This is a wonderful challenge. It all started for me with a leisurely weekend, all to myself, to make the Opera Cake. It's a no-rush, not at the last minute production and for once I left myself plenty of time.
Here's my Opera Cake diary:
Woke up on Saturday morning and eased myself into the day with 3 cups of coffee and some blogger browsing.
Made the Buttercream. Grrrr! If I was poetically inclined I would write an "Ode to Buttercream."
Had some more coffee and rearranged my cake decorations and spices, for the umpteenth time.
Made the Syrup.
Moseyed out to the liquor store and bought some Baileys Irish Creme for the mousse.
Then things started to get really challenging, difficult, nerve-wracking - the cheap white chocolate I had bought went all grainy in the mousse so I chucked it out.
Sunday I got some Ghirardelli chocolate (I like this make) but decided to leave out the mousse and just use it for the glaze. White chocolate is so awfully, awfully sweet.
Very excited I started the Jaconde - quite tricky; the first set I made got burned at the sides so I made another batch and lowered the oven setting to 400 F. These came out a respectable pale yellow.
Greatest fun - coloring and flavoring the buttercream. I decided on three flavors, one lemon/yellow, one cherry/pink and one pistachio/green. It felt like painting. The assembling was easy; once the edges were trimmed it started looking quite pro.
Monday - made the glaze. Ooey, gooey, delicious! Left my finished Opera Cake in the fridge overnight and took photos in the morning - then off to work we went. It was a success at work - some people absolutely loved it, others said they found it a bit sweet, I am ecstatic about the cake - it tastes like a sophisticated petit four. Oh yes, I will definitely make this again. What a wonderful learning experience, to make a French cake like this. I have a "do" coming up on June 11, so I'll otherwise make this one again or try the Tish Boyle one with coffee and chocolate.
Thank you Ivonne andLis for this great challenge.
12 comments:
YOu made an absolutely beautiful Opera cake! :) Love the different colours of buttercream. Beautiful! :)
Great job with the challenge and I love the diary! Too bad all the parts did not go as smoothly as you might have hoped them to.
Oh, that's beautiful! I lovethe different colors :)
I love the plate in the first photo! The different colors and flavors sound delicious!
Great job! Your cake looks yummy!
Great idea to make different flavours of buttercream! I'll definitely be making the Opera again, too :)
Angela @ A Spoonful of Sugar
What a great idea with the color choices. Sounds like it was a fun day, what with all the coffee drinking. :)
I love that you did different coloured buttercream...nice
What a great idea to make different coloured buttercream, the cake looks great!
Ulrike from Küchenlatein
Love the idea of having cherry, pistachio and lemon buttercream! I went with lemon and white chocolate for my flavor combo, and I agree with you, I look forward to making it again!
Nice job - like a spumoni opera cake!
great job! it was a fun challenge, wasn't it?
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