A Night at the Opera

I've been thinking about macarons recently. Everyone seems to be talking about them. When I looked up the recipe, however, I got too overwhelmed and decided to make a 6 layer cake with a three page recipe instead. Why? I don't know.

Here's a picture from the beginning of this expedition. This is the part where I fold the 6 egg whites in with the 6 whole eggs and over two cups of powdered sugar.


This recipe requires over a dozen eggs and about 3 and a half sticks of butter. I am not kidding. I am not exaggerating. Oh, plus whipping cream.


This took me many hours. One trip to the store included, due to my poor planning. I don't think people usually make opera cake on a whim. I also had to redo the coffee syrup because I accidentally added it to the buttercream frosting. It was an easy mistake to make -- both require coffee. And that's my excuse. The results, however, are fabulous.



This is a serious cake at 20 servings. I followed advice on the recipe (thank you, Lynne Rossetto Kasper!) and cut it into pretty blocks to freeze. Drop by my house soon and I'll make espresso and share cake with you.

Oh, I made quite a mess.