My latest adventure is with l'Opera Cake. It's French, and so delicious it can make me cry!
The recipe was online, and it's basically the one Dori Greenspan uses in her fabulous book Paris Sweets (which I immediately ordered from Amazon), and she adapted it from one made at Dalloyau, a shop on the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore in Paris.
It consists of layers of joconde (an almond sponge cake)drenched in espresso syrup, then spread with a generous layer of espresso flavored French Buttercream--something that, once you've tasted it, you may never go back to the stuff you make with shortening and powdered sugar, for sure!--then more cake and syrup, then ganache, more cake and syrup, then a glaze made of melted chocolate and clarified butter blended into something unbelievable!
So, now I'm on a joconde journey. I'm going to try at least ten different combinations of this scrumptious cake and fillings and glazes--how can I not?
My search for Joconde led me to The Daring Kitchen and I joined right up to face the challenges put to Daring Bakers there! I can't wait for the first one!
