Soupe (gateau) Opera

I went to the opera on Saturday at His Majesty’s Theatre with mumma sloth and it was great! We saw il Trovatore, a four act opera encompassing gypsies, soldiers, love and revenge. Amazing performances from all singers with excellent accompaniment from our very own West Australian Symphony Orchestra; if you’ve never gone to the opera before, the 2015 line-up definitely worth a look with The Marriage of Figaro, The Barber of Seville and Madame Butterfly just being some of the operas being shown. Funnily enough, the couple sitting next to us sat next to us at a previous opera, The Magic Flute. Small world? Nah, small Perth. 

So theatre. Much majesty.

Speaking of small places; I went for brunch down in Freo with the high school kids and we went to this café called ‘Lenny the Ox’. How could we resist? Apparently, this place is co-owned by the guys who do Ootong and Lincoln which is one of the first places that pops up when you search for ‘Fremantle’ and ‘Breakfast’ so it can’t be too bad, we thought; and with an Urbanspoon rating of 95%, the decision was made. On 20 Wray Ave, just past Freo Hospital with ample parking within walking distance, it’s tiny and quaint in all the right ways. The display cabinet was filled with paninis and aranchini as well as a selection of sweet treats like friands and muffins, and they have a decent all-day (until 2pm) breakfast menu to order off.

Clockwise from top: Iced tea, mystery juice (we think there was watermelon
and carrot, either way, delicious), blueberry smoothie, mango smoothie

I ended up getting the baked beans with chorizo, labneh (Wikipedia tells me that it’s Greek yogurt, strained yogurt or yogurt cheese, the more you know) and a fried egg. Delicious and hearty, it’s worth shelling out a bit extra for it; in fact when it came to the table, F-Y sloth commented that she ‘was expecting Heinz baked beans, but they’re actual beans!’ Just a heads up that the fried egg yolk is runny, but I’ve been getting into the habit of having eggs with runny yolks, so that was a non-issue. Only thing I could nit-pick was that the bread was a bit too charred for my liking; I prefer not to have to saw at my toast, but once it soaks up all the gravy, the bread does soften and I like their generosity with the herbs which help to cut through the richness of the sauce and egg.

Baked beans with actual beans. 

Anyway, I’ve wanted to make this dessert for a while now, ever since I saw it on Masterchef Australia a while ago (get it: opera, gateau opera, shut up, I’m funny) and nearly forgetting to go to the opera inspired me to break out the beaters. Plus, I had a tub of cream left over from my matchamisu so I was playing around with some ideas for using it up. So! Gateau Opera, a seven layer cake with jaconde, coffee buttercream, coffee syrup and chocolate ganache. I had no idea what a jaconde was, let alone how to make a seven layer cake without it crumbling to pieces before my eyes; but like many things in life, the anticipation is sometimes more stressful than the actual event itself, and with a bit of care, it turned out brilliantly and as dad sloth put it, ‘this is as good as the cake in a restaurant’. Before I begin, I should tell you this is definitely not a traditional recipe, so all you purists may want to turn away now before any sensibilities are offended.

But with a result like this, who's arguing the legitimacy of a recipe? 

 Firstly, let’s tackle the sponge. Quite a few, in fact all, recipes said to include extra egg whites, I’m assuming to add to the volume of the batter and the overall lightness and texture of the cake. However I ran out of eggs and since I’m usually at a loss of what to do with the extra egg yolks, I decided to wing it. Amazingly, my recipe worked! The cake goes a tad dense overnight but I found it easier to cut that way. The sponge is not too sweet, and the flavour of the almond meal comes through quite strongly. When I gave some to mumma sloth to try, she asked how much butter was in it, so it also tastes a lot richer than it actually is. Brother-1 sloth commented that it was a bit dry, but I think that’s due to the fact I didn’t use enough coffee syrup to fully soak the cake.

Yes, that's a cup full of butter.

Add the eggs to the icing sugar and beat it, beat it, just beat it.

Aww yiss, light and fluffy. Took me about 10 minutes with an electric beater.

First, the flour...

Then the almond meal...

