Eating: May 2008 Archives

This cake is a heartbreaker, literally.

It's the May challenge for the Daring Bakers. I'm not posting the recipe, as everyone else has already done it and all you have to do is google Opera Cake and Daring Bakers and you'll come up with lots of luscious cakes.

So did I enjoy making this cake?

Well, no. Not really. It was a challenge (mostly following the steps right), it is a pretty cake, but it's incredibly rich and you need a second mortgage for the ingredients. My cake decorating skills lack, mostly because I am impatient, but hey, I made the cake!

Things I liked:

• the almond meal sponge. I'll make this again.
• assembling the cake in a ring. I really like this for presentation.

Things I didn't like:

• the white chocolate glaze/ganache - chocolate ganache should be dark and bitter.
• the buttercream. Buttercream is so sickly. I can feel my waist swelling and my arteries clogging.

Things I really really liked:

• the strawberry liqueur, Dolfi Fraise des Bois, which I used in the syrup. I went into the booze shop and the little man who works there and who has seen me come in once in a blue moon, mostly to buy brandy for my christmas cake, was very enthusiastic about finding me something suitable. I originally wanted raspberry liqueur but there was none so I took this. I'm so glad I did  - it complemented the lemon flavour in the buttercream perfectly.

So, that was my Opera Cake for this month's Daring Baker challenge.