Daring Baker #8 Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream
>> Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Oh for heaven's sake. You'd think I'd know better than to try to make a cake that takes up EIGHT printed pages on a weeknight. A weeknight that just happens to be the deadline. A weeknight when the temperature in my kitchen is hovering right about 87 degrees. Because I live in the desert. And it's hot. And the oven on for 2 hours - no does help.
But tomorrow is Boo's birthday, and even though we'll be having some toxic colored cakey masterpiece this weekend when all her little hoodlum friends come over I thought it would be nice to have this one for the actual day. This chocolate ganache covered Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream. Ha! Joke's on me!
Did you know that a cake can be STICKY and SLIPPERY and CRUMBLY - all at the same time? Do you have any idea what a huge ass pain it is to try to squish apricot preserves through a sieve? How about peeling hazelnuts? Ever done that? Or melting dry sugar? Culinary napalm indeed! And even after all that, it turns out I am just too stupid to read and understand the recipe. I swear on a stack of Oreos I just could NOT figure out the assembly of this monstrosity. And even if I could have figured it out I think I'd need about 3 more hands to keep the whole mess from collapsing into a sad (but tasty) heap. Could be early Alzheimers, could be late ADD, either way I admit defeat. I'll just finish it however I want. And right now what I want to do is let the damn thing sit in the fridge until half past Armageddon, but I'll probably go ahead and try to square it up and put the ganache on eventually. But probably not tonight.
UPDATE 7/30/2008 11:31
It is done. 
And here's the damn cake.
UPDATE 8/1/08 1:38 am
I've just sat down with my second slice. The damn cake tastes good!
29 comments:
This is so sad. It's okay. Cake parts are tasty too! Good luck and have ice cream instead!
Oh wow! It looks like you waged absolute war! I'm glad it looks like you finished it. I hope that you all enjoy it.
Hehe I love your description of the finished cake, since that is how I felt about mine and I didn't have major problems. hehe
Do you want me to stab "Jenny"? ;) I'll do it... but only for you. Haha I'm just teasing Jenny! Really!
I want to tell you though, despite what you say was a pain etc. and a mess, the cake looks awesome and the fact that you even tried makes you my hero. And an 8 page recipe to boot? I don't bake, but 8 pages ? For a regular recipe to pass 2 pages I probably would laugh and not even try already. So. PROPS<3
I felt like on this challenge it was a dish washing challenge since my kitchen was a disaster. I think your cake looks great
happy birthday to boo!! we forgot to have birthday cake here this time, love you---boo's granny
You poor thing..., but hey, you finished your cake! It's look really nice! Hopefully the next challenge will be something more appropriate for the weather. Cheers!
Oh by the way, Thanks for visiting!
Is it my kitchen over there? It looked the same after the cake^^
Well sometimes (while reading your story for example) I thank God I live in Poland..when I was making the challenge it was only 15C degress:P
I think you'e made a fabulous cake, my congrats:-)
ang ahh thanks for a lovey welcome to the group;-)
Hi
I like the happy birthday icing, I could have done the same I suppose! Well done on the challenge! Thanks for leaving a comment at my blog...tomato and basil cake sounds good...make the genoise from pinenuts...
Your post had me laughing like crazy. I love that you took pics of the sink! I used more pots, pans and bowls than I've ever used.
But, you finished and that's what matters and it looks good! I admit, that recipe was yummy, too.
Hi thanks for your comments and welcome on my post! This cake was indeed quite the challenge, wasn't it! I was glad that I went home to use my mom's kitchen (aka not my tiny kitchen with my half stove and no counter space- good call on my part there...), and the little added bonus of having her following me around cleaning up in my wake. Your cake is darling though, I love your piping and decoration!
Your cake looks great!
The recipe was long and a pain in the... as to the kitchens, it's like a parallel universe. I was having flashbacks. lol.
Also, thanks for dropping by and commenting on my first DB challenge.
Hi! Thanks for looking at my cake and commenting -- yours came out fantastic! It was the most labor intensie cake I ever had to make(and this was my first DB challenge!), but it did taste good and I made it for my Mom's birthday so it was a wonderful cake to have for that!
Happy birthday to your Boo!
Your kitchen looks about a crazy as mine did. I am still finding buttercream and ganache in random places!
At least it turned out tasty looking :)
My kitchen ended up in a similar state, :) it tasted good though didn't it.
This are the most honest step-by-step pictures I've seen so far, lol!
I agree the cake was a pain but at least we have something to brag about now. Thanks for the comment and the warm welcome into the group!!
Haha.. I love the 'final reveal' of the cake at the end of the post, after all those pictures of kitchen carnage :) Great cake, and look! It was worth it afterall :D
LMAO, You have me laughing your post is awesome! I love it!
Oh, boy! I'm happy it's Winter here in Chile so it's not such a hell to cook cakes, such as this one... but all that mess and heat made for a beautiful, beautiful cake, really!
Hahaha the damn cake does taste damn good, huh? Damn straight. And it's cute, too! I like your square happy cake, especially after all the kitchen pictures. It's like the cake is saying, "lalala look at me! I totally screwed up your kitchen, but don't you want to eat me? take that!"
Good job figuring it out! And believe it or not, my kitchen totally looked worse than yours did.... =)
I know how you feel. It's times like these that I would cut off my right arm and trade it for a dishwasher. Really.
Dude...that's what my kitchen looks like when I pour a GLASS OF MILK. You don't know a mess until you've seen the kind of chaos I can create. When I made the cake, and I am not making this up, my puppy had frosting all over his velvety little ears for 6 days before my fiance broke down and gave him a bath. That said, your cake is beautiful, in a "Special Olympics Bake-Off" kind of way, and I appreciate the sarcasm more than you will ever know. Who knew there were more spiteful bakers? I've felt so alone...
Yes! I found hazelnuts/filberts at Sprouts. I live WAAAYY over in the West Valley, so they were located at the Sprouts on Dysart & McDowell. Who knows when you might need them again, right?
Love your cake. I had a mound of dirty dishes too. Thank goodness we're not graded on neatness:)
I loved your description and the photos! The "damn cake" looks great;)
Your cake looks wonderful! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
I was so laughing through the post and almost fell off my chair with laughter when I got to "here's the damn cake". Glad it at least tasted good!
That was hilarious! I totally felt the same way when I attempted this cake. Thankfully it was delicious and well worth the effort.. that is.. if I didn't spend those painful hours peeling hazelnuts!
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