Daring Bakers-July Challenge~Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream

This month's challenge was hosted by Mele Cotte. The challenge was to make a Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream following the recipe found in Great Cakes by Carol Walter. I was so drained this month that I was thinking about skipping July's challenge. But next month I'll be taking a few weeks off and flying to Hawaii to get married, so I didn't want to skip two challenges in a row. So I sucked it up and bit the bullet.
I went to two supermarkets and Walmart and could not find hazelnuts (fliberts) so I decided to use almonds instead. Whenever the recipe called for filberts, I replaced it with almonds. I also did not incorporate any alcohol in my recipe.

I first started by making my almond praline paste. I got excited because the recipe involved caramelization which is non-enzymatic browning! If there is one thing I learned in my Food Chemistry courses, its about the different kinds of browning reactions. An example of enzymatic browning is when you cut an apple and it turns brown. The polyphenyloxidase (enzyme in cells in apples) is exposed to oxygen and browning occurs.

In the case of making a praline paste, granulated sugar (which is a non-reducing sugar) is heated. The heat excites sucrose (a dissaccharide) molecule and breaks it into fructose and glucose molecules. These two molecules release water and dehydrates the sugars. Some rearrangement of the molecules occur it results in a burnt sugar (caramel) flavor.
This same non-enzymatic browning process occurs when toasting marshmallows or when you leave a bottle of ketchup in your pantry for a while and the red color changes to a dark brown color.



The cake cooked fine and my swiss buttercream frosting worked well and it didn't break. Here's the glazed cake prior to my attempt to decorate it.

My piping skills (or lack of skills) resulted in a flower mess. See those globs, they are supposed to be flowers. I ended up scraping them off and then making a porcupine cake by dotting the whole surface of the cake with praline buttercream frosting.

If you would like to check creations made by other Daring Bakers, check out the Daring Bakers blogroll.