How I Reinvented the Opera Cake Like Never Before

Perfectly coffee flavor, perfect chocolate flavor, balanced with the almond. Really taking this traditional cake from classic to iconic. My name is Louise and I'm a self-taught cake artist. Welcome back to my baking series from classic to iconic, where I turn classic desserts into modern entremet cakes. In this episode, we're going to make a modern version of the classic opera cake. This is not just a normal opera cake, because this version has some new and perhaps surprising elements. It has small textures and is wrapped in a unique design. I'm going to show you the process behind developing this cake recipe, my thoughts about recreating the classic opera cake, and what challenges I face to make this recipe exceptional. To make this cake, I'm also going to show you how to master the following techniques. How to assemble entremet cakes and get a clean cake cut, how to make a fudgy ganache, a fluffy French buttercream, a smooth chocolate cremeux, and a shiny mirror glaze. And if you like this video, make sure to subscribe so you don't miss any new tutorials. I'm going to show you how to make the following layers. Jaconde Almond Sponge Cake Brush with Coffee Syrup, Chocolate Crunch with Coffee, Dark Chocolate Ganache, French Coffee Buttercream, Almond Mousse with Coffee, Mirror Glaze, Milk Chocolate Cremeux Sparrow, and Chocolate Decoration. If you want to learn more about how to create my signature decorations that I use on all my cakes, you can check out my chocolate decoration courses that I've linked in the description. In the course, I show you how to temper chocolate, how to create my 10 favorite decorations, how to avoid common mistakes when working with chocolate, and lastly, how you can work with chocolate to elevate your pastries. Okay, let's get started! For the biscuit layer, I wanted to add some crunch and texture to the cake, but I didn't want it to overpower the experience of the cake, as an opera cake typically only has soft layers. I therefore decided to make a cocoa biscuit layer where I blend biscuits to crumbs and mix it with melted butter, cocoa powder, espresso powder, and salt. I only wanted it to be a thin layer and the flavor to be slightly bitter, which is why I added both cocoa powder and espresso powder, as this gives a nice balance to the almond cake that will come on top. I spread the biscuit base in a pastry ring, level the surface with a glass, and put it in the fridge. To make this opera cake, we're going to prepare all the layers before assembling all the layers inside the cake. I wanted this ricotton almond sponge cake to have a strong almond flavor without it being overly sweet, so while I started out mixing almond flour, sugar, and eggs, I added less sugar and later on added more butter to ensure a moist cake. To get an airy texture, I'm whisking egg whites and sugar to a stiff meringue, while I gradually add the sugar while whisking. The almond mixture I then mix with the meringue. Here it's important to fold gently so you don't lose all the air that we just added to the batter. Then we add the melted butter for a nice and moist texture. I then pour the dough in a baking tray with baking paper sprayed with a bit of nonstick and bake it at 210 degrees for 7-9 minutes. Now that the dough has cooled off, I debated whether to use two or three sponge layers. A traditional opera cake has three, but I was worried that it might make the cake too heavy, so in the end I went with two layers, and I'm actually so glad I did, because the balance of the flavors and textures are exactly as I was hoping. Once the cake is cooled, I cut out two sponge cakes with a pastry ring and trimmed them to about 1.3 cm in the height, as I found that this was the ideal height for this opera cake. As we won't assemble the full cake until later, I'm wrapping the cakes in cling film to keep them fresh until assembling. I wanted a nice and strong coffee flavor here to balance the nutty flavor from the almond chacomt. I'm heating water, sugar and espresso powder in a small saucepan until all the sugar is dissolved. I actually had to recreate this syrup twice because I found that the first one was just a bit too sweet. Instead I made a new batch where I added less sugar and water and instead more coffee. I also added some Kahlua as I like this flavor in a coffee syrup. Then the syrup needs to cool off. A typical opera cake actually doesn't have any crunch, but crunch is really a must for me as I love to play with textures, and I personally don't like a flavor experience of something just being soft, so I therefore made a crunch layer consisting of milk chocolate, phyllo tin, Nutella, cocoa powder, espresso powder and salt. To make sure that the crunch doesn't set before assembling the cake, I'm putting it in a box. I love a good smooth chocolate ganache and I wanted this one to have a rich