Daring Bakers: Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream

I joined the Daring Bakers this month. In addition to baking from Dorie Greenpan's book each week, each month I will be making a "daring" recipe along with all the other Daring Bakers.
A purpose in doing these daring recipes is to stretch my skills and try new techniques in the kitchen.
Chris at Mele Cotte chose the Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream from Great Cakes by Carol Walter for this month's challenge. This was a very tasty introduction to the Daring Bakers. I wish I had written this post as soon as the cake was finished, but a busy summer schedule prevented that. As I am not confident with my writing skills when trying to remember something I baked 3 weeks ago, here instead, are some pictures of the gateau-ing process.


I actually needed (or chose to use) two mixers for this. It's been a long time since I've brought out the old Sunbeam.

Hazelnut mixture being processed.

• hazelnuts
• cake flour
• cornstarch

Egg whites coming to soft-peak stage.















Combining the egg yolk and white mixture with the hazelnut mixture.












Ready to bake. I don't have a picture of the baked cake, but it fell as it cooled. I still tried to torte it into three layers. The third layer ended up looking more like a ring of cake instead of a complete layer. Once torted and layered with the scrumptious praline buttercream, I covered the cake with an apricot glaze...











and then ganache. I think ganache is my most favorite way to ice a cake. I used extra bittersweet chocolate, which made for a deep, smooth-tasting ganache.


Here's the end product. I made a whole recipe and shared with two neighbor couples, my aunt and uncle, and a few good friends. There was a lot of cake!