Tuesday, we made something that was very relatable to my life; Opera Cake. I had never heard of this before, but it is aparently something that is fairly popular, especially in Europe. It is a sponge cake with ground almonds that you bake in a sheet, then cut into three long rectangles. We layered the cake with a "medium" chocolate ganache (more fluid), a coffee flavoured butter cream and a "hard" chocolate ganache (less fluid). First, we prepared the butter cream. The way you make a proper butter cream is different from how you would normally make one by creaming together the ingredients. You make it in a way so that the egg whites come up to a high enough temperature so that they are basically cooked. You whip egg whites like crazy until they reach a soft peak, then add a little sugar and whip until a stiff peak forms. Meanwhile, you boil very little water with quite a bit of sugar until the bubbles are small and compact. Once the whites are whipped, you slowly add the boiled mixture and continue fiercely whipping the whites until the bowl is no longer warm on the bottom. Combining the boiled sugar-water and the whipped whites at just the right moment was a little difficult seeing as both have a very small window of time in which they are at the perfect condition and can easily be brought too far. I have made this kind of butter cream before, however for some reason I was having an off day. I made the butter cream a total of FOUR TIMES! Needless to say, I was getting a little frustrated by the end and never wanted to see butter cream again. I finally managed to make it properly, however I was behind the other students in the class. Luckily my classmates had extra medium ganache, so I was able to use theirs instead of making it myself from start to finish. We put a little melted chocolate on the bottom of one piece of cake, then layered it with a coffee syrup (made by the instructor), buttercream and the medium ganache. Then came the next layer that we prepared just as before. The top piece of cake then went on along with the rest of the buttercream and coffee syrup. To finish it off, we poured the hard ganache over the top, letting it slightly drip over the sides. The cake needed to chill before we sliced it into twelve equal mini rectangles. What made them a little interesting was that we piped the word "opera" in chocolate on the tops of each. I must say, they looked lovely! What was too bad was that my lovely sister and talented opera singer, Emma wasn't home to try the desserts. A picture will have to do the trick! They also tasted very good, so I will maybe have to make them again for her. Maybe the day she stars in a national opera?!