Opera Tort

This week we had our second practical, it was on the Opera Tort! I have to admit that this is probably one of my favorite things that we have made so far! But I think I say that about almost everything we make in kitchens! I was a little bit nervous about this practical, because I had a problem with making the Mocha Buttercream!

This story that I am about to tell you happened all in one day. My first attempt: When making buttercream, you have to dissolve the sugar in the water. But you have to bring the sugar and water to 241F but no higher than 244F. Well with this, if you do not put lemon just around the sides of the pot with a pastry brush the sugar with crystalize. So I forgot to do that, and when I remembered it was to late!

My second attempt: This time around I remembered the lemon juice. everything was going great. UNTIL, the dissolved sugar and water was taking forever to reach the temperature. The numbers on the digital thermometer were getting higher, but my product in the pot was get dark. It was at 212, and my product at this point was dark black like the color of freshly brewed coffee. Let me say all this happened in a matter of seconds from here on. All of a sudden steam, and smoke covered the entire room. It was so bad that my Chef thought it was going to set off the fire alarms. It was so bad that another student was telling me that the smoke was coming into their kitchen across the hall.

The reasoning for this happening, was because the digital thermometer was set on Celcius, so if it was in Fahrenheit the sugar would be reading over 500F.

So everyone Check your Thermometers to make sure that it is correct!!


So when it came to remaking the Buttercream, I was a tad bit nervous!

But the third time making the buttercream was a success! It was perfect, and sooooooo good!

Do you know what a tort is? It is a German word for a multi layered cake with rich fillings. It may also indicate cutting a cake into multiple (more than two) layers.

With this practical this was a three layered tort. There was 2 layers of buttercream, and one ganache! And then the top was buttercream with melted chocolate. We then had to Pipe Opera on the top!

I was really surprised I got a 95% on the practical!!!

Here are pictures of the Opera Tort!!!




Here is a side view of the tort! It's not very thick! But it's so rich you can't eat a lot of it!



This is the top of my tort! I'm please with it! I can't wait to EAT it!!!!!


I hope you liked my Opera tort and my story!

Keep posted there's a blog this Sunday coming up!