Daring Baker Challenge # 5

So it's that time again, challenge reveal.



I had mixed feelings about this month's challenge hosted by Chris of Mele Cotte. At first I was excited as I always am when there's a new challenge, but then as time went by I guess I lost some of the excitement. The challenge was a Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream, Chantal did not know what a filbert was so she asked google and found out that they are hazelnuts, hmmm, how sad that I can't get my hands on any of those out here, and if I did I'd probably have to give said hands to get them, needless to say, substitution to the rescue! Pecans, since this cake was similar to May's challenge: the Opera cake and I'd used almonds for that, I decided to try a different nut, in hindsight maybe this cake would be better with almonds, since almonds don't have such a strong flavour and plays nice with other flavours so everyone can have their time to shine, which is more than can be said of pecans.

The instructions were long, as this cake had many elements, so I started with the easiest first, the syrup and the buttercream and told myself that as I got the ingredients I'd make it piece by piece, it came down to the wire (not yesterday, Saturday, but that's down to the wire for me) as more often than not, when I felt like tackling it, I didn't have all the ingredients on hand. So when I did do it, I was more relieved than excited.

This cake showed me how unruly buttercream can get in the heat, and Saturday (evening and all) was HOT, so the buttercream just melted all over the place, its the ugliest piping job I've done to date I'm even ashamed to show the pic of the entire thing, but in the spirit of being a Daring Baker, I will display proudly my failure as I would my success, don't laugh!



:-(

Sooooooooooooooooooooo, as you can see, Chantal is in need of a proper cake decorating class, not to worry, I start my certificate programme at UTech at the end of August, so I'll be good and ready when the next cake comes around.

I won't post the recipe I'm sure tonnes of other bakers have done that and you can catch them here on the blogroll, or come visit us in our kitchen.

My substitutions were pecans and brandy everywhere that some form of alcohol was called for. Also, the cake was supposed to have cream between the layers, I'd made a little more than required of the buttercream, which turned out to be a good idea, since I didn't have any cream and had to run without it.

In all, I found it okay, mom loved it, not sure if I'd do this one again, its very time consuming.

So we now move to August, I wonder what will be thrown my way?

:)