Salty and sweet team up in this delectable dessert! Serve this layer cake for your upcoming holiday party or just on a Wednesday! The silky ganache gives it a picture perfect finish. Dig in!

Ingredients:

• Indiana Kitchen Premium Bacon
• Tyner Pond Farm Grade A Large Eggs
• Healthy Hoosier Oil (canola and sunflower oils)
• Unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp. bakind soda
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp. salt
• 2 eggs (Tyner Pond Grade A Large Eggs)
• ¾ cup water
• ¾ cup buttermilk
• ⅓ cup oil (Healthy Hoosier Oil (Canola oil))
• 8 slices bacon, crisp-cooked and crumbled (Indiana Kitchen Premium Bacon)
• ½ cup chocolate-hazelnut spread, warmed
• ⅓ cup chopped toasted hazelnuts
• 1 recipe ganache*

*Ganache: In a small saucepan, heat ⅓ cup heavy cream just until simmering. Pour over 6 ounces semisweet chocolate pieces (do not stir). Let stand 5 minutes. Stir until smooth. Cool 15 minutes or until desired consistency.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 °F. Grease two 8-inch round cake pans and dust with cocoa powder; set aside. In a large bowl, stir together the next six ingredients (through salt). In a separate bowl, whisk together the next four ingredients (through oil). Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture; whisk until smooth. Stir in half of the bacon. Pour batter into prepared pans (batter will be thin).

Bake about 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool cake layers in pans 10 minutes. Remove layers from pans and cool on wire racks.

For filling, in a bowl combine chocolate-hazelnut spread, the remaining bacon and the hazelnuts.

Place one cake layer on a platter. Spread with filling. Add the remaining cake layer. Spread top with Ganache, allowing it to drip down sides of cake. If desired, top with additional crumbled cooked bacon and chopped toasted hazelnuts.

Makes 16 servings
Prep time: 40 minutes

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