Michele’s Holiday Cake

INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

           HOLIDAY CAKE:
COOKING MONDAY TO FRIDAY SHOW #MF6629  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Roast the almonds and hazelnuts  separately for about 10 to 15 minutes
or until you get the aroma of  roasted nuts. Remove them from the oven.
While hazelnuts are still  hot, rub their skins off between 2 kitchen
towels. Lower the oven to  325 degrees.  In a food processor, grind the
nuts together with the sugar until  finely chopped. Do not overprocess
or they will turn oily. Fold 2  tablespoons of flour into them and set
aside.  Generously butter a nonstick jelly roll pan either 13 x 17
inches or  12 by 15 1/2 inches. Line the pan with silicone treated
baking paper  or parchment.  Beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until
stiff and fold beaten egg  whites into the ground nut and sugar mixture
along with remaining 2  tablespoons of flour. Spread this on prepared
baking pan and bake for  30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown, crisp
on top but still  pliable.  Remove cake from oven and, using pot
holders to protect your hands,  immediately turn pan upside down onto a
clean kitchen towel. Let cake  settle for a few minutes and remove
parchment paper. If cake breaks,  don't despair; you can "glue" it back
together later with icing.  When slightly cool, cut the cake into 4
long vertical strips, each  about 3 inches wide and however long your
baking pan was.  Yield: 16 servings  3 FILLINGS FOR MICHELE'S HOLIDAY
CAKE : While chocolate is still  warm, mix it with 3/4 cup of heavy
cream to form a "ganache";  refrigerate just until cool enough to be of
spreading consistency. In  a mixing bowl combine praline paste with
remaining 1/4 cup of heavy  cream and set aside.  Whip remaining cup of
heavy cream with confectioner's sugar and  vanilla.  Assemble cake:
Set one strip of cake on a long board or platter. Set strips of waxed
paper underneath edges to catch any icing drips  Spread 1/3 of
chocolate cream. Top with second layer of cake, spread  with plain
vanilla whipped cream.  Spread third strip of cake with praline cream,
then place it on top of  whipped cream layer.  Top with 4th strip of
cake.  Refrigerate cake to firm it up before final icing  Frost top and
sides of cake except for short ends. Decorate top by  making vertical
lines or cross hatch marks on top of the cake with a  knife or tines of
a fork.  Cut off a thin slice from each end to even up ends. Protect
ends of  cake with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator until
serving  time Cut with serrated knife.  Posted to recipelu-digest by
molony <molony@scsn.net> on Feb 24, 1998

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