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This elaborately decorated, rolled, and filled sponge cake is frosted with chocolate buttercream made to look like a tree bark. Some of the decorations might include marzipan sticks, sugar cobwebs, and meringue mushrooms. The origins of the cake can be traced back to the old Celtic tradition of celebrating the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year.
The Celts would burn a log as an offering to the Sun for returning to Earth. As the tradition disappeared with the arrival of home stoves, the huge log was replaced by a small branch that was traditionally set in the middle of the dining table, surrounded by delicacies and sweets that were given to guests as treats.
MOST ICONIC Bûche de Noël
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In its original form, gâteau opera combines coffee-flavored buttercream, chocolate ganache, and layers of biscuit Joconde—a light almond sponge that is infused with coffee syrup or Grand Marnier liqueur. Each cake is topped with a thin layer of chocolate ganache and is usually decorated with a symbol of a note, musical instruments, or merely the word opera written in chocolate.
Although there are many conflicting stories of its origin, it is believed that the cake was invented at the Parisian patisserie Dalloyau by a pastry chef named Cyrique Gavillon. At the time, this sophisticated dessert was considered a novelty, compared to the lavishly decorated classics that were popular at the time.
Gâteau moka is a classic French cake. It consists of two layers genoise sponges that are soaked with coffee syrup. The layers and the whole cake are then coated in a coffee-flavored buttercream. The sides of the cake are usually garnished with chopped almonds or almond flakes, while the top is decorated with piped buttercream and chocolate-covered coffee beans.
Moka cake was invented in 1857 by a Parisian pastry chef Guignard, and it was probably named after Mocha, a port city on the Red Sea coast of Yemen that was once a center of the coffee trade.
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