Put off by these restrictions at first, I whined to myself about how this wouldn’t be a true opera cake… But my enthusiasm soon overruled my stubbornness.

Any flavors would do, as long as they fell on the lighter end of the color spectrum. There was to be no coffee, no dark chocolate- No dark colors of any kind were allowed. Of course, now that the Daring Bakers have taken the reins on this project, I had to change things up a bit. Traditionally composed of 3 layers of almond cake soaked in coffee syrup, layered with coffee buttercream, one tier of chocolate mousse and a final topping of chocolate ganache, this assembly is nothing to shake a whisk at. However, I think I’ve found one version that I can not only stand, but enjoy The kind made of cake and buttercream! This is one dessert that I’ve been itching to make for ages, but there was simply never an occasion to go out on a limb and try it.

Possessing an attention span that can barely stretch through any movie of average length, I’ve honestly never felt compelled to go see any sort of opera.

Fancy opera cake