Opera Cake

20.7.13 (Sat)

One of my church buddies asked if I know how to bake an Opera cake..well, I can try since I have the recipe..Hubby doesn't really like Opera cake because of the taste and texture..but he commented that the Opera cake I baked was nice..hehe.

Opera cake is a type of French cake. It is made with layers of almond sponge cake (known as Joconde in French) soaked in coffee syrup, layered with ganache and coffee buttercream, and covered in a chocolate glaze. According to Larousse Gastronomique "Opéra gateau is an elaborate almond sponge cake with a coffee and chocolate filling and icing."

First attempt, not really satisfying, as you can see from the picture, chocolate ganache not well done, and the whole baking process was really tedious, need lots of patience.

Ingredients

Almond cake

4 egg yolks

25g honey

25g vegetable oil

4 egg whites

60g caster sugar

20g soft flour

10g corn starch

1/2 tsp baking powder

50g ground almond

Hazelnut cake

4 egg yolks

25g honey

25g vegetable oil

4 egg whites

60g caster sugar

20g soft flour

10g corn starch

1/2 tsp baking powder

50g ground hazelnut

 

***On the cake part, I followed the sponge cake method, and added 2 tbsp of ground hazelnut.

Coffee butter cream

100g butter

25g icing sugar

1/2 tsp coffee essence

50g whipped cream

***Instead of coffee essence (which I don't have), I used my 3-in-1 coffee powder, and didn't really have much coffee taste..so I guessed next round, gotta use the essence

Chocolate cream

120g whipped cream

5g rum (optional)

100g dark chocolate (melted)

50g whipped cream

Chocolate ganache

100g semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, cut into pieces

90ml heavy whipping cream

15g unsalted butter

Methods

1. Almond/Hazelnut cake: Whisk egg yolks, honey and vegetable oil until fluffy. Mix soft flour, corn starch, baking powder and almond/hazelnut well. Whisk egg whites and sugar until stiff peak. Fold in egg yolks mixture. Fold in powder mixture. Pour into tray and bake at preheated oven at 180C for 10-15mins. (if you are using the sponge cake method, plz follow the link above)

2. Coffee cream: Cream butter and icing sugar. Add coffee essence and fold in cream.

3. Chocolate cream: Mix all the ingredients together.

4. Chocolate ganache: Placed the chopped chocolates in a heatproof bowl. Set aside. Heat the cream and butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring just to boil. Immediately pour the boiling cream over the chocolates and allow to stand, without stirring, for a few minutes. Stir gently with a spoon or whisk until smooth.

5. Assembly: Cut cake into 4 slices (2 slices each for almond/hazelnut cake) after cool. Placed one slice of hazelnut cake and spread chocolate cream on top. placed one slice of almond and hazelnut cake. Spread chocolate cream on top. Layer another almond cake on top. Spread coffee buttercream on top. Glaze with chocolate ganache. Pipe the word "Opera" in the middle.

***as for me, I dvided teh cake into 3 slices. Cake - chocolate cream - cake - chocolate cream - cake - coffee buttercream - chocolate ganache.