Baking with Pride - Cinnamon Nutella Cake

On my 9th birthday, my mother gifted me a recipe book from UNICEF titled Recipes from Around the World - a spring bound book with cartoon illustrations of international foods and children in their national clothes.

That book was my prized possession! It, after all, gave me the power to show off my cooking skills...er...I don't think I ever thanked my sister enough for polishing off many batches of undercooked, overcooked, and burnt donuts I attempted to make from that book. Another occasion caught me labouring over a recipe titled Turkish Halva, which I expected to be exotic fare - only to discover it was Kesri - a sweet prepared in every Indian home!

This was only my first recipe book...it saw me through some successes and many disasters.  I began to see that food did not know any borders...it traversed through different cultures and people, evolving into dishes that brought people together. With my first recipe book, began the journey of self-discovery - my love to try all things new!

Years later, I still spend hours poring over recipes - yellowed pages from my mother's files...cut outs from magazines and newspapers and of course those from the books with glossy pages and photographs - one of my favourites being 101 Cakes & Bakes from BBC's Good Food series

This Cinnamon Nutella Cake has all the goodness one needs on a cold rainy day - the warmth of cinnamon with gooey chocolate goodness rippled all through! The best part of this cake is that it is so simple to make- just throw in all the ingredients together and the batter is ready in no time - though it does take 70 mins to achieve a gorgeous looking cake.

The first time I baked this cake, I used a 10 inch cake pan as opposed to an 8 inch cake pan mentioned in the recipe. The final result was a little too dry for my liking. So this time, I bought an 8 inch dish - and it made a world of a difference to the texture!

I made some minor changes to this recipe. I used light brown sugar instead of golden caster sugar and also omitted the hazelnuts for the topping - simply because I didn't have any at home. It still tastes great - but I am sure the nuts would add to the textural elements of the cake.

Cinnamon Nutella Cake

Adapted from recipe by Mary Cadogan

175g softened butter
175g light brown sugar
3 eggs
200g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
4 tbsp milk
4 rounded tbsp Nutella
50g hazelnuts, roughly chopped

• Preheat the oven to 160C. Butter and line the base of a 8 in round cake tin.
• Beat the butter, sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder, cinnamon and milk until light and fluffy
• Pour three quarters of the mixture into the tin, spread it level, then spoon the Nutella on in blobs. 
• Top with the remaining mixture, swirl a few times with a skewer
• Sprinkle with the nuts (I skipped this). Bake for 1 hour 10 minutes, until risen, nicely browned, feels firm to touch and springs back when lightly pressed. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out, peel off the paper and cool on a wire rack
• Cut into big slices and serve with a big proud smile on your face! :)