I always wonder if I have patience to prepare elegant desserts.In person you will find me most calm who has the solution for everything.  But there are moments where  my anxiety level booms and the all the patience in me goes haywire. And new irritant me emerges.  But I was tiny bit proud of myself when I made this Opera Cake without loosing my patience. And a little bit of basic sugar craft to decorate this dessert also boosted my confidence. Looks pretty na. lol

Today, it was most hot and humid day in Dubai and worse day to photograph this cake. Every few minutes while capturing this slice of deliciousness , I had to freeze for ten minutes and restart again. I had to get this done today itself as tomorrow is Mr.K’s birthday and I wanted to surprise him with this cake. That’s a different thing my surprised didn’t remain a surprise as he smelled the  sweet aroma of coffee around the house and asked why the house is smelling like coffee, did you baked something using coffee.was caught and well the celebration started a day before with a slice of cake of an opera.

The cake is a bit  heavy but  has melt in mouth texture. I luv this kind of desserts. So a moderate slice is just enough to soothe your sweet craving. I prepared this cake for our monthly  challenge of our Baking Partners group run by Swathi of ZestySouthIndianKitchen. This month Savitha of  SavithasKitchen had challenged us to making this french pastry Opera Cake. I have not followed the recipe provided by her as the measurements were too large for two people. 

Mostly adapted this recipe from masterchef australia series specially the base of this dessert ie jaconde.  Chef Gary  has explained opera cake too well. You can search in youtube for the entire recipe. The other parts of recipe ie. coffee buttercream , chocolate ganache are the mixture of few recipes I have googled through out the web. But can assure you the measurements are accurate, as the end result was perfect to the taste. Plus I was able to reduce the wastage. Only 1/2 cup of ganache was extra which I can use later for other icing & stuff. Maybe a  cake pop.

Makes 5 inches square cake ( 6 rectangular sizes)

Ingredients

I

For Jaconde — 3 sheets ( Recipe source: Masterchef Australia – halved the recipe)

75 gm icing sugar

75 gm almond meal

30 gm flour

23 gm melted butter

2 whole egg

2 egg white

20 gm sugar

II

For the Coffee Syrup

4  tbsp of instant coffee

1 cup water

6 tbsp sugar

III

For coffee Butter cream

 2 egg yolk

85 gm sugar

15 ml water ( or just enough to dampen the sugar)

150 gm butter cut into cubes

3 to 4  tbsp of coffee  syrup

IV

For Chocolate Ganache

175 gm of chocolate chips ( Hershey)

125 gm cream

20 gm butter

Method

1. Mix together all the ingredients for coffee syrup and cook for  6 to 7 minutes on a medium flame.
2. Sugar will make this syrup glossy and a little thick.
3. Cool & Keep aside.

1. Heat the cream on medium flame till a little bubly. Add in butter.
2. Pour this cream over chocolate chips.
3. Mix till all chips are melted.
4. Keep aside and now the assemble of the opera.

1. Take a square plate of around 6 inches/ cake board / parchment  paper  is also fine.
2. Spread a thin layer of ganache to the size of your jaconde sheet on it.
3. Place the jaconde sheet on it.
4. Now brush this sheet with coffee syrup. Refrigerate for 5 minutes.
5. Remove and spread a layer of chocolate ganache. Freeze for 10 minutes
6. Remove from freezer and spread the layer of Coffee butter cream. Freeze again for 5 minutes
7. Top it up with 2nd  sheet of jaconde.
8. Brush it with coffee syrup and repeat the procedure 5 & 6 till the last sheet of jaconde.
9. Refrigerate for minimum 2 hours before serving.
10. Slice into equal rectangular parts and serve.