mud Cake

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter and flour two 8 inch wide and 3 inch deep cake pans and set aside. In a bowl combine the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and set aside. In a separate bowl, add in the white chocolate, oil, sugar and vanilla, then pour a cup of hot water over the white chocolate mixture. Mix the wet ingredients until the white chocolate is melted, and the ingredients is are uniform. Combine the wet and dry ingredients, then add in the yogurt and mix until fully combined. Be careful not to over mix.

Split the cake mixture evenly between the two prepared cake pans and bake in the pre-heated oven for 25- 30 minutes or until a skewer or toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan for 15 minutes, and then cool on a cooling rack. Wrap the cake in plastic wrap, and keep in the freezer until ready to ready to frost or for at least an hour.

Put the semi-sweet, milk chocolate and chocolate hazelnut cream in a heatproof, microwave safe bowl and set aside. Heat the heavy cream gently in a saucepan until it comes to a light simmer and pour over the chocolate. Whisk the mixture until all the chocolate is melted, and the ganache is smooth and glossy. If like me, the heat from your hot cream is not enough to melt all the chocolate, microwave the ganache for the 10 seconds at a time, whisking each time, until you get a thick and smooth chocolate mixture. Cover the with plastic wrap and allow to sit in room temperature for about 8 hours (I left mine overnight) until the ganache gets to the texture of cake frosting. Do not be tempted to put the ganache in the fridge as it may set the chocolate a little too hard.

Prep a sheet of parchment paper on a baking sheet or just simply place it on a kitchen counter. In a saucepan, heat the sugar, water and lemon juice over medium-low heat until an the sugar starts to melt, and the mixture turns a light amber color, swirling the pan lightly to aid the sugar in melting easily. When the sugar is fully melted and the color of the sugar is a light amber, add in the chopped nuts and salt quickly and stir.

While the sugar is still hot, pour on the prepared parchment paper and leave to cool for 20 minutes or until the praline is hard. Once the praline is hard, break into small pieces using a food processor, or by placing in a zip bag and bashing it with a rolling pin until it resembles coarse crumbs. I saved three praline shards to decorate the cake later.

For the pour over milk chocolate ganache, simply heat the heavy cream like before and pour over the milk chocolate. Leave to cool for 15 minutes, covered in plastic wrap.

To assemble the cake: Place one of the 8 inch cakes on a cake board and drizzle on simple syrup to ensure that the cake is moist. Spread with almost half the ganache and sprinkle over the praline pieces on the ganache. Place the second layer of cake over the ganache and praline (I added a little bit of ganache to the top of the praline to help the second layer adhere. Soak the second layer with more simple syrup and then smooth on more frosting to the top of the cake.

Place the remaining frosting in a pipping bag and fill in the frosting gaps on the side of the cake. Smooth the cake on the top and the sides with a bench scraper. Place the nine pieces of ferrero rocher on top of the cake and the prailine shards in the middle, lightly brush over with luster dust, and pour on the pouring ganache, allowing the chocolate to drizzle down the cake.