Daring Bakers July – Filbert Gateau

This month’s challenge was a very complicated, multi-step layered cake. You had to roast, skin, and grind your own hazelnut meal. You had to make your own hazelnut brittle, which promptly got ground into a hazelnut paste. You had to clarify your own butter. You had to make your own whipped cream, apricot glaze, and ganache. Phew!

From a technical standpoint, though, everything came together pretty nice. My cake baked beautifully, my buttercream was delicious (a little chunky, but I didn’t care), my glaze was easily spreadable. I did think the ganache was a little runny, so I put it in the fridge for a few minutes before glazing and it went reasonably well.

I just have to say: NOT WORTH IT! This cake took 5 hours and it wasn’t even that good. I did learn a few things about roasting nuts, clarifying butter, and making hazelnut paste, but you know what? I don’t even like nuts that much. Not to mention the ridiculous cost of supplies. I hope the next challenge is a throwback to Julia Child’s bread: only 4 ingredients which I already have in stock. That would be very kind to my budget.

Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream

Recipe
“Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream” from Great Cakes by Carol Walter

Modifications
I didn’t get enough hazelnuts, so I made an almond paste instead of a hazelnut paste for the buttercream. I also omitted the rum in most of the steps.

Rating
Mediocre taste and a bitch to make. 2.5 stars out of 5.