Dad's Birthday- The Opera Cake

Yes, another birthday, and yes, another homemade cake. Somehow it just doesn't feel right anymore if I don't make one...even though, according to my dad, he had two cakes bought for him that day already. But mine would be made at home from scratch and with love, and personalized for him. So that's way better, right?

Gelsons Opera Cake

I decided on opera cake mainly because I knew my dad loved it. Nearly every time he stopped somewhere to pick up pastries for dessert on a special occasion (usually from Gelsons, which has an awesome bakery), he would have to grab an opera cake as one of the choices.











 The rich layers of almond sponge cake soaked in coffee syrup, coffee-flavored buttercream, and chocolate ganache make this a hard-to-resist treat. So, I ventured to create my own from scratch to see if I could rival the deliciousness of Gelson's bakery. And I have to say that I got pretty darn close.



So I started first with the almond sponge cake, otherwise known as Joconde. I ground up an 8oz bag of blanched (or without shell) almonds from Trader Joe's, then whipped up 6 egg whites (separated from the yokes) to stiff peaks, also called meringue. I always love doing this-- it's amazing how ugly pale egg whites can turn into something so fluffy and white just by whipping them!



The next step was to mix the ground almonds with 6 whole eggs, powdered sugar, and some clarified butter. What is clairifed butter, you ask? I had the same question when I got to that part, and had a sudden moment of panic when I thought that I would have to run to the store. However, once I looked it up, I discovered to my relief that it was merely butter that needs to be heated on the stove until the fat rises to the top as a sort of foam. (This is also how ghee is made, if you were wondering). So you scoop off the foam with a spoon and then drain the rest of the liquidy butter through cheesecloth into a bowl, leaving it more flavorful and less dense. Nice little trick, huh?

























So once I finally had these all mixed together, I had to then fold in the meringue. Yes, it's a lot of steps-- but so totally worth it! This makes the cake come out light and airy rather than dense, which is also helpful for soaking up the coffee syrup I would be making next. I then spread this batter carefully into two half-sheet pans, baking them for only about 8 minutes at 425 degrees. That has to be the shortest baking time for a cake ever!



















The directions emphasized flipping the cakes almost immediately onto parchment paper to let cool before assembling the rest of the cake.


Phew, hardest part is done! Now time for the toppings that would go in between the cake layers. First was a coffee syrup, which called for instant coffee powder and hot water. But I knew my dad; the better quality the ingredients, the better the final product. So I opted to use espresso instead, making it with his machine.

I also used some of that espresso to make a French buttercream that would be going in between the layers. Ohhh so delicious. I'm going to be using espresso in my frostings more often, that's for sure...

And lastly was the chocolate ganache component, which is simply melted chocolate mixed in with heavy cream. The simple, yet essential, layer.

Phew, now that I had all my different parts ready to go, it was time to put it all together! First I had to measure the two cakes (so that they were equal), slicing off the unequal sides so that it looked perfectly rectangular. I then sliced each one in half, so that I had four separate cakes.

 Next, I put one of those cakes onto my cake display platform and began to brush it with the espresso syrup, which would soak into the cake and keep it moist.


After that was a layer of the espresso buttercream, and then a repeat with the next cake layer. Right before the third cake was added, however, I spread a layer of the chocolate ganache so that it would be right in the middle of the final cake. Just the right amount of chocolate mixed with coffee.

And then I repeated with the next couple layers of cake, finally ending with the chocolate ganache. I melted some white chocolate to write out the message on top, and melted some more regular chocolate for the tennis racket shapes. All in all, I'd say he was pretty pleased with it. 

Harry Potter World at Universal Orlando

Diagon Alley

Hogsmeade

Okay, so the nerd in me just couldn't resist...I HAVE to tell you all about my friend's and my trip to Orlando last weekend. The best part about it was that we booked it last minute-- literally, the day before we left. Crazy, right?

Well the story is that we had been discussing doing this trip in December between Christmas and New Years since that is when Caitlin has time off work. We originally wanted to go for about a week (or slightly less) so we could experience both Universal and the Disney parks. Because why not do it all if you're all the way out there? Well, just last Wednesday (Aug. 27th), we started seriously looking into flights and hotels for that week in December. And it turned out, it was freakishly expensive. Surprise, surprise. So we had a moment of sad realization that we would not be able to go this year. It was as though someone had given me a giant bowl of Belgium chocolate and then suddenly taken it away from me.

Caitlin coloring in the airport as we wait to board

But it doesn't end there! Caitlin suggested we start looking at other holidays and gave me a list of days she had off from work. We had already ruled out Thanksgiving, and the only other one that occurred this year was labor day weekend. Which, as you all know, was that upcoming weekend. Caitlin jokingly said that she wasn't doing anything, and I realized that I also had no concrete plans. Plus I had no school the following Monday and not very homework as classes had only just started...well, to put it simply, we were both very tempted to try. We looked up flights and lo and behold, they were cheaper and still available! And while the on site hotels at the Universal Resort were all booked, we were able to find one not too far away for a less expensive price that provided complimentary shuttle service to the parks. It seemed too good to be true. She had to double check that night about mileage coverage (since that is what we both used to pay for our flights), but the following day, Thursday, we decided to do it. When would we get this chance again? So after several more frustrations (flights selling out or raising prices at the last minute), we finally booked it. We were flying out Friday night, arriving in Orlando at 6:30am on Saturday, and returning home on Tuesday morning with an early morning flight.

