There is nothing more elegant, sophisticated or brilliant than the Opera Cake.
Four thin layers of moist hazelnut cake with mocha and chocolate buttercream in between each layer.
To prove just how rich this cake is, each slice gets bedazzled with gold leaf.
When I owned my bakery I sold this cake in 3 different sizes.
As an entremet or a whole cake as shown here, individual slices and then bite sized petit fours
Simply by cutting this larger cake into smaller portions you can really change the serving aesthetic
Because Opera Cake is traditionally displayed open sided, could this be the original naked cake?
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Notes for Success:
This original recipe was created in 2017 and the main egg replacer we had at that time was by Follow Your Heart
Even I do not use those anymore since they changed the formula in late 2018
You will also see in the video that I had included EnerG Egg replacer in combination with the FYH
I have since updated this recipe to eliminate both of those egg replacers for the more readily available flax meal instead
Baking the entire batter in a half sheet pan will give you a very thin cake sheet
Which is how the Classic Opera Cake is made
For the Raspberry Sauce I made a simple compote of about 1 cup of fresh raspberries a splash of water to help them cook down with a tablespoon or two of sugar
WATCH THE YOUTUBE VIDEO FOR HOW TO MAKE THIS CAKE!
Opera Cake
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- Hazelnut Flour 1½ cup (145g)
- All Purpose Flour ¾ cup (94g)
- Confectioner's Sugar 1 cup (120g)
- Flax Meal 3 Tablespoons (24g) *see notes
- Warm Water 9 Tablespoons (135ml)
- Baking Powder 4 teaspoons (20g)
- Vegan Butter 6 Tablespoons (85g)
- Granulated Sugar 6 Tablespoons (85g)
- Vanilla Extract 1 Tablespoon (15ml)
for the icings
- 1 Recipe Your favorite Buttercream
- Instant Coffee Granules 3 teaspoons mixed with 2 teaspoons hot water
- Cocoa Powder ½ cup mixed with 6 Tablespoons hot water
For the Ganache
- Semi Sweet Vegan Chocolate chopped finely ½ cup
- Plant Milk ½ cup (60ml)
Optional garnish
- Whole Hazelnuts as needed
- Gold Leaf
Instructions
- For the cake: Sift the flour, confectioner's sugar, baking powder and hazelnut flour together, you will still add in the larger bits from the hazelnut flour that cannot get through the sieve
- Combine the flax meal with the warm water, whisk smooth then add the vanilla extract
- with an electric mixer cream the slightly softened vegan butter with the sugar on medium to high speed for about 3-5 minutes until fluffy
- Add the flax paste mixture and whip on high speed for another 30 seconds
- Add the sifted dry ingredients all at once and mix on medium to high speed to combine well.
- Spread the batter into a lightly greased and parchment lined half sheet pan (12" x18") this is going to be a very thin cake sheet that will later be cut into 4 equal layers
- Bake in a preheated 350°F oven for 12 minutes then turn the oven temperature down to 300°F for another *approximately 8 minutes. Be sure the edges are not getting to browned depending on your oven, it is best to gently press the center to test for doneness~ it should not be sticky or tacky
- Cool completely while you prepare your favorite buttercream according to the instructions on that blog post.
- First in a medium bowl combine the cocoa powder with the 6 Tablespoons of hot water & then mix the coffee granules with the 2 teaspoons of the other hot water in a smaller bowl ~ Allow both to cool
- Now add the cocoa powder mixture to the entire recipe of buttercream at the last stage of mixing for chocolate buttercream
- Now take out about 1/4 of the entire recipe into another bowl and add the coffee paste for Mocha Buttercream
- Cut the cooled cake sheet into 4 equal squares (as shown in the video) and assemble by layering with the chocolate and mocha buttercream
- Prepare the ganache by combining the semi sweet chocolate with the plant milk in a small sauce pot over low heat and whisk smooth stirring constantly
- Freeze the cake for at least 1 hour and then ice with ganache
- Trim the edges and garnish as you like
- I used a ganache rosette and a hazelnut with a sparkle of gold leaf
Notes
Keep refrigerated for up to 10 days in an airtight container.
It can stay at room temperature for up to a day as it is best served at room temperature.
You can freeze wrapped well for up to 2 months
hi.would like 2 try this recipe but dont have veganegg.can i do without or replace with more egg replacer
Yes ( I meant to note that in the blog post thanks for the reminder) You can use 2 Tablespoon Cornstarch and increase the EnerG Egg replacer by another 1½ tsp
Hi Gretchen,
Hope you’re well.
