Gourmet Birthday Cake Attempt

So for Biscuits Birthday I wanted to make her a cake. When I told her this she said, “I have one I want but it will be difficult.” I really wanted to make something, so I told her to give me the recipe and I'll make it. .

She then showed me the recipe for this cake—delivered to her door courtesy of Martha Stewart.

Holy Crepes Batman!

Well, I was excited to take on the task. So a couple of Saturdays ago, I devoted myself to a day in the kitchen.

First, I had to make ALL the crepes. Mind you, I've never made crepes but thought I could make it work. Thank goodness for flat cooking surfaces. As you can see, I'm a mess in the kitchen. The first 5 - 10 were a rubbery mess. I couldn't find the right utensil, so resigned to finger flipping. That worked and I soon got into a rhythm.


Here are a pile of about half the finished crepes. Notice how the plate is precariously perched...I've been know to drop things in the kitchen. After seeing this picture, I now know why.


Then I had to make the hazelnut filling. Let me just tell you about how rich this was. The hazelnut filling called for 2 cups of whipped cream, 2 ½ STICKS of butter, and egg whites along with some sugar and everyone’s favorite staple Nutella. Ok so maybe it didn't call for Nutella. That doesn't really sound like Martha, now does it. Well it call for something I couldn't readily find in Ohio, so Nutella was my replacement (and a damn good one).

So then I layered, layered and layered some more. The biggest problem was keeping the cake vertical as I stacked. The bottom layers wanted to shift left and right. It was a wobbly to say the least. As I tilted it to fit it in the fridge, the layers all shifted. I had to pull it out and give it a shake to straighten it out.

And then I had to top it all with a yummy chocolate ganache. Then is when I realized I didn't have corn syrup. Corn syrup is what gives it that shiny texture and finish. Oh well, I figured there is enough sugar in this thing anyways.

So the cake was in the fridge firming up, but what about those candied hazelnuts? I made those too. I won't even tell you about the experience trying to find WHOLE hazelnuts at the grocery store, UGH.



Here is the candy in the making. mmmmmmm sugary bubbles...


Ok, definitely not as spectacular as the picture to begin with, but YUMMMMM. Thanks for giving me a challenge biscuit, it was fun.




Check out the inside!



NOTE TO BISCUIT: While scouring the internet for the original picture of this cake, I found a dozen bloggers who also were lured into ATTEMPTING this cake. One annoying person replicated it beautifully HERE, while the majority of others struggled as much as I did. I'm linking you to the successful execution because I really didn't believe it could be done that professionally outside of a test kitchen and food stylist. I guess you were the only one lured into the decadent, layers of chocolate hazelnut intoxication.