Gently fold in the flour and almond meal 

Then the butter, do it a bit at a time (I found it really hard to pour and whisk at the same time)

Into the greased and lined pan, it makes it a lot easier to remove

Lightly browned and oh-so-soft

Secondly, the coffee buttercream, yes, do actually use butter, it feels so bad but tastes so good. Did you know there’s a French buttercream? Made with hot sugar syrup, egg yolks and butter whipped into oblivion, apparently it turns out this silky smooth, utterly decadent buttercream. I still don’t trust my ability to work with sugar syrup after a disastrous attempt at making Italian meringue (which was actually the recipe’s fault, come to think of it…) but my version still turns out a decent enough buttercream. I added the extra bit of chocolate to try and make it taste richer without actually making it richer, and I think it works well with the rest of the cake.

Look at that lump of butter. Try not to think about that lump of butter.

Super thick, super concentrated chocolate coffee essence.

Looking good.

Looking better.

Thirdly is the coffee syrup; pretty straight forward with the same method as the matcha syrup from my matchamisu. I was a bit wary of using that much coffee, but the flavour comes through without being overpowering; and as an added benefit, when you’re boiling down the syrup, your kitchen will smell like a coffee shop. I made it up to a cup and reduced it down to half, but I found I just had enough syrup for the cake to paint it, and really, you want to drench the sponge so the whole thing’s moist and deliciously coffee-flavoured, so I’ve modified the recipe to reflect that. 

Coffee powder, sugar and water in a pan.

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble, I want my coffee on the double

Add frothy milk to this and you get a latte

Lastly, the chocolate ganache. Keen-eyed sloths may notice the colour of the gateau being significantly lighter than dark chocolate should be, and yes you’d be right. I didn’t have adequate dark chocolate on me at the time, so I substituted milk chocolate. Equally delicious, but I think dark chocolate would make it more-ish. I did, however have enough dark chocolate to melt and cover the top of the ganache; but if you use dark chocolate straight up, feel free to skip that step. I just added that extra layer for aesthetics (curse, thy name is vanity). You could also finish it with a layer of tempered chocolate to get that gloss and crack when you cut it, but I don’t have the best track record working with chocolate so microwave melted chocolate it is. Also, don’t be worried if your ganache isn’t as smooth as it could be, hide it under a layer of dusted cocoa powder and no one’ll be any wiser (unless they go to all that trouble of unearthing the ganache layer from the powder, but that’s their own business). 

Chocolate and butter in a bowl.

Oh yeah, gimme some of that hot cream.

Doesn't look like much, but with a bit of mixing...

Shiny and smooth and lump free.

As for the actual assembly of the cake, it's fairly simple (famous last words) but a bit of care has to be taken. The sequence I followed was, from the top:

• Melted chocolate (optional)
• Chocolate ganache
• Almond sponge brushed with coffee syrup
• Chocolate ganache
• Coffee buttercream
• Almond sponge brushed with coffee syrup
• Chocolate ganache
• Coffee buttercream
• Almond sponge brushed with coffee syrup

The hardest part for me was the cutting of the cake into even layers, so I used the toothpick method. Basically:

1. Eyeball your cake or use a ruler and divide the height of your cake into thirds. 
2. Stick toothpicks (I used two each side) into the cake where your first third measures across. 
3. Get a long knife (I suggest a bread knife with serrations) and gently cut into the cake side, the width of the blade. 
4. Repeat for the other sides. 
5. Once the initial cut has been made, slowly and carefully deepen the cuts, making sure the knife stays parallel to the cutting board. Continue to gradually deepen the cuts until the knife can pass cleanly under the layer. 
6. Carefully remove the top layer and put onto a serving plate, cut side up. 
7. Repeat for the second layer. 

Toothpicks into the side of the cake.

Gently cut into the cake the width of the knife blade

Toothpicks are left behind, ready to be re-used.

Ta-dah, a pretty even layer!

With the spreading of the ganache and butter cream, try to create a flat surface so when you cut the cake, the layers will appear even and level (and everyone will go 'ooooh' and if they don't, they don't deserve any cake). Spread the fillings to the edges of the sponge, and for the final layer of ganache, use a palette knife (or long flat kitchen implement that you have lying around) to push the ganache over the sides to get an even covering. Don't worry too much about keeping it neat because you can just trim the edges to make them even (and then eat the trimmings, so win-win for you). To finish, this cake is traditionally adorned with the word 'opera' and garnished with edible gold leaf. However, as a poor university student, my budget doesn't extend as far as edible gold leaf, let alone non-edible gold; so I settled with piping 'opera' on a separate tray lined with baking paper and refrigerating it until it was set enough to remove and transfer. 

