L'Opera Cake

So I'm a complete dunce and thought that the posting date for this challenge was this weekend... and that is what happens when I try to be proactive and finish challenges several weeks, rather than several hours before the posting date... But honestly, I had really high hopes for this month's Daring Baker's challenge, but I think I really mucked it up this time. I enjoyed the process but the final product was FAR too sweet and really had no other discerning flavor than sugar. My initial urge was to make a raspberry, lemon and white chocolate Opera Cake but that seemed too similar to the Perfect Part Cake from a few challenges ago (and Tesco was out of raspberries....). So I bought some canned peaches and figured I'd go in that general direction. At home I realized that I had some Southern Comfort liquor left over and wouldn't that just be the best mix of flavours!? Southern Comfort is a whiskey flavoured with spices and fruit, among them peaches; so I figured I had hit flavor combo GOLD. I started having fantasies of my boyfriend's(who is a true southerner at the core) reaction to this amazing and unique cake: he would declare it his favorite and I would have to make it every year for his birthday.

I started this 5 part cake with the Butter cream since I'd already had some success with it in the Perfect Party cake challenge. I went with Dorie's recipe and flavoured it with the Southern Comfort. It came out DELICIOUSLY. Honestly- Kris and I could not stop sticking our fingers in the bowl for just one last bite.

Next I made the syrup next and infused it with the syrup from the canned peaches. I now believe that the syrup I used wasn't actually peachy enough to do the job and I probably should have mashed up some peaches or added more peaches elsewhere since the cake tasted NOTHING like that yummy summer fruit.

The joconde seemed really promising: ground almonds mixed into a meringue base! But mine came out very very sweet and a bit mushy (which might due to lack of jelly roll mats and a proper oven). I also managed to sear one with the other one's pan...

The Chocolate Mousse seemed promising and was ultimately pretty good. I even liked my chocolate ganache which I managed to make the exact color I was hoping for!

The assembly was a bit challenging- actually, my pieces weren't really straight and by then I had had several mojitos... which in retrospect might have been my demise

DONT DRINK AND BAKE PEOPLE- It's just not worth it.

After 3 days in the fridge and having produced a belly ache to anyone who dared taste even a bite, the Opera Cake was ceremoniously killed and discarded.

And despite this experience I wait with anticipation for the next Daring Baker's Challenge.