My Dad's 56th Birthday Cake!

Well as my first daring bakers challenge I was really excited to make this recipe, it was certainly not anything I would ever decide to make on my own but sounded like an ideal celebration cake for my dad's 56th birthday which was at the start of August. I ran into many many challenges along the way but somehow ended up relatively happy with the results.

The hazelnuts would not skin, after trying to "toast and rub" which took most of a night for the genoise, I opted for the "boil and wash" method for the prailine which worked much better but did leave the nuts soggier, which was fine for the praline but good to note for the future. I also used a double foil pan for baking for stability which lead to a underbaked middle which, upon cutting into (2, not 3) layers, had to rebake and therefore slightly dry out the cake itself. The praline buttercream was increidble and definitely made the cake...the 3 sticks of butter also broke my hand beater, and therefore everything post-beating the butter was done by hand; it was fun to get down on the floor and really work the ingredients by hand, especially the whipped cream.

Overall the cake was a big hit, it looked beautiful and tasted good if not a little dry. I would love the chance to make this again and can't wait for the next challenge!

-Alison

My First Challenge – Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream

I had a lot of fun making the Filbert Gateau and have a LOT of respect for all of the Daring Bakers who meet the challenge each month! Since this is my first challenge, I decided to stick to the recipe and not make any major “artistic” changes. I also was determined to make each and every part myself (no pre-ground nut flours for me ). I used dark rum in the sugar syrup and Amaretto liqueur in the Praline Buttercream, the Swiss Buttercream, the Whipped Cream and the Ganache. I used ½ orange marmalade and ½ apricot preserves for the Glaze. I appreciated the detailed instructions and each part came out very well. I got so excited once I had the ganache made that I forgot to put on a final layer of buttercream and whipped cream on top of the apricot glazed top layer of cake.

The dark chocolate glaze was so beautiful! I have never been a big cake decorator and had only two tips to go with my pastry bag – I gave it a shot but my buttercream decorations just are not the best. Again, kudos to those who have learned how to decorate well!

Now to the taste – I wish I could say I loved it – but the flavors and texture of the cake just did not float my boat. It was very good, but I’m pretty sure I’ll never make it again. I know I will make the ganache and swiss buttercream again. It just didn’t have a lot of ooommmppphhh – pretty subtle flavors. I was expecting more flavor from the praline butter cream! I like that it was not overly sweet as a whole. I loved the texture combo of the praline buttercream and whipped cream layers.

I can’t wait to work on August’s challenge!

- Robin

My Review of the Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream

I was nervous about this challenge and actually put it off as long as I could! I've made cakes in the past with this many steps, as I did actually go to school for baking & pastry arts, but it's been a few years and they were always done in a nice, big, professional-style kitchen...not a 1-bedroom apartment-style kitchen with a husband and cat :) Finally, I got home last night, realized I already had most of the ingredients and set out to complete the entire challenge, start to finish, before midnight...and I'm proud to say, mission accomplished! Each step was easier than I imagined, but that's not to say there weren't some questionable moments.

I decided to bake my cake in two 9" round pans and torte each one, for a 4-layer cake...however, the cakes baked sooo quickly, which I think lead to them being a little overbaked and really difficult to remove from the pans. Thus, I wound up with approximately 3 layers in the end...I say "approximately" because I haven't sliced it yet and have no idea what that will result in.

Otherwise, I followed the recipe fairly closely, using almonds and raspberry preserves, in place of hazelnuts and apricot. I also left out the alcohol flavorings this time around.

Also, because my layered cake looked so lumpy, due to trying to repair cracked layers, I coated the cake in the raspberry glaze, refrigerated for about 15 minutes, coated again with a thin layer of the praline buttercream and then refrigerated for another 20 minutes before glazing with the ganache.

A silly prep mistake I made was simply toasting the almonds for the cake and then realizing I needed to toast more almonds for the praline paste - the could've saved me some time.

With the praline, I was so worried about burning my sugar, that I used a pan that may have actually been too thick because it took so long for the sugar to melt - then, I turned away for 2 seconds and had a really dark caramel, which I luckily retrieved just in time - the praline came out really good and the paste was really easy to prepare. This cake has reminded me that making caramel is much less scary than I always make it out to be in my mind.

I do wish I had taken more time to be creative with my decorating, but as I mentioned, I waited until the last minute to complete the challenge and knew I wouldn't have much time after yesterday to complete it, so it was best done the same day.

My finished cake photo is attached - I haven't gotten a slice photo yet because I plan on bringing it into work tomorrow for our July birthday breakfast - mmmm, cake at 10:30 AM - but I will hopefully get another pic before it's gone.

I think that's it. I hope it's not too long...I tend to be quite wordy :)

I look forward to August's challenge!

Laura - LuckyCupcake