Daring Bakers May: Fruity Lemon Orange Opera Cake

So I'm having trouble figuring out if this is truly a dairy free cake! I didn't use any milk products but the cake itself does contain eggs. I checked Wikipedia and it said that the term dairy is usually attributed to milk products, but that eggs sometimes qualify as dairy products too. Please correct me if I'm wrong for calling this cake dairy-free!

This is my first Daring Bakers Challenge/post! This entry is going to be brief (wow! That's a first, Sophie!) but I only have a few minutes to spare before I have to finish getting ready for work :D! Knowing me, I'll probably come back to this post later and add something to it; it seems I just can't publish a short entry! Hehe!

Anyhow, yesterday, when I visited Lemonpi's blog, I noticed she posted her L'Opera cake...I was so worried! Earlier that day I made it a point to check the calendar, because I knew we had to submit this entry on the 28th. So, clearly, when I saw the date on her post and noticed that it said the 28th right below the title, I thought I was losing my mind...then I re-checked my calendar and thought to myself, "Oh! She's in Australia!". Anyhow, she did a wonderful job on her cake. It looks so pretty and elegant, ya'll should really check it out. (Ok... so I swore to myself that I'd never use that word - never ever - after moving from CA to TX, but now that I only have 2 months left in this lovely state, I figured I needed to get it out of my system. So there it is, I've temporarily adopted Texan lingo. I promise, you do not want to hear my sorry Boston accent! Hopefully it won't be that bad 3 years from now, when I've had plenty of time to practice. ;)

As for the cake, I decided to keep it simple and somewhat healthy. I didn't add the chocolate (including it was optional) and I decided to make a lemony/orange glaze that pretty much disappreared after I topped the cake with it (btw, this cake is also somewhat lowfat and dairy-free; I'm signed-up as an alternative Daring Baker b/c of the absent gallbladder *:). I added a few kiwi slices to give it some color...and that's pretty much it. Looking at it, I bet you'd never guess it took me about 3 hours to put this little cake together, but it did! It was a fun process, though, and I learned so much. For instance, it never occured to me to use Almond meal instead of all-purpose flour! It gave the cake a better taste, I think, and even a heartier texture. Initially, like many others, I was a bit intimidated at the thought of putting together a cake that literally had pages and pages of instructions...but once I made an outline (I really did :), it wasn't that bad!

As you can see, this post is already getting lengthy...so I should probably leave well enough alone and get ready for work (thank goodness I work at a company centered around food, at least I'll have a good excuse if I'm late)! Hope you all have a wonderful day! Make sure to squeeze in some baking time!



*I forgot to note that I didn't add white chocolate because it contains milk solids :). I also used Earth Balance vegan butter and shortening (for the buttercream frosting) to make this cake: http://www.earthbalance.net/product.html