May Daring Bakers Challenge and My Fallen Opera Cake

I was really excited when the May Daring Bakers Challenge was revealed in the beginning of the month. It is L'Opera, the cake that I have always wanted to tackle, but have constantly putting off because of the many components it requires. Now that our hostesses Ivonne and Lis, together with co-hosts Fran and Shea have chosen it as our May challenge, it gives me the necessary nudge to make it. No excuse to sit on it anymore.

Except, I actually did sit on it until the last minute. Even though I have gone through the possible flavor combinations of the Opera cake for no less than 10 times in my mind, I didn't get to tackle it until 2 days before the posting date. Life is so unpredictable, and May just happens to be a month full of emotional roller coaster rides.

Unlike the classical Opera, in which chocolate and coffee are the dominating flavors; Our hostesses stressed that only light colors are allowed in this challenge. The reason? We want to dedicate our individual Opera Cake to Barbara of Winos and Foodies, the force behind "A Taste of Yellow", a food blog event that unites food bloggers around the globe to rally for LiveStrong Day. "It is Lance Armstrong Foundation's one day initiative to raise awareness and fund for the cancer fight". You can read more about LiveStrong Day here

I settled on a french vanilla buttercream and rhurbarb mascarpone mousse combination for my L' Opera. They tasted exquisite on their own, so I have high hope that the cake would turn out a huge hit. The buttercream was on the runny side when I made it on Monday midnight, but I thought it would firm up once it's chilled. And with that optimistically naive mindset, I charged on and assembled the cake.

As you can see, the buttercream didn't firm up, and I have a fallen Opera cake. Did I tell you that I didn't halve the recipe? The original recipe is good for 20 servings. Arghhhh...I am debating what to do with the rest of the cake. I hate to waste food, so I am risking my reputation (even though I doubt I have any)to shove the cake to OCT new colleagues.

So my first Opera Cake adventure isn't as successful as I have hoped for, but I certainly have fun putting it together. I finally tasted Pierre Herme's French Vanilla Buutercream and the Tartelette inspired rhurbarb mousse. I will certainly try making it again because I love all the components here, or perhaps I will do one with coffee and chocolate, or one with Asian inspired flavors. The flavor combinations are endless if you check out the Opera Cakes our 1000+ Daring Bakers have come up with for this month's challenge. You can check out their fascinating Opera Cakes here