Good Morning!

To help you push through the rest of this week I though I would give you a little chocolate post. Looking at this just makes my mouth water.

Coffee, almond & most importantly, CHOCOLATE  (whats not to love?)

This patisserie is called an Opera Cake (hence the pipping on top)

The Opera Cake was given its name due to its sophisticated element and was said it reminded the creator & patisserie chef, Cyriaque of the Opera House, Palais Garnier. When he was creating the Opera Cake he wanted to produce something that would give all the flavours in one mouthful, so different layers and textures of three flavours where built together to make a beautiful, layered patisserie.

The layers are:

Joconde (almond sponge)

Coffee syrup (soaked into the baked Joconde)

Chocolate Croustillant (chocolate coated, caramelised dried crepe pieces)

Chocolate Ganache

Coffee Buttercream

Chocolate Glaze

There are a fair few elements, but there are not lots of flavours complicating the cake. Just three classic flavours used in a clever way to create different textures.

So there you have it. The Opera Cake.

To wish you all Happy New Year is well overdue! So I will just start by saying, welcome to my first post of 2019.

This year I am planning to upload a lot more, so that I can learn new techniques and you guys can have more recipes to use (& consume).

For my first post of the year,  I thought I would use an ingredient that is just starting to come into season. Rhubarb.

I think rhubarb is not given as much recognition as it deserves and is seen as a ‘marmite’ ingredient, when in actual fact it tastes delicious, goes with many other ingredients, and looks beautiful.

So to showcase the rhubarb and all its positives that I have listed above I decided to make a tart.

I kept it very understated by using simple flavours and just using the rhubarb to decorate (the pink is decoration enough).

I paired my rhubarb with orange + vanilla.

I made my pastry slightly flaky by not rubbing the butter completely into the flour, and jam packed it with orange zest and vanilla seeds.

My creme patissiere had more orange zest whisked into it,  and I poached the rhubarb ever so slightly in a syrup.

SYRUP:-

Peel of lemon

Zest of an orange

Vanilla pod + seeds

1:1 sugar & water

If you would like to see more of my bakes you can go to my instagram & youtube channel: Myfbakes

Have a good week.

x