Time to practice my artistic skills. Spread the syrup on with a pastry brush.

Coffee buttercream on top of the coffee syrup brushed sponge

Chocolate ganache on top, and repeat for the second layer of cake

Final layer of ganache, so smooth and shiny

Dark chocolate chips microwaved for 30 seconds

A further 30-40 seconds and it's good to go

No pastry bag? Use a freezer bag, push all of the contents into one corner like you would squeeze toothpaste out of a tube, then snip a tiny bit of the corner off. Snip less for a smaller hole, more for a bigger hole. Wind the unused bag around your finger until enough pressure's built up in the bag and the contents are coming out. Gently apply pressure with your thumb to squeeze the contents out. Practice on some paper before doing it on the real thing. Takes a bit of getting used to, but once you've got it, it's a walk in the park!

I don't know how I ever got my pen license, my cursive's
 horrible and I'm pretty sure one of them says 'opona'

But dang, it looks good on a cake. 

Gateau Opera

Makes ONE 20cm square cake

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

ALMOND SPONGE (JACONDE)

• 4 eggs
• 150g icing sugar
• 150g almond meal
• 60g plain flour
• 75g melted butter

METHOD

1. Grease and line a 20cm square baking tray and preheat oven to 180’C (160’C fan forced)
2. Beat eggs with icing sugar until pale, thick and creamy e.g. when you lift the beaters, a thick ribbon should form.
3. Sift almond meal and flour into egg mixture and gently fold in with a balloon whisk.
4. Trickle in the melted butter until all incorporated and uniformly mixed.
5. Pour into baking tray and tap bottom of tray to remove air bubbles.
6. Bake for 20 mins or until lightly browned; Leave to cool in the pan for 5 mins then transfer to a cooling rack.

COFFEE BUTTERCREAM

• 140g butter
• 3/4C icing sugar
• 1Tbs coffee powder
• 1Tbs cocoa powder
• 2tsp hot water

METHOD

1. Dissolve the coffee powder and the cocoa powder in the hot water.
2. Beat butter, icing sugar and coffee mixture together until light, fluffy and uniformly coloured.

COFFEE SYRUP

• 1 1/4C water
• 1/4C sugar
• 1 1/2 Tbs instant coffee granules

METHOD

1. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to the boil until the volume is reduced to about three quarters.
2. Remove from heat and leave aside to cool.

CHOCOLATE GANACHE

• 200g dark chocolate
• 300mL thick cream
• 25g butter

METHOD

1. Break up the chocolate and put into a bowl with the butter.
2. Pour cream in a saucepan and bring to the boil, then remove from heat and add to the chocolate.
3. Stir well until chocolate and butter has melted, and ganache is uniform in colour.
4. Put in fridge until cooled and thick enough to spread.

ASSEMBLY OF CAKE

1. Cut almond sponge into three even layers. Put first layer, cut side up, on a serving plate (more coffee syrup can be absorbed this way).
2. Brush cake layer generously with coffee syrup.
3. Evenly spread half of coffee buttercream onto sponge layer.
4. Evenly spread a thin layer of chocolate ganache on top of the buttercream, being careful not to mix the two.
5. Gently transfer the second layer on top of the first layer. 
6. Repeat process of syrup, buttercream and ganache.
7. Gently transfer the third layer of cake on top of the second layer.
8. Cover cake with a thick, even layer of ganache. (Optional: Cover the cake with a final layer of melted dark chocolate)
9. Leave to set in the fridge for ~30 minutes or until serving time.

To cut and present:

1. Rinse a sharp bladed knife under hot water, then wipe dry.
2. Score (make a shallow cut) the ganache layer to the size of cake slice desired.
3. Clean knife then cut through in a smooth motion, using scored line as a guide. Wipe knife clean each time a new slice is cut to prevent transfer of crumbs. 
4. Optional: pipe 'opera' directly on the cake; pipe 'opera' on baking paper, chill until set then transfer to the slice, dust with cocoa powder, garnish with edible gold leaf.

Happy slothing!

xx