This months Daring Bakers challenge was an opera cake. The opera cake sounded pretty challenging having no less that five different components. The components included a cake, a syrup, a buttercream, a ganache and a glaze. The thing that I liked most about the challenge was that we were allowed to choose the flavours in the cake as long as the colours remained light. I decided to go with one of my current favorite dessert flavour combinations, green tea and white chocolate.
Note: I halved all the recipes for all components as I did not want such a large cake.
Green Tea Cake
The first component of the opera cake was of course the cake. The cake sounded pretty interesting because it used ground almonds. I wanted the cake to have a green tea flavour and have a green colour so I added some matcha. The cake came together pretty easily and it had a really nice shade of green.
Ingredients:
3 large egg whites (room temperature)
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 cup ground almonds
1 cup icing sugar (sifted)
1 tablespoon matcha
3 large eggs
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter (melted and cooled)
Directions:
1. Line a 12 1/2 inch by 15 1/2 inch jelly roll pan with parchment and grease it with butter.
2. Beat the egg whites in a bowl until they form soft peaks.
3. Add the sugar and beat until the peaks are stiff and glossy.
4. Beat the almonds, icing sugar, matcha and eggs in another bowl until light and voluminous.
5. Add the flour and beat until the flour is just combined.
6. Fold the meringue into the almond mixture.
7. Fold in the butter.
8. Pour the batter into the pan.
9. Bake in a preheated 425F oven until lightly browned and just springy to the touch, about 5-9 minutes.
10. Run a knife along the edges to loosen the cake form the pan.
11. Cover the cake with parchment paper, flip and unmold the cake.
12. Peel of the parchments paper flip and cover the cake while it cools.
Green Tea Syrup
The cake in the opera cake needed to be moistened with a syrup. The syrup was just a simple syrup with some added flavour. I remembered that I had seen some green tea liqueur and I though that it would go well in the syrup. The green tea liqueur was a nice dark green and it tasted like green tea and had hints of spices and berries. It added a nice aroma to the syrup and the opera cake.
Ingredients:
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon green tea liqueur
Directions:
1. Bring every thing to boil in a small sauce pan stirring until the sugar is dissolved.
2. Remove from heat and let cool.
Green Tea Buttercream
There was a bit of confusion with the recipe for the buttercream and in the end I was not sure what recipe to use so I used the recipe from the Perfect Party Cake challenge. I decided that I wanted the buttercream to be green as well so I added some matcha to it. The first time that I made buttercream it did not work out too well. The second time I got a nice finished product but it took about 20 minutes of beating the cream by hand. This time everything came together easily with less than 5 minutes of beating by hand in the final step. Given the amount of beating in the other components I was a bit relieved. The buttercream ended up with a nice light green colour and tasted great. Must keep fingers out of butter cream.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon matcha
2 large egg whites
3/4 cups unsalted butter (at room temperature)
Directions:
1. Mix the sugar and matcha in a small bowl.
2. Whisk the sugar and matcha into the egg whites in a bowl over a pan of simmering water until the mixture is hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. (The sugar should be dissolved and the mixture should look like shiny marshmallow cream.)
3. Remove the bowl from the heat and beat until the cream is cool, about 5 minutes.
4. Beat in the butter one stick at a time.
5. Beat the mixture until it thickens and becomes smooth, about 5-20 minutes.
White Chocolate Ganache
The ganache was the first of the white chocolate components of the opera cake. I had made chocolate ganache before but I have never tried folding in whipped cream in addition to melting the chocolate into cream. The whipped cream left the chocolate light and fluffy. Unfortunately it also left the ganache a bit runny and a lot of the ganache ran out from the middle layer of the cake. Putting it in the fridge for a while fixed that problem though.
Ingredients:
7 ounces white chocolate (chopped)
2 tablespoon heavy cream
1/2 cup heavy cream
Directions:
1. Melt the chocolate into the heavy cream in a double boiler.
2. Set the ganache aside and let cool completely.
3. Whip the heavy cream in a large bowl.
4. Fold the whipped cream into the chocolate ganache.
5. Refrigerate until used.
White Chocolate Glaze
The opera cake was topped with a simple white chocolate glaze that came together easily.
Ingredients:
3 ounces white chocolate (chopped)
1/4 cup heavy cream
Directions:
1. Melt the chocolate into the heavy cream in a double boiler.
2. Let cool for 10 minutes and then pour over the opera cake.
Assembling the Opera Cake
Assembling the cake was the funnest part of the challenge. After the cake was assembled I chilled it in the fridge and then trimmed the sides to get nice and straight edges.
Directions:
1. Work on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
2. Cut the cake into 4 6x7 inch pieces.
3. Place 1 sheet of the cake onto the baking sheet and moisten with syrup.
4. Spread 1/2 of the buttercream over the cake.
5. Place 1 sheet of the cake on top of the buttercream and moisten with syrup.
6. Spread the white chocolate ganache over the cake.
7. Place 1 sheet of the cake on top of the ganache and moisten with syrup.
8. Spread the remaining buttercream over the cake.
9. Place 1 sheet of the cake on top of the buttercream and moisten with syrup.
10. Pour the glaze over the cake and smooth it out.
11. Refrigerate until it sets, about 30 minutes.
12. Trim the sides to get a smooth finish.
Overall the opera cake was not too difficult to make and it turned out really good! It tasted great and it disappeared quite quickly! The slight bitterness of the green tea tempered the sweetness of the white chocolate nicely. The cake was nice a moist and light and creamy at the same time. I really enjoyed the opera cake challenge.
Similar Recipes:
Green Tea Macarons
Green Tea White Chocolate Mascarpone Brownies with Chocolate Ganache
Green Tea and White Chocolate Ice Cream
Use the leftover egg yolks in:
Guinness Chocolate Pudding
Hollandaise Sauce
Avgolemono Sauce
Azuki (Red Bean) Ice Cream
Black Sesame Ice Cream
Take a look at the other Daring Bakers creations.
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