Thread by @effies

Every year I make a huge sculpted cake for a shared bday for me and my fiancé. This year, there's no point, because who's gonna come eat a huge cake in a pandemic?

So plan B is a pain-in-the-ass cake that's smaller.

Everyone please meet the (A Night At The) Opera Cake

Opera cake is a Very French Cake that is rarely around because it's a hassle. It's alternating thin layers of coffee-syrup-soaked almond joconde sponge, French coffee buttercream, and chocolate ganache/glaze. Traditionally it has the word Opera written on it in chocolate cursive

When you bake the sponge it looks really sad. It's thin and pale, but that's how it's SUPPOSED to look. This sucker wants you to beat whole eggs and egg whites in 2 different bowls and if you only have 1 bowl that works with your mixer it's super fun.

This is coffee syrup. Officially it's supposed to be coffee liqueur syrup but fuck that it's my birthday and I hate the flavor so it's just straight-up equal volumes of strong coffee and sugar, reduced.

Chocolate work is my nemesis. This is attempt 2 at the chocolate glaze, and while it came out an actual liquid (we don't speak of attempt 1, ESPECIALLY that someone in this house still ate some of it) it still ended up a bit grainy. But too bad, attempt 3 wasn't gonna happen

I have no pics of the French coffee buttercream process bc everything had to be monitored at all times. French buttercream means boil sugar to soft ball stage, then slowly drizzle it into your mixer with whipped yolks. But don't let it touch the beater. Or bowl. Or you.

Pretty much if the beaters are going (which they're supposed to), it's GONNA touch the beaters. Or the bowl. Fuck you, it's French.

But honestly it's the only part of this whole recipe I'd make again. Pain in the ass, but actually worth the amount of effort!

Here is the saddest rectangle of thin almond joconde. It's supposed to be this sad and thin. But good news, it gets the syrup and other fillings stacked on.

It looks like a mess bc it totally is. But that's ok, because...

After the whole thing firms up in the fridge, you slice off the sides to make them look clean and reveal the layers. And by "clean" I mean "definitely didn't crack the chocolate glaze in the process or anything"

Did I mention chocolate work is my nemesis? After all that I didn't have it in me to try to temper chocolate to pipe the word Opera. But fiancé's idea to make it a night at the opera stuck.

Stencil attempt 2 w powdered sugar, and the final cake!

#spacetrycrew see thread for (A Night At The) Opera Cake!
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I have learned that the price for overdoing it with a fancy cake, on a hot day after insufficient sleep, is a migraine. Bah.