Daring Bakers Challenge – May 2008

To be a Daring Baker you need daringness…  but you also need to know your boundaries.  That’s what happened to me when I learned about May’s challenge.  We’re making WHAT!!!!!

Opera Cake…

Oh my gosh, they’re beautiful, dainty little cakes with a trillion layers…  cake, mousse, ganache, more cake and so on…  but I know where my limits are and if I had a tough time decorating Dorie’s Perfect party Cake…  for sure this would have just frustrated me to the core.  So in the interest of not adding more stress into my life, I decided to forego this particular challenge.  However, I do wish to share with you some of the creations my fellow Daring Bakers have made.

This month’s challenge was brought to us by 4 hosts – Lis from La Mia Cucina, Fran of Apples Peaches Pumpkin Pie, Shea of Whiskful and Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice.  Which is kind of cool, because Lis and Ivonne are the founders of the Daring Bakers group…  now saying this, I’m kind of embarrassed that I skipped this challenge… but here we go.

First, we start with Gluten a GoGo, who is one of my companions on the Alternative Bakers side of the Daring Bakers…  she is a gluten-free baker, so I highly recommend you visit her site if you’re in need for gluten-free inspiration.  Her Praline and Rooibos Opera Cake looks and I am sure tastes delicious too.  It’s made with Rooibos tea, which I have never heard of, but I will sure do some research on…

Secondly…  I loved this photo of Addicted Sweet Tooth’s  Apricot Pistachio Opera cake.  She’s a former pastry chef with a sweet tooth to envy…  this cake really looks delectable, no??

I also wanted to showcase a Vegan version and Bex, from How to Feed a Vegan who lives in beautiful Vermont made this rendition of the Opera Cake…  which goes to show you, there are no limits to making any recipe suitable to our dietary needs.  Opera cake’s original recipe is full of eggs and dairy products and Bex found a great way to adapt and conquer.

From the Canary Islands, I present to you Delicias y Tentaciones…  the blog is in Spanish (sorry to those of you who are not fluent in it) but I had to share her creation with you – a wonderful Orange and Saffron Opera cake.  Very beautiful, very Spanish.  Olé!!!  I’ve never been to Canarias, but the first time I went to Spain, almost everyone asked us if we were Canarios…  so I feel we have a “connection” there…  and isn’t this picture pretty?!?!

And finally, at A Beautiful Mosaic, this spicy Korean-American mama created this Marie Antoinette-inspired Opera Cake… Isn’t it beautiful?!?!

There’s more and more versions of May’s Daring Bakers Challenge Opera cakes… for that you can visit our Daring Bakers Kitchen Forum to check them out and maybe even join us in future challenges… 

For now, this is it… until June’s Challenge posting date that is!!!