Yellow Cake (adapted ever so slightly from Shirley Corriher's Bakewise)
4 tbsp unsalted butter cut in 1 tbsp pieces
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup canola oil
3 large egg yolks
2 large eggs
1 3/4 cup cake flour
1 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup heavy cream
Preheat the oven to 350F at least 20 minutes before baking. Spray 2 6" pans with baking spray, line with parchment, and spray again. (You can also make a single 9" layer.)
Soften the butter in a mixer on medium speed. Beat until light in color, about 3 minutes (warning: it's not so easy to beat such a small amount of butter, but give it your best). Add the sugar, and beat until very light. Keep the bowl cool, and scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally (or use a beater blade).
Beat in the vanilla. On medium, mix in the oil.
On low, beat in the yolks, then the whole eggs, one at a time, mixing just until combined.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt until fully combined. Add about half the dry ingredients to the batter, and mix on low until just combined. Add in half the buttermilk, still on low, and add the rest of the dry ingredients until just combined. Finish with the remaining buttermilk.
In a separate bowl (make sure it's cold), whip the cream to soft peaks. Beat just a little longer. Stir in 1/4 of the whipped cream into the cake batter to lighten. Gently fold in the rest of the whipped cream. Pour into the prepared pans. Drop the pans (just a few inches) to knock out air bubbles.
Bake for 35-40 minutes until a toothpick just comes out clean. The cake should just pull away from the sides when you remove it from the oven. Cool in pan, on a rack, for about 10 minutes, then invert onto parchment paper and remove pan. Cool completely.
Freeze one cake layer for another time.
Nutella Mousse (The Scotto family)
1 jar (13 ounces) Nutella
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
1 cup heavy cream
1 ounce Frangelico
Beat together the Nutella and mascarpone on high for several minutes until very smooth.
In a separate bowl, whip the heavy cream and Frangelico to stiff peaks. Fold cream into the Nutella/mascarpone mixture. Chill for at least a half hour (longer in warm weather). If it's very lumpy when you remove it from the fridge, you can beat it for 30 seconds or so to smooth it out.
Assembly
1 package Pepperidge farms chocolate hazelnut pirouette cookies
Cut one cake layer into three equal layers. Place one layer on a cardboard cake round. Spread with about one-fourth of the mousse. Top with a second layer of cake, and spread another one-fourth of the mousse on top. Top with the remaining layer, and brush off as many crumbs as you can from the top and sides of the cake. Spread another one-fourth of the mousse on top, and the remaining mousse around the edge. It doesn't have to look pretty, but you need something for the pirouette cookies to cling to. Cut cookies in half, and place around the outside of the cake.
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