Mini Bundt Cakes with Chocolate and Hazelnuts

First preheat the oven to 180 °C fan. The batter contains no baking powder, only the air from the beaten egg whites – when it's ready, the oven should be waiting for it and not the other way round.

Beat the egg whites together with a pinch of salt in a truly grease-free bowl. Sprinkle in the granulated sugar (part 1) little by little as you go – not all at once, or the beaten whites become heavy and lose volume. Keep beating until they're glossy and a peak stays standing when you lift out the whisk. Then set them aside.

"Grease-free" is no empty phrase here: a trace of butter or a drop of egg yolk in the bowl is enough to stop the whites stiffening properly. If in doubt, wipe the bowl out with a little lemon juice.

In a separate bowl, weigh out the egg yolk, the soft butter, the couverture melted to 40 °C and the granulated sugar (part 2). Beat everything lightly until fluffy with the food processor.

The temperature of the couverture is important: 40 °C feels hand-warm. If it's hotter, the egg yolk sets and you get little lumps. If it's cold, the butter firms up and the mixture curdles. The easiest way is to melt the couverture while you beat the egg whites – then it's at exactly the right temperature when you need it.

Now comes the step that decides how airy it turns out. Fold the stiffly beaten egg whites into the chocolate mixture in three portions using the rubber scraper – don't stir, but lift from the bottom upwards while turning the bowl.

The first portion can be worked in a bit more firmly; it makes the heavy mixture supple. With the second and third, work gently and stop as soon as no white streaks remain. Every extra stroke costs volume – and because there's no baking powder to help out here, the lost volume can't be brought back.

In a separate bowl, weigh out the White flour and the ground hazelnuts and mix them briefly by hand – that way the small amount of flour is evenly distributed among the nuts and won't clump later.

Add the mixture to the batter and again fold it in gently with the rubber scraper until everything is homogeneous. Just 35 g of flour to 100 g of nuts: this recipe lives on the hazelnuts, the flour only holds it together. Then fill the finished batter into a piping bag.

Grease the bundt cake tin generously with soft butter – and really into every groove. Take a brush or your finger and work cavity by cavity, including the cone in the middle. This is the step people like to rush, and then half the dome stays in the tin when you turn it out.

Scatter chopped flaked white almonds into each individual cavity and turn the tin so the slivers stick everywhere to the butter. Whatever's too much, simply tip out again.

This isn't a decorative flourish but doubly useful: the almonds also help release the bundt cake from the tin, and after turning out they sit on the outside. So the pretty, lightly speckled dome is created now, not at the end.

Finally, dust the tin generously with White flour and tap it out briefly. Butter, almonds, flour – that's the order the release layer sits in, and that's the order in which each one later comes out on its own.

Fill each cavity with 50 g of batter – the quickest way is with the piping bag straight onto the scale. Bake the bundt cakes at 180 °C fan for around 12 to 15 minutes.

The test: a wooden skewer inserted into the thickest spot should come out with moist crumbs, not with liquid batter and not completely dry. Better a minute too early than one too late – at 50 g per piece it goes quickly.

Afterwards, let the bundt cakes cool **in the tin**. Only then turn them out: while warm they're still soft and tear at the dome. Finally dust with a little Snow sugar.