Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream

I'm back!! I've been on a bit of a hiatus due to a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Mostly I will blame the hectic schedule of summer traveling. Anyway enough excuses.

The lack luster result from some of my past challenges has lead me to a great group called "The Daring Bakers". This months challenge is very much a challenge for me. Which is exactly the type of excitment I have been looking for. As it turned out we were going to be with family this past weekend and they just love when I test out new sweets.

The Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream from Great Cakes by Carol Walter is one of the most involved cakes I have ever attempted. And was such fun too and oh yes, extremely yummy!!! The gateau ( "cake" in french) is made using ground, toasted hazelnuts. I used pecans since hazelnuts are a bit pricey in my neck of the woods right now. The recipe calls for a small amount of cake flour and a good amount of eggs. So the nut flavor is front and center.

The praline paste needed for the buttercream (again I used pecans) was very easy to make as was the orange scented sugar syrup. The butter cream however, gave me a bit of a problem. This portion of the process I had to do at another location since we were traveling. So, after packing up half the kitchen and dealing with hot and humid conditions I wasn't too happy with the results. Ah, but I continued on with the assembly and chocolate ganache glaze. The results, although I know was not nearly as perfect as I would have liked was still delicious. The family uttered not a word of complaint. Great challenge and lots of fun!