Daring Bakers - Opéra Cake!

This month’s challenge was equally as intense as last month’s. This time Lauren came over to help out and I’m so glad she did - I DEFINITELY would not have been successful with this challenge without her help! Not only did she catch me about to melt two whole sticks of butter when I was supposed to melt only 3 tablespoons (hah!) but she had so many tricks up her sleeve that made this challenge a ton more easy than it could’ve been.

Daring Bakers - May

Alright, so the traditional Opéra Cake is a large, square cake with multiple layers - instead, we went with the “Daring” part of Daring Bakers and attempted cupcakes. Here is Lauren’s hard work, cutting out parchment for the cupcake mold:

Daring Bakers - May

Here’s a sliced cupcake. Normally you don’t cut the cake in thirds like this, but we needed to do this for our little creations:

Daring Bakers - May

In between the layers was buttercream, flavored with some orange zest, as well as some syrup flavored with limoncello:

Daring Bakers - May

Daring Bakers - May

Yum, huh?

Daring Bakers - May

After they were refrigerated for a while with the buttercream, we added a glaze to the top and sides:

Daring Bakers - May

Daring Bakers - May

Daring Bakers - May

Let me tell you, although they look messy, they were delicious. And SWEET. The final product:

Daring Bakers - May

Not too shabby, huh? Check out that neat layering. Thanks, Lauren, for all your help. And thanks, Daring Bakers, for posting your frustrations and messiness and surprises and successes so we can all learn from them! I can’t wait for next month!

by Lara

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May 28, 2008 - 7:38 am Y - Cute cupcakes! The first opera cupcakes I've ever come across, and they look mighty tasty too!

May 28, 2008 - 8:54 am Maddy - Wow I can't believe you did the cupcakes! That was more work than I could handle with this recipe being tough on its own. Looks amazing and the flavors sound scrumptious. Yum! Gorgeous pics, of course, too.

May 28, 2008 - 8:56 am Judy - Your little cupcakes turned out beautifully! Such wonderful photographs!

May 28, 2008 - 2:12 pm Natashya - What a great idea to do cupcakes! It must have taken a long time, good thing you had help. The cupcakes look so decadent layered and filled like that, I will have to try something like it.

May 28, 2008 - 3:16 pm Dana McCauley - Love that we get to see the baker in these pictures - I think you are the only one to 'dare' to be photographed in situ! Also love the great step-by-step shots.

May 29, 2008 - 6:54 am Angela - Oooh, cupcakes! They look great, Lara! I'm going to have to try a citrus opera cake sometime soon. Just need an excuse....

May 29, 2008 - 8:45 am Indigo - I love the cupcake idea! And especially that last picture of the one cut in half; looks absolutely perfect. I wish I'd had someone on hand to stop me messing up, haha.

May 29, 2008 - 3:16 pm lina - Yummy! Cupcakes is a really good idea for this I think. (I made a smaller one than the recipe, but I wasn't altogether succesful with that)

May 30, 2008 - 10:12 am Eva - Wow! I am definitely goingt o try cupcake steh next time I make this cake. I loved you post!

May 31, 2008 - 2:45 pm marika@madcapcupcake - You opera cupcakes are gorgeous - perfect little serving sizes for such a sweet and decadent dessert! - and your presentation is beautiful and really enjoyable to look through :)

June 3, 2008 - 4:23 pm Shari - Your mini operas look perfect! Great job! Shari@Whisk: a food blog

July 4, 2008 - 9:47 pm Debyi - Your opera cupcakes looks delicious! What a lot of work, but worth it. Greaat job.

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