Opéra Cake - DBC

The baking challenge for the month of May by our founders Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice, Lis of La Mia Cucina, and two newbie bakers on the blogroll - Fran of Apples Peaches Pumpkin Pie and Shea of Whiskful is an Opéra Cake.

The extra special thing about this month's challenge is that it is dedicated to Barbara of winosandfoodies.com. A cancer survivor herself, and an ex-DBC member, Barbara had chipped in her bit for LiveSTRONG - Lance Armstrong's foundation for helping Cancer patients by hosting 'The Taste Of Yellow'.

Having given up eggs since some time, I decided to go eggless this time. For the original recipe please visit Ivonne here.

I won't go on too much. Best to say that it is the first time I have ever layered a cake or tried an icing. The farthest I have gone is to pour chocolate ganache! I could not do that this time, as chocolates were banned:(. Further more, the beautifully fluffed cake hardened in the fridge, so I was really disappointed. I realised that the proper way would have been to keep the syrup, and glaze ready, and use them while the cake was fresh from the oven. Doesn't matter I learnt another lesson, which is a reward by itself!

FOR THE JOCONDE:
I adapted the recipe from eggless recipes.com

The first time I made the cake exactly as the recipe said and it turned out too sweet - more like a barfi, so I made a few changes and used the recipe I am giving here:

1 cup flour
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup caster sugar (1/2 should have been perfect)
4 tbs. sour cream
1/2 cup ground almonds
1/2 cup milk

Method: Grease the tin. Cream together the butter and the caster sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the sour cream a little at a time. Fold in the ground almonds and flour with the milk. Spoon into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes or until risen and firm to the touch. Turn out on to a wire rack to cool.

See how beautifully it came! I had no idea it would harden in the fridge, and I kept it for two whole days! Thank God! We ate most of it, and reserved only some for the icing and stuff!

I would love to cut cakes in two layers without breaking it! Can someone give a suggestion as to how that's to be done?

FOR THE SYRUP:

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
About 1/2 cup liquid reserved from 7 dried apricots immersed in water
1 small stick of cinnamon

Boiled the mixture with the cinnamon till the sugar dissolved and simmered for another 2 minutes. I poured it over all the layers. On second thought I also filled both the layers with a apricot fruit cream.

FOR THE FRUIT CREAM:

8 dried apricots immersed in water
2 to 3 tbsp. cream (I found a muscat heavy cream in Shoprite)
Sugar to balance the sweetness

Pureed the apricots in the mixie. Whipped the cream and sugar till soft, and folded in the apricots lightly.

FOR THE GLAZE:

1/2 cup icing sugar/confectioners sugar
1/4 cup butter
toasted flaked almonds
1 tbsp. milk

Melted the butter, added the sugar and milk till smooth and creamy and then poured it over the cake.

Assembling:
I cut the cake into two layers and then 4 bricks. We ate up most of the cake and agreed to leave some for the assemblage. I drizzled syrup over the warm cake, and then filled in some fruit cream. Arranged the bricks and poured the glaze.

I have done a lot things by feel and not exact measure, as the quantity of syrup, glaze and cream required was very less.

My notes:
The second time the cake came out yum, but was drastically short of sugar. I reduced the sugar as I was sure the syrup would make the cake sweeter. Next time I shall use 1/2 instead of 1/4th.

I still haven't mastered the art of cutting a cake neatly into two layers (among other things;)). Any suggestions will be welcomed!

As for the glaze or icing, I still prefer sticking to the chocolate ganache!

I would have done the white chocolate ganache, but wasn't able to find it in the stores here.

Thanks, Ivonne, despite the grumbling, I actually enjoyed doing this!

Labels: Baking - Cakes, Blog events, Ing. - APF, Ing. - Dry fruits, Vegetarian - Cakes