Daring Bakers July Filbert Gateau

I have a confession to make---I hate making cakes. Clarification: I hate making fancy cakes. Nigella's Guiness cake all stirred together in the same pan you melt the butter in? That's the cake making I can handle. Or Duncan Hines funfetti... love it. But fancy cakes with piping and layers and 20 minutes mixing frosting? Not so much. So why did I join Daring Bakers despite my full knowledge that there would be cakes in my future? I asked myself that many times while tackling this month's challenge. In the end I was glad I tried.

July's Daring Baker's Challenge put a double emphasis on the "challenge" part. The original recipe was for a Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream -my version ended up almond. The recipe was a bit daunting at first, at least until I realized it was merely a set of smaller recipes. It was actually relatively easy(minus the decorating part) but quite time consuming. When all was said and done, over a two day period I made the following:

1 almond Genoise
1 recipe sugar syrup, flavored with italian amaretto
1 recipe amaretto buttercream frosting
½ cup heavy cream, whipped to soft peaks
1 recipe Apricot Glaze
1 recipe Ganache Glaze, prepared just before using


Slicing one cake into three layers was a bit difficult. And since I'd halved the cake recipe and not the whipped cream or buttercream recipe, I got a bit carried away filling the cake. My frosting/whipped cream layer was as thick as the cake layers.



Decorting may be the one area where I pushed the boundaries a bit. We were to decorate with piped buttercream but when it's 95 degrees, well, buttercream is the devil. It had a bit of a goldilocks moment--it was too soft and then after refrigeration, it was too hard. But never just right. And after a buttercream explosion out of the piping bag and all over the kitchen, I just piped some straight into the middle of the cake. Technically, it's decorated with buttercream frosting. Right there in the middle, underneath the chocolate leaves that accidently fell on the cake afterwards.


The taste? Eh. It does have that nut cake texture and flavor that seems a bit foreign. I tend to like my cake soft and spongy or dark and dense. But if nothing else, this July challenge was quite the adventure.