I personally have never tried or baked a Hazelnut cake. I will need to bake some cupcakes for a couple to taste test here in a couple of weeks, but I'm not even sure where to begin. Most everything I find pairs it with chocolate of some sort, but they have decided that the cake is going to be white buttercream. Does Hazelnut pair well with bc icing?

Hazelnut is often paired with chocolate (have you ever tried Nutella?) but it should be delicious added to a plain vanilla cake with white buttercream. If you have any almond cake recipes, try substituting hazelnuts. Or take a basic yellow or white cake recipe but add hazelnuts. Now I'm hungry.

Ok... that leads to my next question....
Actual hazelnuts or the hazelnut flavoring or both....?

Ok... that leads to my next question....
Actual hazelnuts or the hazelnut flavoring or both....?

......Actual hazelnuts or the hazelnut flavoring or both.?....

I say both.
I've never actually done a hazelnut cake but have made many, many butter pecan cakes. I use about 1/3 cup
of ground nuts and add just a bit of flavoring....it's usually
a *VERY!* strong flavor - you don't want to overdo it.

Use roasted hazelnuts, they taste much stronger. Grind in a food processor with some of the suagr in the recipe to keep them powdery.

Use both nuts and a little flavour--I use LorAnn Creamy Hazelnut. This cake will do just fine with a vanilla buttercream frosting, or use amaretto to sprinkle teh layers and as the liquid in the icing.

Frangelico!!!

It is a wonderful taste. I would brush it on top of a yellow or chocolate cake and put plenty in IMBC. If you let it sit for about 12 hours, the alcohol taste will be very faint and the true taste will shine through.

I never bake these liqueurs in cakes. First, Frangelico is expensive, and second, it will get lost in the baking process.

By the way, try adding Frangelico to your Chocolate chip cookie dough. It is incredible.