I had forgotten all about Opera cake for a good four years!! And now you’ve made a vegan version? Double love!
You, Gretchen, are magic. I can’t wait to try this. It looks amazing.
Hi! thankyou! I am slowly slowly feeling better! thanks for asking! You are going to LOVE this cake! I guarantee it!
Looks fab! Can I sub almond flour for the hazelnut?
yes!
Hi
What is the difference between the two egg replacers?
Since the original recipe called for egg yolks and whole eggs, I decided to use both replacers.
The enerG is more like a binder similar to whole eggs, and the FYH Vegan Egg resembles the yolk.
I made this! And it was a hit. I love it so much I’m making it again as a birthday cake in a week. Thank you so much.
I used vegan egg by fyh and I subbed bob’s egg replacer for energ egg replacer. And followed everything pretty exact.
My cake wasn’t as pretty but it good. I especially love the taste of the buttercream and the hazelnut flour.
awesome! thanks for the feedback!
Found your lovely cake after watching the Great British Baking Show. Thanks for showing we can do it without eggs and dairy! Looking forward to trying it. Your cake is so even and professional. Star Baker! ?
hey finally made this cake after a whole year.
made it without vegan egg and used the substitutes
instead.it was awesome.
thxs so much
nan
Great! thanks for the feedback!
Hi Gretchen! First of all, thank you for all your hard work in sharing your wonderful and delicious recipes. Every year, my daughter keeps requesting me to make your Christmas log but this year, I would like to try your Opera cake as hazelnut cake is also her favorite. But I just want to know how to convert it to non-vegan as I find it easier for me to use eggs. I still use your old and very reliable recipes. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas!!!
Just wondering about the calculations for the hazelnut Flour. According to Bobs Red Mill, 1 cup of hazelnut flour is 89 grams. That would mean 1.5 cups as you mention in the recipe would be 133.5 grams but you have it listed as 245 grams. So just wondering which measurement is correct for your recipe. Should I follow the cups or the grams?
Thankyou for double checking me!! I always say “when converting recipes from double batch to single or even half recipes, MATH is the biggest cause for recipe failure!! ” And I know this first hand because I do it often!
It looks as if I had the larger recipe in my brain and forgot to HALVE the flour weight back down. So thanks again, and whichever method you prefer to measure will be fine, and I will go ahead and update the post for the 135g weight of hazelnut flour!
Thank you for the recipe. I made the cake few days ago and it turned out really nice. I did not use any store bought egg replacer because there wasn’t anything available; instead, I used flax and chia seed meal to replace Follow Your Heart Vegan Egg and Energ Egg. Altogether, I used 5 tablespoons of flax meal (so one more tablespoon of flax meal in addition to the 4 mentioned in the recipe) and 3 tablespoons of chia seed meal with 20 tablespoons of water. I guess I could have put even less of either because it held together really well and there wasn’t any risk for the layers to break when I assembled the cake.
Somehow I managed to kind of kill the buttercream, though. The buttercream turned out just perfect, but when I had refrigerated it overnight and started to prepare the cream for the cake, it just didn’t mix at all, at first. I suspect it came down to the vegan margarine I used, but I am not sure because the original recipe turned out just perfect. The fat did not mix at all with coffee or cocoa. I thought the mixture was too cold, so I left everything to warm up more, but nothing. The cream became all runny and did not mix at all. I left everything in the fridge overnight and tried again in the morning. Whipped everything when the cream was still quite cold, added some more confectioner’s sugar and finally it begun to mix more, but not completely; it also stayed quite liquid. It did not completely regain this sturdy original consistency, but it worked well in the cake because it was nice and somewhat moist as I like. Do you have any idea what might have ruined the buttercream?
Hi Chris! Thanks for the feedback, it sounds as if you sure do know your stuff as you did wonderful substitutions for the recipe with great success. Im sorry about the buttercream, yes vegan buttercream can be tricky since there is such a high moisture content in the “margarines” that we are now using, and then the addition of literally anything can tend to throw of the balance of the base recipe
But it sounds as if you did everything I would have suggested to do! CLICK HERE For an in depth look
Thank you, Gretchen, for the reply and the link. I checked the ingredients of the margarine and indeed the first one in the list was water. The list of possible vegan butter/margarine options is rather limited here in France and as I try to avoid products with palm oil it limits the choice even more. Next time when I will prepare the buttercream I will test with solid coconut oil and coconut cream. I have understood that due to the low melting point it is not very stable, but as I keep my cakes always refrigerated and not on the counter, it should not be a problem.
