Opera Cake Assembly

Make sure that the jeconde has cooled completely before starting.

The ganache should be just thick enough.  It shouldn't be runny.  Room temp is nice.

 Press the sponges with your palm or with a rolling pin.  You want the sponge rather dense for this.

 Divide the sponge into three, if you used the standard baking pan, you'll end up with three 5.5 inch pieces.

 Start with the chocolate base.  Slather it on.

Let it chill slightly in the fridge for easier handling.

 Flip it over, chocolate side down on the parchment paper.  You may ask why we're even bothering to cover the bottom with chocolate.

The thin chocolate on the bottom creates a wafer thin crunch when you bite into the cake.

Tastes super good.  Play on texture, y'know.

Also when you cut the cake, the bottom comes off the plate nicely in one piece.  No cake stuck on the bottom.  All is good.


Yum.

Now with the coffee syrup.

Brush it generously onto the sponge. Let it soak in.  This adds flavor to the sponge and keep the cake moist, prevent it from drying out.  And its traditional.  That too I guess.  

 Let it sit for a bit, a minute or two.

 Leave it be at peace.

If you want to be really nerdy and get perfect equal layers in your opera cake, you can use a scale.

You'll have two layers of buttercream and two layers of ganache.  So divide those in half.

And slather.

I use a piece of parchment paper to flatten the buttercream.

Now put that in the freezer for 5 minutes to firm up.

Cover the buttercream with the ganache.

Silky ganache.

Slather it bb.  

All is good.  

Life is great.

Love is life.

Ok so.

After that its another layer of cake,

syrup,

butter cream,

and ganache.  

For the last piece of cake however, soak the rough side.  and place the syrup-ed layer on the ganache.

The smooth side should face up, ready for the glaze.

(sorry, bad photo)

It'll be something like this. 

Tastes good by itself.  Its basically good fudge really.  Or maybe chocolate pudding.

This is what it looked like after 10 seconds.  Give it 5 second bursts, stirring each time.  

It should be microwaved until its thick enough to coat the back of the spoon and when dragged with a finger, it stays.  Creme Anglaise consistency.  Melted ice cream consistency.  You get the idea. 

And pour.

Its beautiful.  help.

Don't use a spatula to spread the glaze.  Let it droop.  Let it do its thing.  Swirl the tray if needed.

Its so.  

sexy.  

I cant.

I stirred it too much.  Bubbles.  Grr.  

I made another mistake here.  Got too excited.  Should have chilled the cake overnight before cutting the edges– hence the unclean cuts on the side.  

But all was good.  Snacked on the cake trimmings.  

Like we've all heard a million times already, dip knife in hot water, dry it, use it to cut the cake, great clean cuts.  yeah, do that.

Aaaand you're done. 

^_^