0 Opera Cake

My nephew is the first born of my parents' first born (aka my older brother). The year was 2000 which was the year of the dragon. But it wasn't just any year of the dragon. It was the year of the golden dragon which only comes around every 60 years. That made it a very auspicious year to have a baby. So sometimes I call him the "golden child" because of that. Well, that and the fact that he's the first born son of a first born son. Very important in Chinese culture. He is a very sweet and intelligent child. He's also a great big brother to his younger siblings.

I cannot believe that my nephew is 10. It seems like he was born just yesterday. For the celebration, I made an opera cake. A typical opera cake is layers of almond cake soaked in coffee syrup, a layer of coffee buttercream, a layer of chocolate ganache and a topping of chocolate glaze. I know it's not your typical birthday cake for a 10 year old. And it's a sophisticated taste for a child, but we prefer to try "fancier" cakes when it's a gathering of just the immediate families. I made sure to increase the amount of chocolate glaze since anything enrobed in chocolate would make most children happy. (It makes most adults happy too!) Don't worry - he'll be celebrating with his friends with pizza and Costco cake this weekend.


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