December Daring Bakers - Yule Log to New Year's Cake

This is my first Daring Bakers challenge and what a challenge it was. This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux. They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand. They translated the recipe from the original French recipe for us English speakers and non-metric followers -- thanks! For the story of how they chose the recipe, the tremendous work they put into it and the recipe itself check out http://saffronandblueberry.blogspot.com/.

See them -- six elements (praline not showing)!

This was quite a challenge. The finished product had to contain 6 different elements -- Dacquoise, Mousse, Ganache, Praline (Crisp), Creme Brulee and Icing. I had no praline paste, nor any prospect of procuring some, so I had to make a batch and for the gavottes I used Special K. Otherwise I had made nearly all the other elements in some form. I was aiming for a New Year's confection so I made mine as a cake rather than a log. I had a 6 inch baking ring and aimed all the elements to fit inside it. In the end, the layers slightly exceeded the height of a single ring, so I stacked two for the construction. The finished product was nearly as high as it was wide. Some days I feel that way myself! I used a white ganache icing and decorated it with edible gold sprinkles. It's off to a party tonight with lots of Prosecco and good company. Happy New Year to all!