By now we are on our last leg of our mini Malaysian vacation. Despite having a fiery start to the holiday (16 hour delay by Air Asia), we have made the most of it. I’ve been eating and sleeping way more than usual to more delight and The Boy’s dismay 😛
As we enjoy our last couple of days here, I thought I would leave you with a sweet treat over the weekend to mull on until we get home to bask you with our glorious presence ><
Here is my Ube Opera Cake (Fun Fact: Yam/Taro/Ube is an edible tuber cultivated for consumption around the world).
Using the same principles as the Matcha Opera Gateau I recently made (TBH the very next day, I made this cake after that Matcha experiment went so well), I went on to create this beauty.
Hope you enjoy this pretty and delicious cake (Daisy had some and she said it was good!).
The layers though similar to the Matcha Opera Gateau were slightly tweaked to give this cake a slightly more Filipino feel as I was inspired by the Ube Macapuno cake style.
The layers I had were:
- Ube and Macadamia Nut Feuilletine
- Ube Mousse
- Buko (Young Shredded Coconut)
- White Chocolate Buttercream
- Ube Sponge
- Ube Ganache
Ube Buko Opera Cake Recipe
Ingredients
For the Ube Mousse:
- 7.5 grams Powdered Gelatin
- 30 grams Cold Water
- 50 grams Sugar
- 5 ml Ube Flavouring
- 165 ml of Milk
- 115 ml of Full Cream
For the Ube Sponge:
- 3 Egg Yolks
- 3 Egg Whites
- 50 grams Sugar (split into 25 grams)
- 70 grams Plain Flour
- 10 grams Ube Paste
- 40 grams of Grape Seed Oil (or melted butter)
For the Ube and Macadamia Nut Feuilletine:
- 80 grams White Chocolate
- 30 grams Macadamia Nuts
- 15 grams Butter (softened)
- 50 grams (about half a cup) of Paillete Feuilletine
- 10 grams of Ube Paste
- 5 grams Fleur de Sel
For the White Chocolate Buttercream:
- 115 grams White Chocolate
- 40 grams Full Cream
- 70 grams Butter (softened)
- 120 grams Powdered Sugar (Icing Sugar)
For the Buko Layer:
- 150 grams of Buko - washed and dried (very important that it is dry)
For the Ube Ganache:
- 115 grams White Chocolate (chopped finely)
- 100 grams Full Cream
- 10 grams Ube Flavouring
Instructions
For the Ube Mousse
- Start by making the Ube Mousse as it requires time to set.
- Sprinkle the powdered gelatin over the cold water and set aside.
- Place the Ube flavouring and sugar in a medium size bowl. In a heavy base saucepan, bring the milk to the boil. Remove from heat. Slowly whisk the hot milk into the ube and sugar mixture.
- Heat the gelatin in the microwave for about 10-15 seconds and stir into the ube-milk mixture.
- In another bowl, beat the full cream to soft peaks. Fold into the ube-milk mixture and set aside. You can also speed the process up by placing the Ube Mousse mixture into the refrigerator.
For the Ube Sponge
- Preheat oven to 230 degrees Celsius (210 degrees Celsius if fan forced). Grease a square cake pan (I used an 8" x 8" inch pan) and line with baking paper.
- In a bowl, mix plain flour with ube paste.
- Beat the egg whites with half the sugar (25 grams) until stiff peaks are formed.
- In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks with the remaining sugar until it turns thick and pale. Fold the egg yolk mixture into the egg white.
- Fold in the flour-ube mixture and grape seed oil to the egg mixture. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Remove ube sponge from cake pan and set aside to cool.
For the Ube and Macadamia Nut Feuilletine
- In a hot pan, toast the macadamias until fragrant. Take care to keep tossing the nuts to keep them from burning. Remove and let cool. Once cooled, ground the nuts into powder form. I used a spice grinder for this.
- In a double boiler, melt the butter, white chocolate and ube paste while mixing until smooth. Remove from heat and fold in the paillete feuilletine, fleur de sel and macadamia nut powder. Set aside to cool.
For the White Chocolate Buttercream
- In a medium saucepan, melt the white chocolate and full cream until a smooth consistency is formed. Add in butter and powdered sugar. Whisk all ingredients together to form a paste-like texture. Set aside.
For the Ube Ganache
- Place together the white chocolate and ube flavouring into a bowl. Heat the full cream in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Pour over the hot cream into the chocolate mixture, stirring consistently until all the chocolate has melted. Set the glossy mixture aside.
To Assemble
- Line the same square pan (from the ube sponge) with plastic wrap.
- Press the ube and macadamia nut feuilletine into the bottom of the pan, making sure that it is spread evenly. Use the bottom of a spoon to do this.
- Pour the ube mousse mixture on top of the feuilletine and refrigerate until set. *I popped mine into the freezer for about 30 minutes.
- Spread an even layer of the white chocolate buttercream onto the set mousse gently.
- Layer the Buko all around on top of the buttercream. If the buko layer is not dry, you'll end up with a very soggy droopy mess (I learnt this the hard way).
- Place the ube sponge over the Buko layer. Cover the top of the cake with more plastic wrap and refrigerate for another 30 minutes to set.
- To remove the cake from the cake pan, we flipped the cake onto a chopping board (to remove the bottom plastic wrap) before flipping it onto the slate where we trimmed the sides of the cake.
- Spread the ube ganache layer over the top of the cake evenly. As you only wanted to glaze the top of the cake, this means that you have to be extra careful.
- Decorate as you wish. I felt that the mirror glaze was enough and didn't want to ruin it. I did top it off with some wild coriander flowers from the garden.
Notes
What do you think? Isn’t it a beautiful marvel? I love the complexity and layers of different textures and taste. The Boy has promised to buy me a whole big box of feuilletine coming up so this means more variants on Opera cakes or Gateaus! Wuhoo!
Have a lovely weekend and see you on the flip side 🙂
Wow, looks stunning!! Enjoy the rest of your holiday 🙂
Thanks! It seems so long ago now!
Looks so sedap sekali!!! Next time you make any more opera’s or gateau’s can invite me over ah? 😛 *shameless greedy pig*
Okay.. next time I panggil for pick-up!
That wasn’t a very fun fact. 🙁 It should’ve been something like “Sometimes people shave ube into a point at one end and affix it to their foreheads before dancing in front of a bonfire shrieking ‘I AM A UNICORN!!!’ ”
🙁 🙁 🙁
Delirious and Fun = two separate things 😛
LOVE the colours, gorgeous work 🙂
Thank you!!!
This looks so beautiful indeed! I hope you have a wonderful break 🙂
Wheee.. experiment pass!
I’m a huge fan of ube – I love how you’ve combined this with the elegance of an opera cake!
Awww shucks.. thank you!
This looks epic… and to think you used to fear baking!
I still do.. but I use the fear to challenge myself 🙂
WAAAAA! another epic cake! your baking skills are so impressive now! when will you opening your store?
The one cake a week store? Sure, it’ll bankrupt within the month 😛
What is ube paste?
Yam paste – it’s yam in a tub 🙂
I love Ube, it is used in too many desserts. First time I learned about it, was in Halo-Halo dessert. I liked the taste of it, I’ll surely give this cake a try. I just hope it turn out great xD
The photo of Ube Opera Cake looks great and must have taste amazing! Can the recipe/ingredients be shared on the pdf link? I am interested to learn to make this cake. Thank you.