Wednesday 28 May 2008

Daring Bakers Challenge 3 - Opéra Cake


So here we are again, it's Daring Bakers time, and this month I really was daring. An opéra cake is something I would NEVER have made, in my wildest dreams no matter how much I would have wanted to and read the recipe. I can now make my own nut flours - I made pistachio for this. I can make a sugar syrup, which hile not the most technical of recipes is something I have never made before. I have finally found a butter cream that I like aswell.

I'm not going to post the full recipe as it's posted on plenty of other blogs and you can see it here on Ivonne's blog Cream Puffs in Venice but here's what I did that make my cake different:


  • I made pistachio flour - ground pistachios pulverised with a tsp flour for each 100g pistachios - smells AMAZING and everyone should try this!!!! I will definitel be making nut flour again.
  • I used rose flavouring for my buttercream so 3 tbsp rosewater in total but to be honest I could have used more, I also coloured my buttercream with some cochinelle colouring to make it the rose pink.
  • I made a cardamom sugar stock which is amazing, I still have some left and keep smelling it in it's little airtight container in the fridge. Smells like pure heaven for a cardamom addict like me!!!
Initially, I wasn't mad about the mousse/ganache or the glaze as I thought they over powered the cake slightly on the first day, the next day however, everything blended together perfectly and the flavours had time to develop. The joconde (read cake here gor those not intiated to the opéra cake layers) had a lovely firm texture which I really liked and the pistachio flavour was gorgeous, really fresh and with the cardamom and hints of rose made me think of exotic far off places!!!


Special thanks to Lis, Ivonne, Fran and Shea for hosting this months amazing challenge - Bring on the June challenge I'm ready!!!!!

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your cake looks fabulous! And how awesome that you made your own nut flour!

Anonymous said...

lovely ideas for the flavouring - cardamom and rose is a great pairing!

Christine said...

Your cake looks beautiful! Love the choices of flavorings and the pistachio flour! Great job

Henny A. said...

Your cake looks very cute and the flavors all sound so yummy together. Great job!

kk said...

what a great combination, i love cardamom and rose water!! I think next time i will try to make the cake with pistachios nuts. great job!! -kk

Shari@Whisk: a food blog said...

Pistachio, rose, and cardamom sound so delicious together. I'm amazed at the variety of flavorings by the daring bakers! Great job!
Shari@Whisk: a food blog

Cannelle Et Vanille said...

love the exotic touch!

Barbara said...

Love your use of pistachio nuts for the cake and cardamom and rose for the other components. Great job!

Anonymous said...

Oh, I love this flavor combination. Awesome cake!

Anonymous said...

Oh how fabulous :)

Unknown said...

Such cute little cakes! I also love the pistachio...I bet it tasted fantastic.

Anonymous said...

Your cake looks really good! Rose and cardamom sound like great flavors. I have never used rose water before, mainly I'm afraid it will smell too strongly of roses. Cardamom is intriguing, I have only used that in Chai Tea.