His wife told him it reminded her of the Paris Opera House, Palais Garnier. He worked on layers and tastes and came up with a wonderfully sophisticated cake. When inventing the Opera cake he wanted to make something that in taking one bite, would give a taste of the whole cake. It was the perfect match when Cyriaque, a genius with patisserie and an artist who created the most amazing cakes and sugar decorations, and Dalloyau got together. Dalloyau have been trading since 1682 and were suppliers to the court of Versailles. Would you like a slice of history with your cake? Here’s what we learned about the Opera cake from Janine Marsh at The Good Life France: “The creation of the cake goes back to 1955 when great French pastry chef Cyriaque Gavillon worked at the legendary Dalloyau shop in Paris. We'll be baking the almond sponge cake in a 12- by 18-inch baking sheet and the cake layers will be about 1/4-inch thick. A simple sponge cake, however, can be substituted if you would like to make one ahead of time. Virtual: You'll need a stand mixer with paddle and whisk attachments to make the Opera Torte. Also, our almond sponge cake recipe cannot be made without almond paste, an essential ingredient that provides the main structure of the cake. In-Person: We'll end class with a tasting of what we made and you'll go home with some great coupons. You'll leave the BAKE! class with our recipes, the knowledge and techniques to recreate them at home, and the Opera Torte you made in class.

These are wonderful base pastry recipes that can be used in many other applications as well, so they'll be great to add to your repertoire! In this hands-on class, we’ll teach you how to make all of the components to this exquisite cake and several valuable baking techniques along the way: almond sponge cake, espresso simple syrup, chocolate ganache, and espresso buttercream. It’s all about the almond and coffee flavors! For all its elegance and beauty, the Opera cake is surprisingly simple to make (we won’t tell if you don’t!), once you master its individual elements.

This sophisticated French cake is thin layers of almond sponge cake brushed with espresso simple syrup and layered with rich chocolate ganache and espresso buttercream.

Opera cake flavors