Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Walnut Gateau with Praline Buttercream


The Daring Bakers are at it again! (This time starring the lovely addition of my little sister Super G. Go check hers out. We talked on the phone the whole day we made it and her sounds amazing.)


This month, Chris over at Mele Cotte picked Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream, from Great Cakes by Carol Walter. I wasn't worried at first. I thought, actually, whew. A layer cake. This won't be so hard. I had to go and get cocky about it. I had some problems. The cake stuck to the pan. Bad.
See? So I had to bake the cake part again, the second time using a sheet of parchment paper to line the bottom of the pan. But that was the only real problem. Otherwise it just took forever and my kitchen was really hot.

Let me tell you how I made mine different. Instead of the hazelnuts in the original recipe, which can be found on Mele Cotte, I used walnuts. I had a giant bag of them in the freezer, so it wouldn't cost me anything and I'm not sure I can get hazelnuts here without traveling some distance to get to the big city. Then instead of the rum or orange flavored liquor, I used Crown Royal. We're whiskey people here and we were fresh out of bourbon. We had two bottles of Crown and believe me, the Brain was not too happy I was cooking with the good whiskey. And finally, instead of the apricot glaze I used blackberry.

After that white chocolate opera cake that was far too sweet for my taste buds, I was excited to see how this would taste. It was fantastic! I cut a small sliver after I let it chill and brought it to the Brain with two forks. We both sat there worried that I had spent the entire day baking this beautiful thing only to find out we didn't like it. In fact when the Brain came home and I was still working on it he said, "This isn't going to be like that cake you made we couldn't eat is it? Hey! Are you cooking with the Crown!?!?" But fortunately we loved it. It was light, it wasn't too sweet. It was rich, but not overpowering. The Brain ate the whole piece. The next morning when I had a slice for breakfast, I knew I was in trouble and gave it away before lunch. Whew! That could have been disastrous for my hips!

Make sure to check out all the other Daring Bakers and how they all made theirs different. And especially check out Super G's. Hers looks great too! And thank you Chris for such a memorably delicious challenge!

17 comments:

Cakelaw said...

Your cake is just gorgeous with that shiny ganache top. Definitely worth using the Crown!

Speedbump Kitchen said...

Sorry about the sticky cake! I'm converted to parchment cut-outs in the bottom of my pans after many, many disasters and near diasters! Great comeback!

Anonymous said...

hi mary - that's one shiny glossy ganache you have there - well done!

Anonymous said...

Awesome job! It looks great, and glad you overcame the sticky cake :)

glamah16 said...

What is it with men and their gaurding of booze supplY. CS is like that and heaven help us if it didnt turn out. I imagine walnut and whisky would be awesome and not to sweet.

Anonymous said...

I LOVE that you had a slice for Breakfast!!! I wish I had thought to save a piece from the scarfing neighbors.

But then, I'm glad I had scarfing neighbors because otherwise, like you I think I could have just sat down with the cake plate and a fork.

Anonymous said...

Cake for breakfast is the best!

Dewi said...

Nice looking Walnut gateau! Layers look nice. Whisky sounds good to me .

Deborah said...

Nothing wrong with cake for breakfast! Great job!

Stephanie said...

Of all the cakes I've looked at so far (and my goodness...there are a lot of them!), I think yours is the first I've seen with walnuts!

Nice job!

una donna dolce said...

bravo for not giving up!

Glenna said...

The cake is absolutely perfect!

I think we're twins. That cake layer looks like some of my cake layers, I always have Crown Royal or Southern Comfort in my house, and I'll take walnuts over hazelnuts any day.

Looks wonderful!!!!

Rebecca said...

I think all of us who used alternate nuts did a fantastic job. Walnuts and whiskey? Who would have thought that would make a delicous cake? Great job!

marae said...

Awww I love the beautiful decorations...too bad you had to remake but 2nd time's a charm?? Fab ganache!

Anonymous said...

This is one beautifully decorated cake and I imagine it tasted lovely with the walnuts.

Anonymous said...

Walnut Gateau! Great joice of nut for this cake. My hubby & I found we don't really like hazelnuts, so walnuts would've been much better. Great looking cake!

Lauren said...

Wow, your cake looks wonderful! Love the ganache!