In this work, we report the one-pot fabrication of nanoarchitectured hydrotalcite (HT)/SBA-15 composites via a facile in-situ mesoporous templating approach. The characterization studies conferred that the successful incorporation of HT into the SBA-15 mesopores and the formation of composites. These composites showed excellent performance towards the catalytic conversion of biomass-derived levulinic acid (LA) to a biofuel additive ethyl levulinate (EL). The enhancement in the selectivity of EL was observed from 69 to 97% with the incorporation of HT into SBA-15. The experimental results revealed that the catalytic activity of the composites was thoroughly influenced by the density of surface basic sites and surface area. Among all the composites, HTS-2 outperforms the highest EL selectivity of 97.2% with remarkable stability and recyclability. © 2021, Springer Nature B.V.