This was my first Daring Bakers Challenge. I loved every minute of it. This is right up my alley.
At first I was not too thrilled with the recipe. Hazelnut is not my favorite flavor. Don't really like Nutella, hazelnut coffees, even hazelnut gelato...and I LOVE gelato. So, my first consideration was to maybe use a different nut. However, the difficult part is coming up with a flavor that would not be too intense and appropriate enough to complement the other flavors in the cake. In the end, I stuck with hazelnuts.
I purchased mine in bulk at Sprouts, which is a local grocery chain with a fair amount of organic and natural foods. The first thing I wanted to get done was skinning the hazelnuts. Based on past experience, this is not the most enjoyable task. I spent about 2 hours skinning the hazelnuts. I tried the technique described in Sherry Yard's The Secrets of Baking. Her technique is to place the hazelnuts in the oven at about 325-350 degrees for about 15 minutes. Rub the hazelnuts in tea towels and the skins should come off. Then place the nuts back in the over to toast them.
That didn't work so well. About 1/3 of the hazelnuts were skinless after this. I put them back in the over to bake longer. Still no success. I ended up lightly simmering the hazelnuts for about 3 minutes to peel off the skins....literally peeled them off the remaining hazelnuts.
Because the majority of my nuts were wet (HA!), I was not able to proceed with the recipe. I let the nuts dry and completed the cake the following weekend.
The cake went together flawlessly...the batter anyway. I decided to halve my cake because again, not a hazelnut fan. And it's just me and my husband...we really don't need a huge cake around the house. I poured the batter into a prepared 6-inch round, 2-in high sided cake pan. There was too much batter for this size pan. I poured the remaining batter into a ramekin.
I baked the cake as directed, checking for doneness after about 15 minutes. It definitely needed more time, so I left it in for another 10 minutes more.
After the cake cooled as directed for 5 minutes, I attempted to invert the cake. It did not release from the pan so easily. Small freak out moment here...more freak out to come later. I was not going to re-do the cake, so I decided to live with a small missing chunk of cake that was still sticking to the bottom of the cake pan. OK, this does not happen to me very often, so when it did with this recipe, I was pretty aggrevated.
When the cake was completely cooled, I wrapped it tightly and placed it in the refrigerator to assemble the following day. I proceeded to make the Praline Buttercream.
Freak out #2. Hazelnut Praline. As directed I melted sugar in a 10-in skillet. I'm still working with 1/2 recipe here. My first attempt at Hazelnut Praline was not successful. I burned the sugar, but didn't realize this until AFTER I had added the nuts and the Praline cooled. I tasted the burnt sugary coated nuts. Blech. I asked my husband for his opinion and he said it was OK....OK, here's where I tell you, never trust your husband on something like this. I tasted it again, still burnt flavor. Back to the drawing board.
Problem: no more hazelnuts...especially ones that are skinned (2 Hour Project!) and toasted. Not doing that ever again, if I can help it! Consider options, go to grocery store and buy more hazelnuts, only to spend about 2 hours skinning said hazelnuts, Stomp around on kitchen floor, use plain or alternate flavored buttercream, Cry, use burnts hazelnut praline. These weren't really a good option and not very productive. Sure, I could have used a different flavored buttercream, but that really wouldn't suffice. I decided to simmer the praline and dissolve the burnt sugar off the nuts. After the sugar melted away, I poured off the burnt sugar water and allowed the nuts to dry for a bit. I didn't have much time though...so they did have some residual water.
I made the Praline all over again and this time, I watched the sugar like a hawk and didn't let it burn. It worked OK. The Praline was a little soft. That's because sugar is hydroscopic and the residual moisture in the nuts probably softened the candied sugar after it sat overnight.
The next day, I processed the Praline Paste and whipped up the buttercream. Making buttercream is one of my favorite things to do...no worries on that! I assembled and readied the ganache, syrup and glaze and started assembly. Oh, the ganache called for some corn syrup. I didn't have any (and didn't realize I was out until it was too late). I just left it out and my ganache turned out fine.
Here's where I discovered the cake was a bit on the dry side. I sliced the cake into 3 layers and it was a bit crumbly. I was not able to get the sides and top very even...as you will see shortly. This was frustrating to me. I tried to even out the sides and top, but every time I cut into the cake, it just crumbled. I left it alone and dealt with this the best I could.
Unfortunately, poured ganache doesn't hide ANY flaws, so you will see my cake is a bit lumpy.
Aside from the Praline and crumbly cake, there were a couple of other issues I noticed. I was not able to process the Praline paste as finely as I had hoped. I don't know if I need a new food processor blade. The cake could have also been crumbly due to the nuts as well...perhaps they were not processed as finely as they should have been.
Also, I did not detect much alcohol flavor. I used Rum where it was called for, but no discernable rum flavor in my opinion. I was not able to get Dark Jamaican Rum, though. I used Bacardi Gold.
I was surprised by the taste...it was pretty good. Although, the chocolate ganache didn't really meld with the hazelnut everywhere else. I think I would consider incorporating more chocolate flavor elsewhere in the cake to tie it all together.
The components of this cake, for me, were not too difficult...the project itself with all the steps was a bit time consuming, but I love that. So, this challenge was exactly what I was looking for, it forced me to bake something that I wouldn't have tried otherwise. Looking forward to August!
