The first Opera, and probably the last one (unless special occasions, or being invited – f.o.c.) that I watched was Turandot, a couple of weeks after I arrived in Sydney. Hey, not bad eh ? hahaha.. Eh, hang on, seriously, I’m gonna talk about the gateau, not Turandot.

Opera gateau is assembled from different components : Joconde, ganache, butter cream and chocolate glaze.A Joconde is a very thin layer of sponge cake. It needs to be baked quickly so it does not dry out. If it dries out, then its harder to absorb the coffee syrup. So the layering goes like this, sponge soaked with coffee syrup, coffee buttercream, joconde, ganache, joconde, coffee buttercream and chocoalte glaze, or maybe like this

The joconde is not completely soaked in the coffee syrup. Heh, but I was happy enough that at least the coffee buttercream was, er, straight and the cut as well.

Joconde Recipe
250g icing sugar
250g almond meal
300g eggs
66g plain flour

50g melted butter
200g egg whites
33g sugar

Mix icing sugar and almond in to eggs and whip it till light. Fold in flour and melted butter. Whip egg whites till stiffs, fold into first mix. Bake at 220 C for 8 minutes.

Haha, that’s a sicko writing..

Coffee Buttercream recipe
125g egg whites
100g caster sugar
500g soft unsalted butter
10ml coffee essence

Slightly warm egg whites and whip to a firm meringue. Add sugar graddually and whip till cool. Add butter and whip. Add coffee essence. Don’t keep in fridge.

Dark chocolate ganache and glaze recipe
400g dark couverture
400ml cream
50g butter

boil cream, then add to dark couverture. Stir till well incorporated. Divide into 2 bowls, 1 slightly more than another for the glaze. Add butter to it. Another bowl with slightly lesser ganache is used for the layering.

To assemble, lightly brush 1st layer of joconde with chocolate as the base. Then brush coffee syrup (made with sugar, water and instant coffee powder) over the joconde. Make sure its soaked really well. Then pipe lines and lines of coffee buttercream, of if you can spread it at the same height all the way, go ahead. Then lay another layer of joconde, brush in coffee syrup. Pour ganache over it and let it set a lil while, add another layer of joconde. Brush with more syrup. Add another layer of coffee buttercream. Then flatten it, or rather make sure it’s straight or even at the top. Cover with silicone paper and chill in fridge for about 20 minutes, (or till the silicone paper can be removed easily without tearing the buttercream. Pour over the glaze, if it’s harden, warm up abit. Put in fridge and let it set. then, voila. Cut the edges with knife dipped in luke warm water for a nice clean cut.

mini operas

Yum. This cake is nice, *reminder; I’m not a coffee-fan*. The bitterness of the chocolae and coffee actually reduces the sweetness of the cake. It’s quite a heavy cake, as in, you can only eat a small piece at 1 time. But hey, doesn’t everyone has a cow’s stomach when it comes to dessert ? haha maybe not everyone.