DB Challenge #3 = Opera Cake

Our challenge this month was the Opera Cake. An Opera cake is 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.

It is made up of 5 componets: Jaconde (the cake), a syrup, buttercream, mousse and a glaze.

I admit the part I was most afraid of was the buttercream because it was yet a different buttercream recipe from last month's. When it came right down to the time to make it, I decided to go with the original buttercream recipe and I am SO GLAD I DID! This buttercream was awesome. I flavored mine with peach schnapps and I could have eaten the whole bowl without the cake!I did not go with the mousse as I didn't have heavy cream and didn't want to make a trip to the store just to get it. Therefore, when I made the glaze, I used 2% milk instead of the heavy cream also. My only regret was that I did not make double the buttercream. I ended up with 4 layers because my cake pans were smaller than the recipe called for so I was sparing with the buttercream in order to get it on all layers.
When all was said and done, I didn't care for the Jaconde or the glaze. Grumpy on the other hand, seemed to like this cake (he ate all the sides that were cut!) The Jaconde was too "gritty" for me and I figure it was because of the almond meal and the glaze was way too sweet. My favorite part was the buttercream. I will be keeping that recipe around for future use in other cakes!
Thank you to Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice, and Liz of La Mia Cucina co-founders of the Daring Bakers and hosts of this month's challenge. You can view the recipe on Ivonne's website! Because the Daring Baker group has grown so much, they asked Fran of the blog Apples Peaches Pumpkin Pie and Shea of the blog Whiskful to co-host! Click here for the rest of the DB's challenge for this month!

I would like to dedicate this post to Barbara of winosandfoodies.com. Barbara is the force behind the food blog event called A Taste of Yellow that supports the LiveSTRONG foundation started by Lance Armstrong.