Even then, it didn't hit me that we were really doing it. We had been talking for years about going to this park together-- Harry Potter has been a shared passion of ours since we met in fifth grade. We read our books together, played trivia games, went to events, and dressed up in costumes made by our parents. We quote it at each other all the time and will even make Harry Potter related jokes. And lastly, we just opened up an online shop together selling mostly Harry Potter inspired items. So you can imagine that as soon as the first park (Hogsmeade) opened a few years ago, we knew that we were destined to go together one day. And once the second one (Diagon Alley) opened this year, we knew it had to be soon.

Okay so jumping to our arrival on Saturday morning: First of all, let me just point out how incredibly gross we felt when we stepped outside the airport. We were already tired and groggy after not sleeping on the plane, and the air there was so hot and humid. Those of you who are accustomed to humidity know how sticky it feels when you stand outside. And quickly you start sweating. So yeah, I'll leave you with that image of us for now.

We had not really planned that day ahead of time, considering we had just booked the trip the day before, so it was not until we reached our hotel that we decided what to do. We got there around 7:30am and were told by the very enthusiastic concierge that the next shuttle to Universal Studios would be leaving in about 20 minutes. Caitlin and I looked at each and seemed to be thinking the same thing-- we had better catch that shuttle. So we rushed up to our room, had some problems with our keys of course, finally got inside, emptied our backpacks, changed into shorts and tanktops, and ran back down to catch the 7:50am shuttle. We nearly fell asleep on that half hour ride to the park (since we had to stop at a few other hotels) but once we arrived, our energy suddenly returned. We knew that the parks didn't officially open until 9am, so we figured we would grab some breakfast before heading in. Instead, we walked up to the Universal Studios entrance with our tickets just to ask directions and found ourselves entering the park with the early admission members. Say what? That's right-- we were already on our to Diagon Alley before the crowds. And we still hadn't eaten anything. But that could wait until we got into the park.

I can't even describe our reactions as we walked around that brick wall into Diagon Alley; it was if someone had actually thrown us into JK Rowling's book. We nearly broke down, standing there together gazing at the magical world before us that we had imagined so many times. I, for one, never thought I would have the chance to really walk through it. We excitedly made our way down the alley of shops, pointing things out to each other and feeling our exhaustion slipping away. It was not long before we were at the entrance of the one ride in the park: Escape From Gringotts. We were told that the wait time was two hours, and would only get worse throughout the day. So we had another moment of exchanging glances, reading each other's thoughts, and simultaneously decided to do it. It ended up only taking about an hour and a half, and Caitlin was smart enough to buy us some fruit and pumpkin juice to enjoy while waiting so we could have some sort of nourishment. Remember that we still had not eaten since the airport the previous night, about 15 hours before.

Me with my first butterbeer

Feeling much more energized after the fruit and the fast-paced ride (which was AWESOME. It was one of the neatest rides I've ever been on, and not just because it's from Harry Potter), we decided to explore Diagon Alley some more. After all, it wasn't horribly crowded and it was hard to leave without seeing anything. Finally unable to ignore our growling stomachs, we decided to stop into the Leaky Cauldon (the only restaurant in there) and grab some food. We got some traditional English fare and our first butterbeers, which were delicious! Not quite as amazing as I imagined them to be from JK Rowling's description in the books, but still better than I expected a theme park to recreate.


I won't go into details of all the other things we did, since you can see from our photos on Facebook, but I want to emphasize how impressed I was with both Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. Oh, and the rest of the Universal parks. They are huge! Since we had three days and crowds were not bad, we had the leisure to fully explore the entire parks, going back and forth between them and the Harry Potter worlds. We had to get at least one pumpkin juice and one butterbeer each day, since who knows when we'll get that chance again? And they're both so good. We also just enjoyed discovering new things about each park each time we entered them, since different things happened at different times of the day (live shows, interactive window displays, etc.). The wait times for certain rides also fluctuated throughout the day, so we frequently went back and forth to catch a certain ride at a low tide. We managed to ride Escape From Gringotts and the Forbidden Journey in Hogsmeade (also an amazing ride!) each three times before the weekend was over. How's that for picking a great weekend to go? Especially considering that Diagon Alley had only just opened a couple months ago.

 

Caitlin making the Quaffle levitate with my wand

The atmosphere, however, had to be the best part. Just watching several people in robes, carrying and waving wands as though it was normal, was quite a sight. And talking to people about Harry Potter without fear of being thought crazy or immature. They all get it there. And even the ones who weren't as knowledgeable as us about the Harry Potter universe (there were several of those) were always happy to let us enlighten them. In my opinion, those parks completely trump Disneyland as the most magical place on earth. Because, come on, you get to actually see and do magic!


Here are our Facebook photos from the trip if you have not seen them already:
https://www.facebook.com/caitlin.halliburton/media_set?set=a.10152412204193285.644768284&type=3

Caitlin and I keep saying how excited we are for the Harry Potter park to open up at our Universal here in southern CA. It won't be nearly as big, of course, but it will be so much more convenient. I mean, we both live within 20 minutes of Universal Studios Hollywood. So we could just meet up there for a butterbeer one night whenever we wanted...how awesome does that sound?

2016 cannot come soon enough.