Opera Cake

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This was so very underwhelming. It’s beautiful, and I think it tastes fine, but I would never take this over a layer cake, or a tart, or a piece of pie. I don’t actually know that I would make this again. John liked it, but I would give it a 7. My main complaint is that buttercream should not be a layer. Mousse can be a layer. Jam can be a layer. Not buttercream. I often scrape the outside buttercream off a piece of cake because it’s not worth the sugar. I would totally go for a coffee mousse over a coffee buttercream. Anyway, enough of my complaints. I didn’t change anything on these recipes except that I basically just substituted coffee for the water in both the buttercream ad the simply syrup. It turned out fine. The glaze recipe is a winner. I would absolutely use that again. The recipes came from my awesome friend Rebecca.

Opera Cake

Jaconde (cake part)
170 ml eggs (about 3)
120 g powdered sugar
120 g ground almonds (just grind them in food processor or blendtec. make sure to pulse it otherwise you will end up with almond butter) I used almond flour
25 g melted butter
70 g flour
220 ml egg whites (about 7)
60 g sugar
Combine eggs powdered sugar and ground almonds. Mix thoroughly. Add butter and mix. Add flour just until combined. Meanwhile, whip egg whites and sugar until stiff peaks. Fold into almond mixture. This will make about 755 g of batter. You can either bake it all together or separate it into two baking trays for thinner layers—377 g each. Prepare baking tray with silpat and spray with cooking spray. Bake at 375 for 11-13 minutes for thin layers, or 20-ish minutes for all the batter in one tray (sorry I don’t remember how long it took to bake when full. Wait for it to brown ever so slightly and it springs back when you touch it. Over baking will cause the cake to be dry and harder to work with.) When cake is slightly cooled, loosen from sides of the pan and flip upside down onto cooling rack. Remove silpat. Cool completely.
Buttercream
2 1/2 egg yolks
188 g sugar
75 ml water
250 g butter
Place yolks in kitchenaid and blend with whisk attachment. Meanwhile, place sugar and water in small saucepan being careful not to let sugar splash up onto the sides of the pan. Heat sugar to 110 degrees Celsius. Once it reaches 110 degrees, pour sugar very slowly in small stream into yolks while mixer is whisking. Beat mixture until it reaches room temp then add softened butter in small chunks until completely incorporated. Add any flavor. You can add instant coffee or strong coffee like espresso or I used ¼ c crio bru.
Simple Syrup
200 ml water
200 g sugar
Heat in saucepan until boiling. Flavor with coffee or whatever you’re using.
Ganache
250 g chocolate
250 ml cream
30 g. butter
Combine chocolate and butter in bowl. Heat cream in saucepan just until boiling. Pour over chocolate and butter and stir slowly until all incorporated. Let cool so it resembles the same consistency as the buttercream.
Glaze
125 ml cream
25 g sugar
12 g corn syrup
125 g chocolate
80 g butter
10 ml vegetable oil (you don’t have to add this, its for shine and I’m only guessing on the amount but I’m going to try it next time.)
Heat everything but chocolate and butter in saucepan just until boiling. Pour over chocolate and butter and stir until incorporated.
Assembly
Cut joconde cake into 4 equal pieces width wise. Take bottom piece and spread thin layer of melted chocolate onto the bottom (this acts as a barrier to hold the moisture of the cake in) Stick in the freezer for a minute to harden. Then flip cake over so chocolate is on the bottom. Brush liberally with simple syrup. Spread a layer of buttercream the same thickness as the cake. Top with next layer of joconde. Simple syrup. Then spread layer of ganache equal to thickness of cake. Next joconde, simple syrup, buttercream, joconde, simple syrup, ganache. Make top layer of ganache as level and as smooth as possible. Place cake in fridge to set. Once set, pour glaze over the top and use straight spatula to level off. Freeze cake for at least 2 hours. Take out cake and trim sides so they look clean and neat. Cut into 10-12 pieces. Serve cool to room temp.

































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