July's Daring Bakers Challenge - Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream~!

I completed my first Daring Bakers Challenge!!! Whoohoo!!!

This month's assignment was to make a Filbert Gateau. Filbert is a fancy way of saying Hazelnut and Gateau is a fancy way of saying cake. So basically, a hazelnut cake. The challenge was chosen by Mele Cotte of the Daring Bakers. I kid you not, I spent like 12 hours on this baby, over the course of two days! The recipe itself was 8 pages long! But I had reserved a Saturday just for this purpose and took my time getting all the ingredients and going through each step before taking it on.

And let me tell you, I was pretty nervous attempting this, because there was a lot of things I had NEVER done before. Like for example, the cake itself is made completely from scratch (which I have never done before) using hazelnuts that I bought whole, then toasted, then peeled, then grounded up into a fine powder and then sifted into the cake batter!! Yeah, not easy.

After the cakes were baked, I melted up a vanilla syrup to spread over the cakes (though the recipe calls for a rum syrup, I'm allergic to alcohol, so I went with Vanilla instead) and let them cool for a while.

I then attacked my first attempt at Swiss Buttercream. And it turned out beautifully! I'm so excited I know how to make this now! It was too rich for Jason's liking, but the praline paste was up next, which got added to the buttercream and added a nice crunch to it, and also cut the sweetness a bit.

Now at this point, we were supposed to make an apricot glaze for on top of the cake, but Jason and I really can't stand fruit and chocolate mixed, so I substituted the apricot glaze for a melted caramel. After all, why go to all these hours making a cake that we could never enjoy!
AFTER THAT, I also had my first shot at chocolate ganache, which I had decided to use Ghirardelli Chocolate. Divine people. DIVINE.
Assembling the cake took some time and focus, and once it was all put together, I piped the buttercream on top with a bit of hazelnut (aka filbert) for decoration.
There was no way Jason and I were going to be left all alone with this cake, so I brought it our small group dinner. Thing is, it was still so cold that it was hard to slice and eat. I should have thawed it longer, but in this 95 degree heat, I was afraid my ganache would melt.

It was good, but in my opinion not so good that it was worth all the work. I can think of better cakes that take a whole lot less time and effort.

But still, it was a challenge and I'm very proud of myself for not getting too overwhelmed and taking it head on!! I would include the recipe here, but because it really is 8 pages long, just leave a comment if you're interested and I'll email it to you!

Can't wait for this next months challenge!!