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This almond nutella cake walks on the wild side. It’s a flavor explosion – combining the best of some of my favorite deserts. It has the coffee goodness of a tiramisu cream with the nutty sweetness of macaroons and is laced with chocolatey nutella. The layers are kind of like giant macarons but the batter is not as finicky and is much more forgiving.
This cake can be made in advance since it is best served the next day, after the almond layers have had a chance to soften and take on some of the coffee infused cream. This is also a gluten free cake! That’s great news for those of you who are gluten free! 🙂
This cake was based on a recipe shared with me by one of my readers, Anna. It is exactly as she described, “delicious.” P.S. Anna also adds shaved chocolate espresso beans between the layers and over the top, but I couldn’t find any and was way too eager to make the cake! Anna, thank you so much for sharing this goodness with me :).
Ingredients for Macaron/Almond Cake Layers:
325 grams super finely ground almond flour (*see note below) *measured correctly
3/4 cup granulated sugar, divided into 1/2 cup and 1/4 cup.
1/4 tsp salt
6 large egg whites, room temp
1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract
*Note on measuring/weighing flour: I weighed the almond flour, but if you don’t have a kitchen scale, you can measure out 3 1/2 cups almond flour using this method: spoon flour into the measuring cup and scrape off the top without packing flour down. Watch our easy video tutorial on how to measure correctly!
For Frosting, Filling & Toppings:
3 cups heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp coffee extract or almond liquor or chocolate liquor
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 to 1/2 of a 26.5 oz Nutella jar
Semisweet chocolate bar for decor
Prep:
1. Trace three 8-inch circles on parchment paper (I baked all 3 layers at once – two on one large baking sheet and one on a second sheet). Trace in a bold pen or permanent marker then flip the paper over so you can see the tracing without putting the batter directly over the marker. Lightly butter top of the parchment paper with a paper towel. Arrange baking racks for both pans to fit in the center of the oven (the first was in the top third of the oven and the second was in the bottom third).
How to Make the Almond Nutella Cake Layers:
1. In a large bowl, combine: 325 grams almond flour (3 1/2 cups lightly packed) with 1/2 cup sugar, and 1/4 tsp salt, and thoroughly whisk together until no large clumps of flour remain.
2. In the clean/dry bowl of your KitchenAid stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat 6 egg whites on high speed for 1 minute or until soft peaks form. With the mixer on, add in 1/2 Tbsp vanilla. With the mixer still on, add 1/4 cup sugar and continue beating on high speed for 2-3 min or until stiff but manageable.
3. Fold the egg whites into the almond meal gently, about 1/2 cup at a time until no streaks remain.
4. Divide and spread batter evenly onto the three traced circles of your parchment paper. The more evenly you spread them now, the prettier they will be when stacked later. Bake at 325˚F for 12 min, rotate pans and bake another 12 min. Turn oven off and keep in the oven another 15 min. You want the top to be dry and crunchy on the outside and soft inside. Remove from oven and let cool to room temp.
Making the Frosting:
1. In the bowl of your mixer, combine 3 cups heavy whipping cream with 1/4 cup sugar and beat on high speed (1 min) until soft peaks form, add in 2 tsp coffee extract and 2 tsp vanilla extract and continue mixing on high (1-2 min) until spreadable but don’t overbeat or you’ll end up with a lumpy buttery cream. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate frosting until ready to use.
Assembling the Almond Nutella Cake:
1. Spread nutella on the bottom of two of your cake layers and set aside. Add nutella based on how sweet you like your cakes – I used 1/2 a tub for my fierce sweet tooth but you can use less 1/3 if you prefer less sweetness
2. Place the third cake layer (without nutella on it) on a cake stand and cover generously with frosting. Top with the next layer, nutella-side-down. Cover the top with frosting. Repeat with last layer then frost the top and sides of the cake. I piped a border around the top of the cake with my Wilton Open-star frosting tip.
3. Top with chocolate shavings, chocolate curls, or grated chocolate covered espresso beans. Refrigerate the cake for 6-8 hours, or overnight since the almond layers need time to soften up; otherwise it will be difficult to slice the cake. Also, for ease of slicing, remove the cake from the refrigerator about 30 min before serving.
Tip: I made the chocolate curls by melting chocolate then spreading it thinly over the back of a baking sheet. Once it cooled, I scraped the pan with a food scraper to make the curls. You could also use a butter knife.
Almond Nutella Cake Recipe

Ingredients
Ingredients for Almond Cake Layers:
- 325 grams super finely ground almond flour, *or 3 1/2 cups, see note below
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar, divided into 1/2 cup and 1/4 cup.
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 6 large egg whites, room temp
- 1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract
For Frosting, Filling & Toppings:
- 3 cups heavy whipping cream
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tsp coffee extract or almond liquor or chocolate liquor
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/3 to 1/2 of a 26.5 oz Nutella jar
- Semisweet chocolate bar for decor
Instructions
Prep:
- Trace three 8-inch circles on parchment paper (I baked all 3 layers at once - two on one large baking sheet and one on a second sheet). Trace in a bold pen or permanent marker then flip the paper over so you can see the tracing without putting the batter directly over markings. Lightly butter top of parchment paper with a paper towel. Arrange baking racks with the first rack in the top third of the oven and the second in the bottom third.
