Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Daring Bakers: Opera Cake

Key Lime and Strawberry Opera Cake
What a fabulous recipe, but so intimidating!

I have never heard of an Opera or a Clichy cake until the announcement of this month's DB challenge. Lis, Ivonne, Fran and Shea our hosts this month gave this description:

"For those of you that don't know about this cake, it's an extremely elegant and polished French dessert that is believed to have been created around the beginning of the 1900s. Many people credit a gentleman by the name of Louis Clichy with inventing the cake and that's why it's sometimes referred to as Clichy Cake. .......................................................................................
........a cake that is made up (usually) of five components: a joconde (a cake layer), a syrup (to wet the joconde), a buttercream (to fill some of the layers), a ganache or mousse (to top the final cake layer) and a glaze (to cover the final layer of cake or of ganache/mousse)."

After reading this description (and seeing photos of this eloquent cake) all I could think was "this is definitely going to be a challenge".

This month the challenge is being dedicated to Barbara from winos and foodies, who hosted a blogging event called A Taste of Yellow, which was an event to show support to LiveSTRONG day May 13th this year).

To coinside with the spring theme and LiveSTRONG Day, our hosts asked us to use light colors and flavors in the opera cake. Traditionally, an opera cake is flavored with dark chocolate and coffee liquors. I thought a while about what flavors I would use and I came up with strawberry and key lime, and a light rum. I ended up using the buttercream recipe from Dorie's Perfect Party cake. The recipe is a combination of Dorie Greenspan’s Paris Sweets and Tish Boyle’s and Timothy and Moriarty’s Chocolate Passion

This was the order of my flavors: First the Jaconde

Buttercream----- Strawberry (1 cup pureed strawberries added)
Syrup----- Key Lime (about 1/4 cup)

Mousse/Ganache----- Light Rum (2 Tbs.)

For the Glaze----- Key Lime (I added about 1/3 cup)

This was definitely a very involved recipe. I wouldn't suggest doing this in one day since the setting time can take some time. I actually made the jaconde a day before, and made the other components the next day. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to learn about and bake this cake, it was fun and fantastically delicious. Thank you Lis, Ivonne, Fran and Shea!

Don't forget to check out the other DB'ers concoctions here

You can view the recipe for the Daring Bakers’ OpĂ©ra Cake here on Ivonne's blog.

35 comments:

Kayte said...

wow ally! your cake looks amazing. i want some!

Patsyk said...

Your cake turned out so pretty! I love how you adding the music staff and the berries to it. Lovely!

Christine said...

Oh yum the key lime and the strawberry! Great job!

Maryanna said...

I've never heard of an opera cake either, but it looks gorgeous.

Renee said...

Your opera cake looks wonderful. I love the idea of strawberry, lime, and light rum. It's screams of summer!

Anonymous said...

Wow! Ally, that looks amazing! I love the flavor combinations and the musical notes are so cute!

Erin said...

That looks like a cake that would feel like an accomplishment to make. Great job! Within another month or two I will have to break down and join the daring bakers... it just looks like too much fun!

Anonymous said...

Oh Ally that looks so moist and delish! I love strawberries and this looks like strawberry shortcake on steroids! YUM!

toontz said...

Mmmm...great flavor combination!

Dolores said...

You certainly stepped up to this month's challenge Ally; your cake is stunning and I bet it tastes as good as it looks. Great job!

The Baker & The Curry Maker said...

Great flavour combinations and it looks so great! Well done & welcome!

What's Cookin Chicago said...

Wow... I'm drooling over here! I love the combination of strawberry & lime and from the looks of it, you executed it beautifully. Well done!

Anonymous said...

This looks amazing! Making this into a key lime and strawberry cake was a great idea - I know someone who would probably absolutely love this.

That Girl said...

I love all the decorations on these opera cakes - your treble clef is adorable!

Ally said...

I did my best with the treble clef. I only did a few because it was a pita! Thanks that girl!

Shelby said...

Ally, you have awesome photos! Great job! My buttercream wasn't enough! You have nice thick layers of it!

Ally said...

honeyb, I used Dorie's perfect party cake buttercream recipe. It's the best I've had in a looong time. I actually had some left over!

Jen said...

I love the flavors that you picked!

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

Fantastic! Love the strawberry with note! Perfect for this cake.

Anonymous said...

Yumm that strawberry buttercream looks delicious! I think I could just eat that with a spoon.

Lunch Buckets said...

Nice job! I can't even see the words "key lime" without salivating.

glamah16 said...

You did great. I love Key Lime.

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

Very intimidating indeed, but ever so delicious! Your cake looks gorgeous! I love the way you flavored it!

cheers,

Rosa

Ruth Strong said...

When I finished making mine I was sorry i didn't put strawberries in it, and seeing yours makes me want to give this cake another go. It looks beautiful, and delicate.

Michelle said...

Your cake flavors sounds really good and the cake looks pretty!

Anonymous said...

I loooooovvvvvve strawberry buttercream. I'm swooning right now. And for someone who says she was intimidated, nice job! The great thing about this cake is that everyone's flavors provide such a variety that I just want a bite of them all. ;)

Anonymous said...

Great choice of flavors, it sounds delicious!

Shari@Whisk: a food blog said...

Strawberry, lime, and rum sound delicious. I'm going to have to make this cake with all the variations mentioned by all the Daring Bakers!
Shari@Whisk: a food blog

Anonymous said...

I soo love strawberries, so I'm drooling all over this post!

Cakelaw said...

This looks super! I love the idea of lime and strawberries in the cake, as it adds flavour while cutting through the sweetness.

Unknown said...

Key lime and strawberry sounds wonderful! Great job.

Anonymous said...

Your cake looks so pretty and delicious! Love the decoration and flavours you used.

Anonymous said...

Key lime and strawberry–sounds and looks delicious! I love that last photo.

~Amber~ said...

Magnificent job Ally!! Your cake looks wonderful.

Jaime said...

key lime and strawberry, i love your flavor combination! i'm glad i'm not the only one who didn't know what an opera cake was before this challenge ;)