Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Opera Cake @ Plaisir du Chocolat, Edinburgh

I met a Greek Cypriot friend of mine, Zenon, for a coffee this lunchtime. He's leaving Edinburgh after studying here for 2 years and it was probably our last coffee before he's off. We therefore agreed to meet at a slightly "upmarket" coffee shop, namely in Plaisir du Chocolat. Melissa of the lovely The Traveller's Lunchbox has already written about this cute French coffee place, so I will be brief.
We went to the small coffeeshop (just across the "big sister" that sells an impressive range of chocolates in every possible guise) and had coffee and cakes. The coffee was really good, the place is cute in a very French way (no pictures, sorry, as I forgot my camera in the office). Zenon had a huge and tasty slice of strawberry & clotted cream cheesecake. And I had my first ever slice of Opera cake! I first read about that cake in Keiko's visually stunning Nordljus blog, and then also in A La Cuisine! I had been keen to try it ever since, so I got quite excited when I spotted it on the display, amongst the green tea loaf cake, pear and chocolate cake and other goodies. It was quite a big square piece, decorated with a single golden sugar pearl. Very rich and oh-so delicious. Mmmm!
I've added it to my "try to recreate soon" list of cakes (probably starting with this recipe from Epicurious). Which, by the way, has already become quite a lengthy list, as visiting other foodblogs has been a great inspiration. Thanks.

3 comments:

Michèle said...

Oh, I'm curious! I do remember Keiko's picture. I think there will be some Googling to do today :)

Anonymous said...

i've never tried opera cake either, so i'm really curious - you must make it! i'm also encouraged to try that recipe on epicurious because it has so little flour - i bet i could easily substitute my wheat-free flour with no problem. hmmm... too bad you didn't take a picture ;)

Pille said...

Hi Michele and Melissa - thanks for popping by! I will try to make one soon and let you know how it turned out.
Melissa - I guess you're right about the wheat-free flour here - as the amount is so small, it shouldn't really make such a huge difference.
And I will definitely keep my camera close to me next time:)