Buckwheat Hazelnut Bread Pudding (gluten free, sugar free)

Well, it was bound to happen. The dessert I made for today did not come out as planned. Truth be told, even I wasn't sure what the outcome should have been, hence the failure. The idea got stuck in my head last night: a gluten free cake with hazelnuts with warm creme anglaise poured on top. What was the texture going to be like? A souffle? Nah, that's a little done. How about a pudding like consistency like malva? Hmm, maybe not as dense or moist. Maybe something in between? But how would that work?

Even though it didn't turn out to be the perfect cake I envisioned, the flavor was amazing! A combination of hazelnut meal and buckwheat flour was mixed in with brown butter, honey, eggs, and whipped egg whites to lighten the cake. In fact, this would make a really great cake on its own, served with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.

In order to salvage the less than aesthetically appealing cake, I crumbled it into smaller pieces and poured creme anglaise on top, making sort of a bread pudding. I wouldn't call it bread pudding though. Cake pudding? Cake crumbles with an intense vanilla cream sauce? Sounds good to me! Now, someone take this away from me before I eat it all.