an eye opening Opera Cake...

Welcome to the first day of Hurricane Season! Florida, Florida :).  I also am floored that it's June already! What a way to welcome it in with this coffee infused petit four style cake. I must admit, I had no idea what it was, where it came from or why.  :) But hello! Opera?!? That's class in of itself and this cake stands side to side with that class.  You need some time to make this cake but its going to be worth it.  Just to throw in some highlights before we get started,  its a light sponge cake that no longer becomes "light" when dabbed with coffee simple syrup, coffee infused French Butter cream and the ever so coveted, chocolate ganache. This is a hit. And not for "nutt'n", but a hit is all you need from this tantalizing beauty.

Yesterday we created the Jaconde sponge.  It is a thin sponge cake, only filled half way when poured into your sheet pan for baking.  It cooked for a very short period of time, to a slight color and it sprung to touch.  She is a dainty little one :)  We took it out of the cooler today, with its parchment paper still on it. We cut it into three equal parts so that we can use them to start building our Opera Cake.

You will need the following to build:

Jaconde Sponge Cake

French Coffee flavored Butter cream

Chocolate Ganache

Coating Chocolate

Coffee Simple Syrup

Opera Glaze

Again, if you are interested in this recipe, I will happily hand it over!  It really does make for a classy, delightful treat.. and not light at all! :) But hey, they don't need to know that ;)

First, roll out your parchment paper so you can build on it.  You will place one of your 3 cut up rectangle Jaconde sponge pieces on the paper and spread a layer of coating chocolate over it. It will cool pretty quickly.

Flip this over onto the parchment paper, even if it is not cooled completely.  Peel off the parchment that it was baked on, and then dab the sponge cake with coffee simple syrup.

Now take your French Butter cream and put it into a piping bag and pipe onto the sponge completely.

You will then spread that with your flat spatula so that it is uniform.  Did I mention that this Butter cream is off the chain GOOD??  Geeze, its soo not good for you.. butter, butter, butter, egg, sugar, sugar.. :) :) :) Smooth deliciousness. Mmmm mmm mmmm. Ok, so yea, boring!... Spread, spread...

You can see it is nice and flat. At this point you want to add your second piece of sponge cake, take off the parchment and slightly press.  Brush on the simple syrup again.

On this layer you want to add the ganache, not the butter cream.  If your ganache is watery, build a little dam with the butter cream by squeezing out a line of cream all along the border.

Cool this in the fridge until the ganache has hardened. Once hard, put on the third and last sponge piece, simple syrup the cake and then top with  French Butter Cream, flattening it out again so its nice and smooth and uniform.

Place this in the cooler so that the butter cream hardens.  At this point you want to create your Opera Glaze, which is melted chocolate that gets peanut oil mixed into it immediately after melted. Take your cake out of the refrigerator and place it on a rack if you have it. Pour the glaze, starting at the middle, on to the cake and let it overflow all over the cake.  Place the cake back in the refrigerator so the glaze hardens.

You are now ready to cut off a little less than an inch off of each side and put this pretty princess on a platter! :(  Yeay! Isn't she just lovely? :)

Fun huh?  :)  Pretty, pretty girl...Tomorrow and Friday are test and practical day.  We had a bit of change in our schedule this week with a bit of a shift.  I was given Chocolate Genoise cake with Swiss Vanilla Butter Cream as my practical so I am off to prepare for that. If you remember, the Genoise cake is a dry cake, so I cant say I am doing back flips over this one. ;)

Wish me luck though! It should be great as I get to work ALONE!! Finally..  :) :) This is the last week for cakes and we then move on to custards. We shall see how this journey continues!!

Until tomorrow lovies!

XO