After dilly dallying and dragging my feet for a month the delays are finally over...because I ran out of time and the deadline is here! Presenting the daring bakers July challenge: The Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream...whew! Chris of Mele Cotte chose Carol Walters' daunting recipe.  

After my last fiasco with a nutty genoise, I wanted to be absolutely certain that I would not make the same mistakes.  This time I promised myself, I'd be so careful, everything would turn out beautifully... Heck, it wouldn't be daring if life in the kitchen were really all that simple!

 I made one 8" cake and three 2 1/2" cakes that I wanted to serve individually to some girlfriends coming for lunch tomorrow. The three mini cakes were done in no time and I left the 8" longer. When I tried to invert them, I realized that the 8" cake, was still rather uncooked... and now had an alien handprint on the center.  Can I change the theme for lunch to Roswell? HMMM.... 

I put the cake back in the oven and went merrily along making the next step. The glaze.

I realized I bought dried apricots instead of preserves so I looked up a recipe, and out came a 4 hour preserve. Was that easier than stepping out and buying  a bottle? Probably not, but that's so typical of me! So out came the crock pot that has never been used. My mother should be so proud but she would just exclaim with exasperation, "you're crazy!" And while this exchange was going on in my head I realized that my cake was starting to burn! Talk about action in the kitchen!

So while The preserve was cooking, I tackled the praline buttercream next. It's been very interesting making different kinds of buttercream. In this one, we add the meringue into creamed butter. It came together so easily I was amazed.  Now I have a new favorite buttercream method!

All in all, I like this cake though honestly I have not eaten it. So where is that statement coming from? I tasted all components individually (lots of fingers in the buttercream!) and they don't seem as sweet which suits me perfectly. I'm waiting to serve the 3 mini cakes for lunch  tomorrow and though I frosted and decorated my 8" BRICK cake, I am scared to try it!

More tomorrrow on the verdict!

Thank you to chris for another great challenge! You can find the recipe for the Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream here.