flavor to balance the coffee and the almond flavor. Yet I didn't want it to be too bitter as the coffee already has a bitter flavor, so I decided to use a 55% dark chocolate. I'm here heating heavy cream almost to a boil and pouring it over the dark chocolate. Then it sits for 2 minutes before I blend to combine. I wanted the ganache to have a smooth consistency, but also to have a stable texture in order to hold its shape and keep the other layers in place. I therefore chose an ideal heavy cream and chocolate ratio and added butter to give it a smooth consistency. The ganache needs to have a pipeable texture when added to the cake, so I'm pouring it in a piping bag and letting it thicken at room temperature on the kitchen counter. I love a good buttercream, but what I don't like is when it tastes like butter. So my focus was to create a well-balanced buttercream with a smoother texture than a normal buttercream, but also still with a stable texture in order to hold the other layers in place. I start out by dissolving espresso powder and let it cool and then moves on to beating egg yolks until it has a paler color. I wanted an almost custard-like texture, which is why this recipe contains stable egg yolks as I think this gives the perfect texture. Sugar and water is heated to exactly 116 degrees and put over the egg yolks while whisking. I keep whisking until the outside of the bowl isn't hot anymore and the mixture has a thick and a more dense structure. Then we start adding the soft butter, where I keep whisking until all the butter flavor is gone, as this just gives a more balanced flavor. Upon adding the cold coffee, I actually adjusted the coffee amount several times as I wanted a strong but still balanced coffee flavor. I then put the cream in a piping bag and then we are ready to assemble the cake. Now to the fun part after making all the elements, we are going to assemble the cake. We start by adding the chocom cake, brushing a layer of the coffee syrup and let it set for a bit so the coffee can be absorbed, as this otherwise would make the crunch layer on top soft. After the crunch has set in the freezer, I'm adding the thickened chocolate ganache, leveling the surface and putting it back in the freezer. And lastly, a layer of buttercream that I also level for a clean cake cut. What's important here is to allow each layer to set a little before adding the next layer, as this not only ensures that the different layers keep their texture, but also to get a clean cake cut, which kind of is like the trademark of an opera cake, we want to have nice sleek layers. I therefore let each layer set for 10-15 minutes in the freezer so the surface can set, as this allows us to add the next layer without ruining the shape of the former layer. To recreate the layer of an opera cake, I decided to double each element for a more impactful flavor experience of textures. And as you will see, this also results in the most beautiful cake cut. After repeating all layers, the full cake needs to freeze overnight. For the almond mousse, I was thinking for so long if I should make it with or without coffee. Should it be more sweet or slightly more bitter from the coffee? I decided to create one that contains a bit of coffee to balance the flavors, as I think what should stand out about the flavor in an opera cake is coffee and chocolate. I started out by melting white chocolate and putting it aside. Here I debated whether to use milk chocolate instead of white chocolate, but I knew that the milk chocolate would overpower the almond flavor, and I wanted the almond flavor first and foremost to shine through, as the only other layer with almond otherwise is the dracon cakes. I then moved on to making the almond paste by blending almonds with icing sugar and oil, which I mixed with the melted chocolate. The next step is to soak gelatin, heat heavy cream almost to a boil, and then mixing the gelatin in the hot cream before it's put over the white chocolate-slash-almond mixture. While this cools to lukewarm, I'm whipping heavy cream to a lightly whipped foam and gently fold it into the chocolate-almond mixture. To make the cake design a bit more unique, I also made some mousse domes in different sizes that will go on top of the cake. I'm using several molds here, as I was testing different kinds of mousse domes for the final look, but I ended up going with round domes instead of half-spheres. The rest of the mousse is poured in a silicone mold with acetate baking sheet, and I gently put the frozen cake into the almond mousse with the buttercream facing downwards. The cake and the domes then need to freeze overnight. This cremeux is really the cherry on top of this cake, as it not only is creating a mesmerizing look, but also adds the most velvety texture. I here decided to go with a pure chocolate flavor to emphasize the chocolate flavor of the cake further. After soaking