A Taste of Light: Opéra Cake – - May’s Daring Baker’s Challenge May 28, 2008

I first want to apologize for the formatting of this post.   WordPress is driving me nuts and I have no more patience or time to keep screwing around with the formatting.  Formatting is a big pet peeve for me, so it’s not easy going public with a post that looks like this!  Hopefully next post will go better.

Thanks to the Daring Baker’s founders Lis and Ivonne for hosting this month’s challenge along with Fran and Shea, new members who agreed to co-host.  I will have to say, if I never joined this group of bakers, I would have never attempted the Oprea Cake. 

For the full recipe click here. 

This cake is made up of five elements:

Joconde:  The base of an Opéra Cake is a thin sponge cake that is made using nut meal, traditionally almond meal (finely ground blanched almonds).

Syrup:  The joconde is flavoured with a sugar syrup that can be flavoured to suit your tastes.

Buttercream:  The first two layers of the joconde are covered in a rich buttercream. This particular buttercream is made with a syrup, eggs and butter.

Ganache/Mousse (optional):  In some recipes, the final layer of the joconde is covered in a ganache or mousse. While not hard to make, this makes the recipe quite involved. We are giving Daring Bakers the option of either using the buttercream to cover the final layer or, if they’re feeling up to it, to go ahead and make the ganache/mousse.

Glaze:  The final step to an Opéra Cake is the glaze that gives the cake a very finished and elegant appearance.

 

Here are the flavors I used for my five different elements:

Joconde:  Ground Oatmeal (I was not about to spend $13 for a small bag of almond meal at the store and didn’t have time to make my own.)

Syrup:  Vanilla

Buttercream:  Caramel (I used the recipe from the Perfect Party Cake but used brown sugar instead of white and added caramel ice cream topping.)

Ganache/Mousse:  Irish Cream

Glaze:  I stuck with the recipe, white chocolate

 

I really enjoyed making and eating this cake.  It was nice to be able to make each different part ahead of time and then putting it all together a different day (which didn’t take long at all!).  I would make this cake again, but of course trying new flavors. 

I would say my 4th Daring Baker’s Challenge has been a success!