Daring Bakers: It's Not Over Till The Fat Lady Sings

In case I don't say it enough, I'll say again now: I LOVE being part of Daring Bakers :) Despite the many steps to this recipe and the 3.5 hours it took to make, along with the tons of scraps this cake made (yum), baking complicated recipes totally motivates me. I get focused and excited and even though I get less excited about eating it, something about making it is totally cathartic. Anywho, now that I'm done gushing... The fat lady has sung, and this Opera Cake challenge is over.

Even though I didn't keep my Opera cake completely yellow, I'd like to give a shout-out to Barbara of Winos and Foodies, who hosts LiveSTRONG With A Taste Of Yellow to give support to all those people and families touched by cancer. Friends and family who read this blog know that my Dad was diagnosed with first stage Colon, Ureter, and Lung cancers in 2005. My whole family suffered as Dad went through countless surgeries, procedures, chemo appointments, and although my Dad is now cancer free, we're all just beginning to heal emotionally. My Dad is an incredibly brave man who almost never complained and pushed his way through an unbelievably hard period of his life. My Mom suffered the hardship of caring for someone dealing with cancer, and so this cake is also dedicated to my parents.

Of course a big thank you to Lis, Ivonne, Fran and Shea for hosting this month. Make sure to check out their beautiful cakes, as well as a the ever-growing Daring Bakers Blogroll for countless variations and full recipes.

I didn't have too many struggles with this challenge.. aside from forgetting to put buttercream in-between the top two jaconde layers and having to carefully remove the top layer and add extra buttercream in. I flavored the jaconde with a tiny bit of vanilla, used a lemon/honey syrup, added a raspberry puree to the buttercream (which almost caused it to break), and ground some of the Lust ginger, rose and lime sugar (Thanks Mom!) over the white chocolate glaze. I left off the mousse because I'm not wild about white chocolate and instead just used an extra buttercream layer, but I was actually kind of disappointed that my white chocolate glaze layer came out as thin as it did. I should have let the glaze cool further to make sure it stayed thick.

This is a great show-piece cake for a special event. Despite the ingredients, this cake was decadently light, and I had no problem eating a piece at 10am. With a little effort (a little more than I put in :P) it can look really clean and beautiful. Feel up for a challenge? This one will do the trick.