Spice Cake with Gianduja and Nuts / Gewürzkuchen mit Nougat und Nüssen

It was nice, but it could have been a lot better. For some reason, it promised a lot, but in the end there just wasn't happening anything. Where was the oomph this cake so desperately needs?

I have several ideas about things I might change. Such as:

1. Ignore the gianduja, and add chunks of chocolate instead. Actually, we hadn't even used gianduja in this cake. The recipe requires 'nougat', and I realized too late that German might be the only language in which that term refers to gianduja instead of turron (German actually distinguishes between 'dark' nougat, gianduja, and 'white' nougat, turron. If nothing is specified, expect it to mean gianduja). So instead, we used 2 tablespoons of Nutella and a teaspoon of cocoa to make up. I had the idea that it made the batter blander, in the sense that the spices weren't as present anymore. If you use chocolate chunks instead, you will have the best of both worlds - lovely spices and bits of chocolate melting in your mouth. Also, coating it with chocolate might be an option, too.

2. The batter was already pretty dry after I had mixed in the ground hazelnuts and spices. Adding 125g of flour didn't really make sense, and made it difficult to fold in the whipped egg whites without losing all the air again. I might be proved wrong in this instance, but I think it might be worth trying it.

We also omitted the anise. I had planned to substitute it with cardamom, but forgot. I might try that too, next time.

Edited the next day: It seems to get better in time. Maybe you just need to prepare it a few days in advance.

Edited 13 September 2014: Made this cake again, this time with the double amounts of spices (but again without anise), half the amount (75 g) of gianduja, 1 1/2 tbsp Nutella to make up for the rest, and 25 g chopped chocolate. I also coated it with chocolate.

I also added the flour, even though I considered not doing so when I wrote the original review; instead, I'm now wondering if it's actually worth it to beat the egg whites before they're added; because the batter is so compact, it seems so difficult to incorporate them that you can hardly still call that 'folding in'.

Tasting the batter, I thought I definitely wouldn't add any more spices than this, possibly slightly less (3/4 tsp each?), but once it was baked, the spices mellowed down a bit, and it was very nice, spicy and chocolatey at the same time. It actually made me think of Lebkuchen (photo), especially the end slices that were completely covered in chocolate. As the cake ended up being quite crumbly, it made me think whether or not I should actually use this recipe to make Lebkuchen instead.

Edited 21 September 2017: Made this again with the modifications mentioned above (with exception of the addition of Nutella and pieces of chocolate, didn't read that far). Use a large baking tin. Used this recipe for the chocolate glaze, or rather: you'll need about ~250 g chocolate glaze, I used 1 paket of 125 g store-bought chocolate glaze + 150 g homemade chocolate glaze.