Judgement Day: Gateau Opéra

My Gateau Opéra!!

How time flies, before we knew it it's the last week of the term i.e. Assessment Week! I am glad to report I did pretty well this time around, thankfully, much better than my dismal performance at Basic Assessment.

Small Cuts

Lessons learnt from my Gateau Opéra dry run, I warmed up the glaze to ensure it was dark and shiny and the syrup properly soaked through the jaconde. The one thing I would have done differently would be to put less coffee in the soaking syrup, as it was too dark and somewhat indiscernible from the layer of chocolate ganache in between. 

In my defence I only added as much coffee as I did to compensate for lack of rum, as it was not in the recipe (sacrilege!) and I was strongly advised by Margarita and Sunny not to risk getting penalised for adding it in.

Good Things Come In Small Doses

A Spoonful Of Rum Makes Everything Go Down Better

Needless to say my principals were compromised with the omission of the rum, which I felt was an integral part of the cake; indeed of any and all cakes, it makes them complete. So I advised Head Chef Andre of my concerns and strong belief that LCB's recipe should henceforth be amended to include rum and/or Grand Marnier; after all, alcohol is what makes good cakes great.

To further right the wrong, I put my off-cuts into a container, added a big, healthy splash of rum and was immediately soothed by it's warm aroma and the sensual way it soaked through the layers and made eating them much more gratifying. Rum oh rum, you complete me.