How to Make the Almond Cake Layers: Preheat Oven to 325˚F.
- In a large bowl, combine: 325 grams almond flour with 1/2 cup sugar, and 1/4 tsp salt, and thoroughly whisk together until no large clumps of flour remain.
- In the clean/dry bowl of your KitchenAid stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat 6 egg whites on high speed for 1 minute or until soft peaks form. With the mixer on, add in 1/2 Tbsp vanilla then add 1/4 cup sugar and continue beating on high speed for 2-3 min or until stiff but manageable.
- Fold the egg whites into the almond meal gently, about 1/2 cup at a time until no streaks remain.
- Divide and spread batter as evenly as possible (they'll stack better later!) onto the three traced circles of your parchment paper. Bake at 325˚F for 12 min, rotate pans between racks and bake another 12 min. Turn oven off and keep in the oven another 15 min. You want it to be dry and crunchy on the outside and semi-soft inside. Remove from oven and let cool to room temp on a wire rack.
Making the Frosting:
- In the bowl of your mixer, combine 3 cups heavy whipping cream with 1/4 cup sugar and beat on high speed (1 min) until soft peaks form, add 2 tsp coffee extract and 2 tsp vanilla extract and continue mixing on high (1-2 min) until spreadable (don't overbeat). Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
Assembling Cake:
- Spread Nutella on the bottom of two of your cake layers and set aside. Add Nutella based on how sweet you like your cakes - I used 1/2 a tub for my fierce sweet tooth but you can use less 1/3 if you prefer less sweetness.
- Place the third cake layer (without Nutella on it) on a cake stand and cover generously with frosting. Top with the next layer, Nutella-side-down. Cover the top with frosting. Repeat with last layer then frost the top and sides of the cake. I piped a border around the top of the cake with my large Wilton open-star frosting tip.
- Top with chocolate shavings, chocolate curls, or grated chocolate covered espresso beans. Refrigerate cake 6-8 hours, or overnight since the almond layers need time to soften up; otherwise it will be difficult to slice.
Notes
Tip: For ease of slicing, remove the cake from the refrigerator about 30 min before serving.
♥ FAVORITE THINGS ♥
Shown in this post: (nope, no one paid us to write this; just stuff we love):
*The lovely turquoise Fiesta Cake Plate with Server.
*One of my 3 fave frosting tips: Wilton 1M Open Star.
*Spread frosting like a pro: OXO Bent Spatula
*Ofcourse the “workhorse”: KitchenAid Pro 6Qt
*Nutella, just in case (good price on Amazon!)
How do you make that beautiful lacy decorative (looks like chocolate) around the outside of the cake that’s the first picture on instagram? Sooo pretty!! ❤️
Hi Julia! That was a story I shared on Instagram from one of my viewers who tried my recipe and tagged me in their story. They sure did a great job with the decor they added. I’m not sure what they used.
This was amazing! I halved the recipe and made 2 layers and it came out great – perfect size for 2 people. Thanks for this great recipe!
You’re so welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed it, Mary!
I love this recipe and make it for special events. Instead of a round cake I make it into a sheet bar and pour ganache on top
ok, thanks for getting back to me so fast! 🙂
And I was also wondering if you were planning on making a video tutorial for this cake?
Hi Liana, I don’t have a video of this recipe just yet, thank you for that suggestion!
Hi Natasha, I am extremely excited to make this, the recipe looks awesome! Im going to make it in the morning, and I was just wondering if I HAD to add coffee extract? I don’t have it…
Hi Liana! You can leave it out but it adds a unique flavor to this cake and it’s not quite the same without it.
Hi, I’m super excited to make this cake! I’m new to baking so i was wondering if you have a YouTube video or any video of how to make this cake? Im just a little bit more of a visual learner!
Hi Anita, I don’t have a video tutorial for this recipe yet, sorry. Hopefully, we can do one on it in the future. I hope it becomes a success using this written recipe, I’ve used this recipe a lot of times and it has always worked.
This cake is super delicious, we love it ! What would the measurements be for making it a 10inch cake instead of 8inch?
Hi Jessica, I haven’t tested it that way, but if you click over the serving size in the recipe card, you can scale the ingredients list up or down. I hope that helps.
The conversion factor to go from 8-inch to 10-inch is 1.58. Just multiply the ingredient quantities for the 8-inch cake by 1.58 to get the proper quantities for the larger diameter cake.
Hi Natasha!
Is there a way to see the measurements in metric as well as cups? I find that if the measurements are exact the recipes are more of a success for me
Hi Marissa, for my new recipes you can click Metric so you can view them in grams. You may also use this Ingredient Weight Chart as a reference. I hope that helps!
Made this for my family for Christmas (we make a birthday cake for Jesus every year)! Really easy to make and really clear instructions, nice that’s it gluten free. Looked quite upscale, would be great for company. My husband and kids love nuttela so it was an all around hit! Will definitely make again.
I’m glad you and your family enjoyed this cake, Paige!