Wednesday, May 28, 2008

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.

20 comments:

Renee said...

Congratulations to your DAD!! What a great way to honor your Mom and Dad but to bake them a wonderful Opera Cake! Bravo to you. Your cake looks delicious!

Shannon said...

The lemon, honey, and raspberry sound delicious. I love that combination of flavors. Your cake looks really pretty also.

NKP said...

Beautiful cake - and that neato sugar! Never seen anything like it!

Clumbsy Cookie said...

Wonderful flavours, nice story and beautiful looking cake.

Anonymous said...

And here I am lusting after your thin glaze because I (and all my testers) thought my glaze was way too thick. It's always something... Beautiful job, the pink buttercream looks very delicious!

PG said...

Great job on the opera cake! I know what you mean about complicated recipes motivating you to focus. There aren't many tasks that I do where I think solely about that task, but cooking is one of them.

Also, good to hear that your dad is cancer free. I'm sure that was a lot for your family to go through.

test it comm said...

Nice looking opera cake. I like the pink raspberry layers.

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

So glad your dad is doing amazingly well!!! I love the fact that this challenge was dedicated to Barbara and her taste of Yellow event. Great cake with woinderful flavours as well:D

Erika said...

I think your cake looks great! My glaze was runny too, but I shoved it into the fridge and trimmed off the places where is was runny!

Pixie said...

Your cake looks wonderful and I'm certain you did your parents very proud.

Ally said...

Beautiful job, I love the height of your cake!

Georgia said...

Yum, yum, yum...can you send me a slice? You are getting better and better at these challenges (and the photos!). I'm so proud ;) Kitty wants some too...

Christine said...

Congratulations! Your cake looks beautiful I love the glaze on the sides! Your flavor combinations lemon, honey and raspberry sound delicious!

Barbara said...

What fabulous news about your Dad. I'm so pleased for him. Thank you for the shout out. THe cake looks delicious.

Anonymous said...

Looks great! Love the pastel pink of the buttercream.

Lunch Buckets said...

I don't know what lust ginger is but I'm pretty sure I need some.

giz said...

..and a great show piece your cake is. I'm visualizing your expression when you realized you forgot the buttercream and how gingerly you were moving things around. Your cake turned out beautifully.

Shari@Whisk: a food blog said...

Your cake looks so pretty! I love that Lust ginger, rose and lime sugar, and where can I get some!?!
Shari@Whisk: a food blog

Anonymous said...

I am loving that first photo! Total perfect layer envy. ;)

Anonymous said...

Your cake looks great. I bet the raspberry buttercream was delicious. And that ginger lime rose sugar sounds intriguing. What else have you used it for?

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