A moist breadcrumb cake made with chocolate and hazelnuts, this delicious recipe is so easy and quick to make!

This breadcrumb cake is an autumn/winter cake for me. I wouldn't even consider baking it in spring or in summer. All the ingredients make me think of frosty wetter, of fallen leaves getting already sticky on the ground, frozen grass in the morning, and cold hands.
Why should you make this cake?
- You'll have a hard time finding one that is easier and faster to make.
- Just weigh your ingredients, mix for one or two minutes, and bake. One bowl, one loaf pan, and 2 small mixer paddles to clean.
- The recipe requires no flour. I would have called it “flourless”, but you do need the breadcrumbs and breadcrumbs are made of bread, which is made with flour. 🙂 So, at second thought, flourless would not be quite right.
Ingredients
- You can use bought or homemade dried breadcrumbs. Making your own breadcrumbs out of stale bread is super easy, just have a look at this post on how to make your own breadcrumbs.
- Do make sure that you use dark chocolate with 60-70 % cocoa in it for, it does make a difference. Using sweeter, milk chocolate would just not be right, the breadcrumb cake would be too sweet and you will miss on that really chocolatey taste. (Amazon affiliate link)
- Because that's the best about this chocolate loaf, it really taste of chocolate.
How to make?
- Grate the dark chocolate on a fine grater or process the chocolate in the food processor, it should be rather finely ground.
- If using dark chocolate chips you will not be able to grate them, but then you will definitely need a food processor to grind them finely.
- Place a bowl on the digital scale and turn on the scale. (Amazon affiliate link)
- Weigh in the breadcrumbs, sugar, chocolate, and hazelnuts
- Add the baking powder and salt.
- Give everything a good stir to combine.
- Add the soft unsalted butter and the eggs. Mix for about 30 seconds on low speed, increase the speed and mix for another 30 seconds.
- Pour the batter into the greased loaf pan (about 30 cm/ 12 inches long) and bake for 60 to 70 minutes, depending on your oven. (Amazon affiliate link)
- Turn off the oven, but leave the cake there for another 5 to 10 minutes.
- Remove from the oven, leave in the pan for another 20 minutes or so, then carefully remove from the loaf pan and let cool on a wire rack.
That's it! Easy, isn't it? And so delicious, it will probably become a regular.
And if you are in the mood for more easy to make and delicious loaf cakes, have a look at some of these recipes:
Eggless Banana Bread - Vegan Bread Recipe
The Best Carrot Cake with Coconut and Lemon Glaze
Plum and Cinnamon Pull Apart Bread
Blackberry Rhubarb Bread with Cinnamon and Brown Sugar
This recipe was first posted in November 2014.
Breadcrumb Cake (Chocolate Loaf with Hazelnuts)
Ingredients
- 200 g/ 7 oz dark chocolate 60 -70% cocoa
- 100 g/ 3.5 oz/ 1 cup dried breadcrumbs
- 200 g/ 7 oz/ 1 cup granulated sugar
- 300 g/ 10.6 oz/ 2 ½ cups ground hazelnuts
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 pinch of salt
- 200 g / 7 oz/ ¾ cup + 1 tablespoon unsalted butter soft
- 6 eggs medium Germany, large US
- icing sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius/ 340 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter a loaf pan of about 30 cm/ 12 inches.
- Grate the dark chocolate on a fine grater or process the chocolate in the food processor, it should be rather finely ground. If using dark chocolate chips you will not be able to grate them, but then you will definitely need a food processor to grind them finely.
- Mix the dried breadcrumbs, sugar, grated chocolate, ground hazelnuts, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Stir to combine.
- Add the soft butter and the eggs. Mix slowly with the hand-held mixer for 30 seconds, then increase the speed and mix for another 30 seconds.
- Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 60 to 70 minutes, depending on your oven. Turn off the heat and let the cake stand for another 5 to 10 minutes in the hot oven. Remove from the oven.
- Let stand in the pan for about 20 minutes, remove and let cool completely on a wire rack. Sprinkle with icing sugar before serving.
angiesrecipes says
Must be super yummy with 300 gs of hazelnuts :-))
tanza erlambang says
I love chocolate cake.
have a great day
Priya @currynation says
love this moise and crumbly spongy chocolate cake. I love your props too adina 🙂
Anca says
Looks amazing. I love chocolate cake, so I'd love this one too.
Kelly | Foodtasia says
This cake looks so moist and delicious! Fascinating that it is made with bread crumbs. The combination of chocolate and hazelnuts is wonderful!
Sissi says
It looks sensational. Reminds me of a cake my mum makes with breadcrumbs instead of flour and which is incredibly moist too! Thank you for this wonderful recipe!
grace says
i haven't encountered a cake recipe using breadcrumbs before--what an interesting idea!
Malou says
In your Chocolate Traybake .... 250 g/ 8.8 oz equals 2 cups ground hazelnuts
In Breadcrumb Cake above .... 300 g/ 10.6 oz equals 3 cups ground hazelnuts
Which one is correct? Please clarify. Thank you
Adina says
Hi Malou. I totally recommend using a scale, it is the only thing that will give you accurate results. Cup measuring is just not good enough in baking. I've just checked again: 1 cup is about 120-140 g ground nuts.
Loopy says
@Adina,
Loopy says
@Loopy, I would like to know what the cake tastes like, I can see for myself what it looks like, your comments have been no help
Adina says
@Loopy, I've no idea what you mean. Maybe you asked the question on another blog because I can't find anything here. But the cake tastes very much like a moist chocolate cake made with dark chocolate. Deep taste and not overly sweet.
C Wong says
Admins, please help me understand “pan of about 12 inches,”. As we do not use this type of expression.
Does it mean length + width total inches?
Or does it mean 12” long?
Adina says
Hi. It's a loaf pan, so I mean it should have a length of about 12 inches (one inch more or less is ok). How else would you describe the size of a loaf pan?