gelatin, I melt my chocolate and put it aside. In another bowl, egg yolks and sugar are quickly combined. The egg yolks will give the cremeux a very creamy texture. Now that all elements are prepared, I heat heavy cream almost to a boil, pour the mixture over the egg yolks and sugar, and whip with a hand mixer just to quickly combine the two, before pouring it back in the saucepan. Here it's carefully heated to exactly 83 degrees, which ensures a super smooth cremeux texture that is still stable. To remove any egg leftovers, I'm sifting the mixture and adding gelatin, before pouring it over the melted chocolate. To ensure a fully consistent texture, I hand blend the cremeux. For easier distribution, I pour it in a piping bag before I spread it in a spiraled mold. The tricky part about this cremeux is to make a spiral without any air bubbles. I've made tons of spirals and the trick that always works is to remove air bubbles with a toothpick. That removes all the last bits of any air bubbles so you can get a perfectly looking cremeux. The spiral needs to freeze for minimum 24 hours to make sure it's completely frozen, as it otherwise won't come out of the mold. For the cake look, I wanted the cake to resemble the colors of an opera cake. I initially thought about going for a cocoa glaze, which would give the cake a darker color, but I felt that this color would be a bit too dark in comparison with the other elements and the cocoa flavor is also more permanent compared to a milk chocolate glaze. So in the end, I went with a milk chocolate glaze that I make by soaking gelatin, heating sugar, water, heavy cream and glucose syrup almost to a boil before pouring it over milk chocolate. Once it's mixed with a hand blender, the glaze needs to cool to 34-35 degrees. I place the fully frozen cake on a baking cooling rack and pour the hot glaze over the cake. Due to the temperature differences of the frozen cake and the glaze, the glaze will stick and cover the cake nicely with a shiny surface. After a couple of minutes, I remove the cremeux spiral from the mold and place it on top of the cake. To make some contrast, I made a beige white chocolate glaze for the mousse domes that matches the color of the French buttercream inside the cake. I start making this glaze once I have glazed the cake with the milk chocolate glaze. I follow the same steps and mix this yellow, red, white and black food coloring paste to achieve a beige color that matches the color of the coffee buttercream. I place the domes on a cooling baking rack before pouring the glaze over. To create a more interesting composition, three domes in three different sizes is then placed aligned with the edge of the spiral. I always strive to make the outside of my cakes look like the inside of the cake, so what you see is what you're going to eat, which is why I wanted a color scheme based on a milk chocolate color and a base color to resemble chocolate, coffee and almond colors. The color of the chocolate ribbons and the chocolate rings therefore switch between milk chocolate and beige, which makes the design more interesting than just using brown chocolate colors. And if you want to learn more about how I create the chocolate ribbons and the chocolate rings for this cake, you can check out my chocolate decoration courses that I have linked here. In the courses, I also teach you how to temper chocolate and how to create my 10 signature decorations that I use on all my cakes. I first put the milk chocolate ribbon around the cake, then the beige ribbon around the cake, the other beige ribbon around the spiral and lastly, three chocolate rings in different sizes over the mousse domes. I decided to finish the cake with white flower leaves to lift the brightness of the cake a bit, as I wanted the flower leaves to stand out and balance the look without taking too much focus. I'm honestly super excited and so happy with this final cake design that I think is mesmerizing. The colors that represent the inside flavors result in a balanced cake design that to me resembles a modern interpretation of an opera cake. I also gotta say that this cake truly has an amazing cake cut, which is exactly what I wanted to achieve for this opera cake, to resemble the traditional version, but converted into an entremet cake. And now to the best part, to actually eat the cake. This recipe turned out exactly like I wanted. I wanted it to be like a traditional opera cake, but with more textures and elevated, and I think the crunch and the biscuit here really, really does that. It has an amazing coffee flavor, amazing chocolate flavor that just pairs extremely well with the almond. It's everything I wanted for this cake recipe. I hope you get the chance to make this delicious opera cake, and if you like this video, make sure to subscribe, and you can also check out my entremet cake playlist here. See you in the next video!