{"id":6763,"date":"2016-05-26T23:51:12","date_gmt":"2016-05-26T21:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.roadtopastry.com\/blog\/?p=6763"},"modified":"2016-12-01T19:02:46","modified_gmt":"2016-12-01T18:02:46","slug":"the-opera-cake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.roadtopastry.com\/blog\/recipes\/cakes\/the-opera-cake","title":{"rendered":"The Op\u00e9ra cake"},"content":{"rendered":"

I admit I’m totally late in posting this on my blog: I made an Op\u00e9ra cake\u00a0for my friend’s New Year’s Eve party and now we’re almost in summer!<\/p>\n

\"Recipe-Opera-cake34\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Needless to say that this cake disappeared way before midnight! It is\u00a0one of the best cakes I’ve tasted in all my life, even better than the versions I’ve bought here in France.<\/p>\n

This is a super famous dessert\u00a0sold in almost all pastry shops of France: it is made of layers of joconde spongecake, chocolate ganache and coffee buttercream.<\/p>\n

\"illustration-opera\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Op\u00e9ra was invented a few decades ago<\/strong> either by the French maison Dalloyau<\/strong> in 1955 or by Len\u00f4tre<\/strong> in 1960 (they both claim the invention, although some say it already existed at the end of the 19th century!). Its name is probably due to the shape of the cake: a minimalist flat rectangle<\/strong> that looked like the stage of the Op\u00e9ra Garnier<\/strong> theatre in Paris.<\/p>\n

This is a “modern cake<\/strong>“, also called\u00a0“entremet<\/strong>“: to simplify a lot, entremets are elaborate cakes<\/strong>\u00a0with different\u00a0layers. Take as an\u00a0example my Royal chocolate cake<\/a>: it is very different from traditional stuff like the Victoria spongecake (it is actually the opposite: the mousse on the outside hides the dacquoise on the inside).<\/p>\n

For this kind of cakes, pastry chefs often use a\u00a0joconde spongecake<\/strong> made with almonds<\/strong> and baked in thin layers<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In this recipe taken from my book “On baking”<\/em>,\u00a0I’ve also used a French buttercream<\/strong>: nothing difficult about this, but it requires a thermometer because the eggs must be pasteurized<\/strong> with a sugar syrup.<\/p>\n

In short, the Op\u00e9ra is a rich cake<\/strong>: it is very intense<\/strong> in flavour (coffee and chocolate!) and you should probably keep it for special\u00a0occasions given the amount of fats (almonds, chocolate, butter) it contains. Nevertheless (and much to my surprise), it is extremely delicate and light<\/strong>… it was a real surprise and it was hard to stop eating it<\/strong>!<\/p>\n

(Did I say “special occasion”? I just meant any weekend)<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Op\u00e9ra<\/h2>\n
\n \n \"\"Print recipe<\/a>\n