Day 6: Cake Up and Smell the Coffee

There’s nothing quite like cutting into a beautiful cake only to be delighted by the elegant and perfected layers inside. That is the experience I attempted to replicate with my Opera Cake today. Also known as a Gâteau Opèra, this sponge cake alternates layers of joconde, French buttercream, and dark chocolate ganache. Then to top it all off it is covered in a chocolate glaze to give it a beautiful smooth finish. 

This cake was created in 1955 by pastry chef Cyriaque Gavillion, who was employed at the Dalloyau shop in Paris, which to this day is a world renowned pastry shop. The goal of this cake was to create something where the entire cake could be tasted in one bite. The many layers give you this effect by providing a perfectly balanced combination of cream, chocolate and cake. When Gavillions wife saw it, she said it reminded her of the Paris Opera House, most likely because the alternating light and dark layers resemble the look of the balcony seats. Since then the name has stuck and the popularity of the pastry has grown.

Although it can be made with either 3 layers of cake or 6, a traditional Opera cake always has a base of joconde sponge. The sponge is light, and made of our favorite French ingredient...almonds! Along with almond flour, it also incorporates whipped egg whites making it light and airy. The name joconde means Mona Lisa, because it is thought to mimic the perfection of the painting. Although it is a simple sponge, it is used in a huge range of desserts including mousses, cakes and some entremets. While the opera cake is being assembled, the sponge is brushed with a coffee simple syrup to infuse flavor and keep it moist. 

In between the sponge layers are ganache and buttercream. Ganache is a smooth filling made from a combination of heavy cream and chocolate. The ratio of these two ingredients can change the texture, but it is always rich and can be used in a chilled form or at room temperature. Contrary to the taste, the word ganache is actually a derogatory French insult meaning idiot, which is what the accidental inventor of this was called. As the story goes, an apprentice accidentally spilled cream into melted chocolate. He tried to cover it up by combining them, but was still discovered and scolded by being called a ganache. However, after trying it they realized it was a tasty mistake to have made, and the name stuck. The other filling is the velvety coffee French buttercream. 

Don’t be fooled by the name. French buttercream has quite a distinction to its American cousin. Fancily frosted desserts, often using buttercream, are no new news. The idea has been around since the 1490s where it was used on small pastries called marchpanes--which later evolved into marzipan. These were served at weddings and were always frosted. In the 16th century cakes began to be multilayered and were held together by frosting in the middle. This is when buttercream really took center stage. When layered wedding cakes were popularized the color of the frosting could be used to determine a person's wealth. The whiter the frosting, the more sugar you could afford, and therefore the wealthier you were. Now there are so many frosted desserts, but buttercream is still one of the most popular ways to achieve a beautiful and tasty finish. 

Like the name may suggest, buttercream must contain butter. If it doesn’t it is not buttercream and probably frosting, which is made with shortening or fat from oils instead. There are now four common types of buttercream: American, Swiss, Italian and French. The American buttercream is the simplest to make and just requires combining butter, powdered sugar and usually some vanilla. Swiss buttercream is more like a meringue and uses whipped egg whites to create a perfectly smooth and glossy finish. Italian buttercream, the original, uses egg whites which are then cooked with a hot simple syrup and beaten. The French buttercream is similar to this, but uses the whole egg or just the yolk. This achieves a smooth and creamy texture, but is often not as sweet as the American version. 

The final element of this complex confection is the chocolate glaze. A glaze is similar to a ganache, but is usually thinner, and can substitute oil instead of cream. It is supposed to be shiny and polished and embody the elegance of the pastry. 

Even learning the complexity of this cake, I was up for the challenge and ready to get started!

The first element that needed to be completed was baking the sponge cake. After whipping the egg whites, and combining them with the flour and other ingredients I had a single layer that went in the oven. The cake is quick to bake because the layer is relatively thin, but it’s probably for the best so that with so many layers people don’t go into a food coma after eating too much. While the cake cooled I prepared the coffee French buttercream and the chocolate ganache and let them also come to room temperature. Both of these needed to be spread very evenly on the cake, so having them the right temperature was important to avoid any potential disasters.

Next I cut the cake into my six layers using some very precise math to make sure they would be as even as possible. The fun part came when I got to stack them and create smooth layers of filling in between each. I also brushed each layer with a coffee simple syrup to give them the flavor and keep them moist.

It was at this point I realized I may have made a mistake. 

There’s a pretty decent amount of coffee flavoring in this cake. Some is brushed on every layer, and there is also espresso in the buttercream. Maybe coffee and chocolate are a match made in heaven...to a coffee lover, but as someone who doesn’t like coffee, that could cause a problem. 

Even with this realization in mind, I was in too deep to make a switch, and the cake was looking very pretty, and since it's a traditional French pastry, it seemed important that I try it. So I plowed forward, and after a couple of hours in the fridge to set the layers, I did the most satisfying part of the process: trimming the edges. Once the edges were evened out you could see the definition between the cake and ganache and buttercream. And may I just say, I was extremely pleased with the result! I had been worried my layers were too thin, but they looked like just the right width to give it the classic Opera Cake dimension. Although it was beautiful, the surprise would have to stay on the inside, because the edges also got covered with buttercream. 

After another quick hour of refrigeration it was time for the final step: the glaze. For this glaze instead of using cream, I used oil, which made it thinner to spread over the cake and more reflective. I mixed the chocolate and oil in a double boiler to be sure the chocolate wouldn’t burn, took a quick 5 to let it cool, then it was ready for showtime. 

As I delicately poured the glaze over the cake, it did exactly what it was supposed to! Almost. The glaze covered the top beautifully and left a thin shiny layer, the sides had a little bit of a harder time. Instead of covering them like a waterfall, the glaze covered them in a thin trickle and left lots of exposed cake, luckily this was a fixable problem and by scooping and drizzling I was able to get the sides covered. Although the outside wasn’t the smoothest work of glazing in the world, the outside isn’t really the pinnacle of this cake. 

When I cut the cake open, that was the real masterpiece. Spongy cake, smooth cream, rich ganache, all the layers were there! I was so proud of the way it looked, but now it was time to taste. 

Unfortunately (for me) my predictions were correct. The coffee was a little too much for me to handle, and I didn’t really like the cake. According to my parents though, it was delicious! I  know they could just be saying that, but I think they were telling the truth (because they both finished their pieces) and I was glad someone would get to enjoy the fruit of my labor. 

This Opera Cake was definitely one of the more hands on pastries I’ve attempted during this course with so many layers and flavors, but it was definitely worth the work because of the precise and defined end result.