For the duration of his time on TV baking show, The Great Irish Bake Off, Neil Reid, who works in The Irish Times building, will share his recipes from the show every Monday morning. This week he talks us through his bleeding Bleeding Opera Coffin Cake from last night’s show
"This week's challenge on the Great Irish Bake Off was to create a spooky Halloween-themed cake. I toyed around with a lot of ideas and finally settled on one of my favourite cakes, the Opera Cake. It's a very rich, decadent cake but it's not very "Halloween".
"To me Halloween is a scary and dark holiday so I decided on a coffin shape, looking like something had broken out of it sitting in the chocolate soil to give the effect it was breaking out of the ground. But as this is Bake Off I couldn't stop there and wanted to have the cake look like it was bleeding when you cut into it. So a little molecular gastronomy later, we have a bleeding cake.
“All this seemed like a super plan until I realised that I hadn’t really bargained on the “tent-factor” and time constraint of just four hours. It usually takes me close to that just to make the Opera cake. But I figured in for a penny, in for a pound.
“This was a tough challenge but when the Jaconde sponge came out of the oven as close to perfect as I’ve ever made it, it gave me a huge boost. The next potential banana skin is how I make my coffee butter-cream. Crystallising the sugar or scrambling the eggs is always a possibility. But again... all to plan. I promise you if you make your butter-cream this way just once you will never go back to just whipping butter and icing sugar ever again.
"It was nearly what I envisaged and had practised when I presented it. I was happy with my efforts and even happier watching the raviole burst when Paul cut into it. Though it didn't quite blow the judges away, it was enough to see me through to Week 3. Well done to Clare for getting Star Baker. I can definitely agree with the judges on this one!
The Great Irish Bake Off airs on TV3 every Sunday at 9pm.
Bleeding Opera Coffin Cake
Ingredients
Jaconde sponge
4 whole eggs
150g icing sugar
150g ground almonds
60g plain flour
45g melted butter (unsalted)
4 egg whites
40g caster sugar
Butter cream
300g caster sugar
5 egg yolks
500g butter, softened
4 tbs coffee essence
Chocolate ganache
400g dark chocolate
300ml Double Cream
30g butter, at room temperature
30g dark chocolate, melted
Cocoa powder, to serve
Chocolate soil
200gr Caster Sugar
80gr Dark chocolate (Min 70% solids)
20ml Hazelnut oil
Blood layer
150gr Raspberries
1 tbsp sugar
5gr Sodium Alginate
2.5 gr Calcium Gluconolactate
Low Calcium ion Water/Distilled Water
Coffin Case:
200gr Dark Chocolate
Method:
1. For the jaconde, sift the dry ingredients together. Whisk the whole eggs to aerate and then fold in the dry ingredients, then the melted butter. Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks then add sugar a little at a time until all incorporated. Fold the egg white mixture into the whole egg mixture. Spread onto two sheets of parchment on a baking tray. Bake at 200C for 5-8 minutes or until light golden around the edges. Trim the edges while hot then set aside to cool.
2. For the butter cream, dampen sugar with a little water in a saucepan, place onto stove and bring to boil, brushing edges down with pastry brush dipped in water to prevent crystallisation. Bring the syrup to 121 degrees. Meanwhile whisk egg yolks until light and fluffy on high speed in an electric mixer. Once sugar has come up to temperature, add to yolks in a slow thin stream, whisking continuously until all has been added. Continue to beat on low speed until the mixture cools to room temperature. Once cool, gradually add butter and 2-3 heaped spoonfuls of coffee essence, beating until well combined.
3. For the ganache, break chocolate into a bowl, add butter and set aside. Bring cream to the boil then pour over chocolate mixture. Mix well until combined. Let cool to stiffen.
4. Reverse spherification for the blood: Blend raspberries with 2.5 g calcium and sugar. Prepare alginate bath with 5g sodium alginate and 500ml low calcium water. Spoon raspberry mix carefully into the bath and leave for two to three minutes. Take out of the bath using a slotted spoon and wash in bowl of cold water. Make 15/20 of these.
5. To assemble, cut each jaconde sponge in half. Brush 1 sheet of sponge with the melted chocolate and turn over onto piece of baking paper on a chopping board. Brush the sponge generously with coffee syrup, then apply a thin, even layer of butter cream. Place another jaconde sheet on top, pressing to secure. Brush with coffee syrup and place the raspberry ravioles onto the ganache and fill around them until covered in Ganache. Repeat the layers again and this time finish with a slightly thicker layer of chocolate ganache. Allow to set in fridge. Once set (about 20 mins should do it) cut into coffin shape.
6. Tempering chocolate for coffin: melt chocolate, bring two-thirds to 55 degrees and then add remaining third of the chocolate. Stir rapidly, reheat to 32 degrees. Pour onto acetate or cling film and spread to 3/4mm thickness. Allow to set then using a hot blade cut into sides and top door of coffin. Use remaining ganache to stick the sides to the cake.
7. Chocolate soil: Boiled wetted sugar to 130 degrees, remove from heat and add chocolate. Whisk and whisk and whisk until soil forms. This takes a good bit of arm power. Pour onto tray to cool.
8. Place soil around your coffin-shaped cake.
