Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Place a rack in the center of the oven.

Coat a large ring cake tin with a nonstick cooking spray and dust with some flour.

Combine the flour, cocoa, sugar vanilla and ¾ cup sugar.

In a large bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer for 1 minute until foamy. Add the remaining sugar (3/4 cup) to the egg whites and continue beating until whites hold soft peaks.

Add the flour mixture, to the egg whites, one third at a time, and mix until the batter is fully incorporated.

Spoon the batter into the cake tin and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until you insert a skewer in the center of the cake and it comes out clean. I suggest start starting to check the cake at 35 minutes, remember ovens are different. Remove from the oven and set aside to completely cool down.

Convert the cake to a flat dish and lift straight up.

In a bowl, beat the heavy cream and sugar with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Gently fold in the mascarpone cheese just to incorporate. don’t whip it, but treat it tenderly, you need to mix just to homogenize the mixture together. Refrigerate.

Cut 2.5cm/1 inch slice horizontally off top of the cake. Check the photo.

To make a tunnel, carefully hollow out the bottom the cake, leaving a 2 inches/ 5 cm shell, you can hollow the cake using a melon baller spoon, tear out some of the sponge cake, creating a tunnel and leaving 2.5cm/1 inch shell on the bottom. Check the photo.

Spoon the Nutella evenly in the tunnel and cover with the mascarpone cheese filling.

Replace the top of the cake on top.

Add the chocolate, butter and heavy cream to a saucepan and whisk over medium heat, ending up with a shiny chocolate glaze.

Spoon the ganache coating the entire surface, letting it drip down the sides.

The recipe for the “Chocolate Cake with Nutella and Mascarpone filling” was posted on April, 2014, the photos and text were updated on November, 2020!