There is a very good recipe for Opera cake in Doris Greenspan’s Paris Sweets – she adapted Dalloyau’s own version of it! I actually had the fortune of trying Dalloyau’s version in Paris last fall. (I’m not the biggest fan of buttercream, but its espresso-laced incarnation in the opera helps make it the out of the world experience it is for me). The balance of buttercream and chocolate seemed to work better. There are three thin layers of almond cake, each soaked in a potent coffee syrup a layer of espresso-flavored buttercream one layer of bittersweet chocolate ganache and a topping of chocolate glaze. While the combination of flavors and textures was just as luscious as I remember,I think I prefer the slimmed-down seven layer version I’ve made before. The classic Opera Cake is a work in six acts. Run the almond flour and powdered sugar through a sieve to avoid lumps. If you have 2 pans divide the batter to bake them equally. I used a version of the recipe which called for four layers of the joconde, three layers of buttercream, a layer of ganache, and the glaze. Line your baking pan and brush with melted butter. (This is in addition to the quantity in the ingredient list.) 2. Line two 12 1/2-x15 1/2-inch (31-x-39-cm) jelly-roll pans with parchment paper and brush with melted butter. It’s like a very refined and decadent layer cake. To make the cake: Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). It is a wonderfully rich and dreamy combination of delicate almond biscuit or joconde, chocolate ganache, coffee buttercream, and chocolate glaze. However, it was popularized by the Parisian pâtisserie Dalloyau as the Opera cake and is now mostly known by that name.

This classic French dessert was created by Louis Clichy, who called it – quite naturally – the Clichy. One of my favorite things I learned to make in pastry class was the Opera cake.

Classic opera cake