Hi! I am super delighted to have found a vegan opera cake recipe- thank you for sharing. I would be serving to a crowd that includes a nut allergy, is there a different flour you would recommend that would work similarly?
Hi Great! Well the Opera cake IS a hazelnut cake, so to make it with another recipe (sans nuts) would not really be the Opera Cake anymore. But of course you can tweak this to suit you. I would not recommend to sun in another flour for this recipe though (like coconut for example) I cannot guarantee that would work, this was a tricky recipe to veganize in the first place so to say you can just sub this or that, I don’t feel comfortable doing so.
You can of course use another recipe for the layer cake though, and just use the fillings and ganache as I do here and call it “in the style of Opera Cake” 🙂
Hi Gretchen…making this cake right now and realized that your video says to bake 15 mins @ 375 then another 25 minutes at 325 BUT your written instructions say an additional 10 minutes at 325! Which is correct?! I don’t want to over bake OR under bake! Thanks! Can’t wait to see how this turns out….the batter tasted delicious 😉
Hey sorry for the last reply, I am sure you are done by now! Sorry for the confusion, the written blog post is correct.
I do always dislike giving EXACT times for baking as it can vary for so many reasons. Best to just check at 20 minutes, then you can see how far you need to go from there
Hello!
I am planning on making this tomorrow and don’t have vegan ‘egg’ replacers available nor flaxseeds. I do happen to have chia seed which I could grind into a meal yet was wondering if that substitution would work for both of the ‘eggs’ listed in the recipe.
Thank you in advance and happy Holidays!
Also, after removing the cake from the oven, should it be cooled on a cooling tray? Or would it be fine to leave it on the hot pan?
Thanks again!
I leave it in the pan to cool completely
Hi Again, I mimicked this recipe as close to the original as possible & the original Joconde has whole eggs as well as egg yolks. I like to use FYH Vegan Egg for replacing Yolks, but you can try to use another replacement, I am sure it will work, but since I have not tried – I can’t say for sure!
Also just curious, why do we need confectioner’s sugar rather than caster?
Thanks again!
You can use either, I just literally followed my original recipe (from like 20 years ago!) for Joconde, and veganized it as close as possible!
Hi there! Thanks so much for the recipe!!
I’m making it now and noticed that there are 2 different times for baking?! Your blog has one (which I followed) and the YouTube vid has another time?
Hope mine turns out yummy!
Uggh yeah I do that sometimes, in a video I say something that I correct myself here on the blog- rule of thumb for Me & my sometimes mistakes.. THE BLOG IS ALWAYS CORRECT! 🙂
This looks exquisite and I would like to try it for a friend’s birthday at the end of June. I only have Bob’s egg replacer and flaxseed, cannot find FYH and Energy egg replacer is very expensive. Can I use Bob’s and flax or only one of them? I looked online to find an egg yolk replacer without success… Thank you!
Hey so yeah I totally understand so I would recommend to use THIS RECIPE for the hazelnut cake INSTEAD!
Perfect, thank you!!
Hi Gretchen! I made this cake today for a birthday tomorrow. It tastes great but unfortunately doesn’t look as good as yours. I ran into a couple of issues. I made the recipe for the hazelnut cake and it was so crumbly that when I cut the edges of the cake a lot of crumbs mixed with the buttercream and layers don’t show off well. The buttercream turned out great except the mocha one. It is delicious but the coffee liquid did not incorporate well and it ended up looking ‘grainy’. For the ganache, I made the mistake of heating the chocolate and soy milk too early in a double boiler and the chocolate started separating from the cocoa butter so I kept this one for the decorations and melted more chocolate to pour over the frozen cake. The ganache ended up more pasty than liquid so I had to spread it over the cake. I didn’t do this fast enough and the buttercream started melting and mixing with the ganache a bit. Sooooo, overall the cake tastes wonderful and I’m sure everyone will love it but it didn’t turn out to be a ‘show stopper’ like I was hoping. Thank you for the recipe though, I’m glad I tried it as I’ve been looking at this cake for a while now!
My Swiss buttercream was perfect until I added the chocolate/water mixture and it broke. I tried and tried to get it to emulsify, but to no luck. What could I had done wrong?