Gateau Marjolaine (Marjolaine Cake)

This is my favorite cake ever. Most people's reaction to this cake is "You could make a lot of money selling this" I was introduced to this at my first job busing tables at a French restaurant. Make sure NOT to overcook the meringue/cake mixture. It should be soft and chewy and not hard like a normal baked meringue. I just fill 2 small sheets and cut them in half to get my 4 layers. If you do it freeform, you can use an electric carving knife to easily square off the cake. I also find it easiest to make a chocolate ganache and just pour it over the perfectly symmetrical rectangular assembled cake.<br/><br/>Some tips. I use my convection oven at 400 to roast the nuts. The hazlenuts roast in about 5-7 minutes and the allmonds about 10-12. 20 minutes at 425 is WAY too long and will burn the nuts. I like to pull the almond brittle when it's a caramel color. Dark molasses tends to taste burnt to me. I also carefully mix the brittle once or twice with a rubber spatula. Don't use a metal utensil or you could crystalize the sugar. My burner heats the center too hot and if I don't mix it, I get a burnt center before the perimeter is colored.

I MADE "honestcooking.com"'s VERSION OF GATEAU MARJOLAINE. I am posting a review here bc the recipes are similar, and there is so little help and info about making gateau marjolaine that I thought I would comment here as well. Honestcooking's version had too scarce a dacquoise if you make 8 rectangles, and not enough ganache. I made mary berry's actual dacquoise recipe for that part. wow. What a recipe. Yes, this recipe makes TWO cakes, so be aware of that. I made this recipe with two 'back up' recipes for marjolaines to refer to. I have never made italian buttercream, praline paste, or dacquoise. I did not have a good candy thermometer or a stand mixer. For my pointers, read on: I made a separate recipe for praline paste. Just google 'praline paste recipe' and I believe it was the first result. You caramelize nuts in a sugarwater blend on the stove. Mine crystalized and I PANICKED. Not to worry. Just keep cooking it, it will eventually caramelize. I felt the paste had a SLIGHT burnt taste because nuts are so easy to burn and it takes at least 10 minutes on the stove in the sugar syrup for it to caramelize. Had I used raw nuts instead of pre skinned and roasted perhaps that would've helped. You will need a food processer for the praline paste. I soon found out every recipe for gateau marjolaine is different. Some include two flavors of buttercream; some don't even have a chocolate cake layer. I'm very glad I did the chocolate cake layer as it was SO yummy. The italian buttercream was the hardest part. I had to make it twice as I think I overheated the sugar syrup the first go round. You really need a good candy thermometer, but if you don't have one, here's a tip I couldn't find in ANY of the marjolaine instructions out there: you're heating it to 'soft ball' stage. Have a cup of cold water nearby as you test the sugar syrup. When you pour it into the beating meringue mixture, it wants to harden and glug up at the bottom of the bowl. KEEP MIXING. I almost gave up the second time because I think it was starting to harden. The first time it literally turned to hard candy at the bottom of my bowl, though. It also is not clear how long to beat the egg whites before adding the syrup; I believe it should be to stiff peaks or very near stiff peaks. After I added sugar and butter, it was so soupy and runny. I was certain I had ruined it for a second time. It did not looke/feel "broken" as the recipe says and I didn't really know what they meant. It tasted divine, it was just extremely runny. Don't give up until you've chilled in the fridge for an hour; Mine firmed up hugely to the consistency of a thin cookie dough after refrigerating. The cake recipe was simple. Creme d'or and ganache too. For stabilized whipped cream, I googled 'stabilized whipped cream' recipe, and used unflavored gelatin because I do not have access to devonshire cream. The dacquoise: I split off and followed mary berry's dacquoise recipe from her marjolaine recipe. She has you grind the nuts yourself and toast the powder. Then you add QUITE A LOT of cornstarch, and you use powdered sugar instead of regular. I was anxious about these deviations but followed it closely and the dacquois turned out alright. IMPORTANT NOTE: Mary Berry's proportions for the dacquoise are all the same, but yet she only has you make 4 rectangles. This recipe calls for 8 (in order to make 2 cakes). I accidentally only did 4 as per Berry's recipe. I remade a half-recipe of dacquoise today so I could complete the second cake and spread it thin over 4 rectangles again. MY CONCLUSION: YOU SHOULD DOUBLE THE DACQUOISE RECIPE. Spreading this recipe's proportions over 8 rectangles is much too thin and difficult. The thickness from makeing 4 rectangles was just right. ALMOND FLOUR VS. GROUND NUTS: They are essentially the same thing. But I used almond flour instead of freshly ground and toasted nuts the second time I make the dacquoise. The consistency does not look good and I'm concerned it soaks up too much moisture with the finely ground almond flour. Do freshly ground nuts if you can. THE GANACHE is not nearly enough to do 2 cakes. I had to make extra. I almost wonder if the ganache/creme d'or proportions are swapped as you do NOT need that much creme d'or. FREEZING: You CAN freeze this fully assembled cake! While the recipe says to freeze 'unglazed' (which I assume means without ganache??) but I took a risk and chucked the whole thing in the freezer overnight. Took out, put in a hard cooler with lots of ice packs, and traveled 2 hours in the heat to our picnic destination. It further sat in the cooler for 2 hours before we ate it and it was just right. It is very difficult to cut/trim the edges even with a sharp knife. OVERALL, I will probably never make this again because it was so complicated. It was a fun adventure and I made it for myself for a birthday cake. It is a piece de resistance. I will certainly make praline paste and the praline icing again now that I know how to do it; it was probably the best icing i've ever had and I am NOT an icing person. Just the chocolate cake layered with ganache and praline buttercream would be just right.