/ck/ - Food & Cooking

Right, I've decided that my next purchase will be a half-tray square ring mold, ir order to make layered cakes like Opéra, Tiramisu, Misérable cake, and the like.
My main objective is to develop a Mexican-coffee-inspired version of the French Opéra cake.
My current classical recipe includes
>Basic Biscuit Joconde
>Opéra ganache (>>14765599)
>Pâte a Bombe-based coffee buttercream (>>14765599)
>Coffee and Cointreau syrup
So this I must somehow add the flavor of Mexican coffee and chocolate, which means a bunch of spices (mainly cinnamon, #1 importer 'till this day), more orange and piloncillo as a sweetener.
My current recipe uses very concentrated coffee made with instant coffee, I would like to change this with espresso made with Mexican coffee, then infuse spices into it. The main issue is that even an expresso is not nearly as concentrated as the liquid I use, and adding too much liquid can screw-up the cream
I can add orange zest to the ganache, which I have already tried, I just need to find the right amount
The biggest problem is the piloncillo (a solid sugar you get right before molases). I have received high praises for my Opéra because it is not too sweet, but it is not like I can just replace the sugar from the joconde (used o whip the eggwhites) or the sugar used for the pâte a bombe. Maybe I can introduce it in the syrup, but I only use very little.