I admit I was a little concerned when I first decided to join the Daring Bakers. Opera cake, danish braids...wayyy over my head. Could I really hang with these crafty culinary ninjas? Throwing caution to the wind I gave myself a pep talk (you can bake, yes you can), signed up and held my breath in anticipation of my first challenge. And then knock, knock...who's there?...Filbert Gateau...who? What's a filbert? Better yet, what's a genoise? Help me wikipedia! Thanks in part to my fellow DB's, and google I pulled myself up by my apron strings and faced this cake head on. 2 days, and many dirty dishes later, my cake was finally done. All in all I was happy with the end result.
The flavors were great and look at how much I learned:
1) Don't try to substitute hazelnut flour for real hazelnuts if you stink at math. I was a wee bit off in my calculations resulting in a much drier cake than I had hoped for.
2) Swiss butter cream is possible, even for a novice like me. That being said, if you're going to make it ahead of time, you need to re-blend it before piping, otherwise it separates (duh).
3) I will never use store bought whipped cream again. There is great satisfaction in making it yourself.
4) Ganache, while delicious, is not lunch.
5) Daring Bakers Rock!!!
11 comments:
Congrats on the success of your cake! I learned a lot on this recipe too :)
Filbert sounds like Dilbert, but still cooler than saying hazelnut...and it makes you sound smart...like saying saying prawn or sultana instead of shrimp and raisin!
Funny! And you did it--your first challenge looks fabulous!
Welcome to DB - this one was a tough challenge and you did a great job. Skinning those filberts a.k.a. hazelnuts was...well...I won't say what I wanted to say but not my favourite thing for sure.
Congratulations on weathering the storm of your first challenge. Bet you're just itching to see what's on tap for next month.
Great job on your cake. I think we all learned alot from this challenge
It was a tough first challenge!
What a lovely looking cake. All that chocolate and nutty goodness squeezed into one beautiful slice of gateau. Great job on your first DB challenge... we're lucky to have you :)
This was a learning challenge. Who knew it would be worth it to grind up perfectly good pralines?
Ah yes - whipped cream - if the smell could be bottled I'd wear it like perfume....anyway, welcome to the group :)
Congratulations on completing your first Daring Bakers challenge!
You did a great job and the smart thing by breaking up the challenge over two days. Making everything in one day made for a very long day.
I'm also a first time Daring Baker. I'm still leery if Filbert Gateau comes knocking on my door. lol :-)
Ooo, your cake looks wonderful!
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