Genoise (sponge cake)

(Date: 9 January 2013. The 5th recipe in 2013)

This is a belated birthday cake for my husband. My first attempt to make a Genoise sponge cake with cream frosting as I made several mistakes - cutting the cake too early, whipping the double cream too much, not leaving it long enough in fridge before serving. But I think the genoise recipe itself is terrific. It makes the English Victorian Sponge look as heavy as a stone. It's not difficult neither. I'll certainly make it again. That's why I finally decided to write this post for my future reference even I wasn't entirely happy with what I did.

The recipe was inspired from a Chinese book called "法國藍帶的基礎糕點課". Yet I found it a bit too dry to my taste probably due to its lack of butter. Then I've read a few pastry books and websites and found out most other genoise recipes got butter in it.  Therefore I've try to modify the recipe by adding the butter content calculated by taking average from a few others.

What I used

For the Genoise (one 8" round cake)

4 eggs (UK large)

120g castor sugar

120g cake flour (I used T45)

40g butter

1/2t vanilla or lemon extract can be added (though I didn't)

For the filling & frosting

1 pint of double cream

a punnet of strawberries (about 400g)

limoncello (I used about 4 Tbsp)

apricot jam (I used about 1 Tbsp)

castor sugar to taste (I used about 2 Tbsp)

What I did

Melt the butter (either in a small sauce or in a small bowl over hot water). / Place a large heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Whisk together the eggs and sugar constantly until the mixture is lukewarm to the touch (this will take about 5 minutes). / Remove from heat and continue to beat on high speed until the egg mixture has tripled in volume and looks like softly whipped cream. The batter will fall back into the bowl in a ribbon-like pattern. / Beat in the extract (if used). Then sift about one-third of the flour over the whipped eggs and gently fold in using a large rubber spatula or whisk. / Fold in half of the remaining flour, and then fold in the rest. (Do not over mix or the batter will deflate). / Take about a quarter of the batter and mix it into the hot butter mixture. (This lightens the butter mixture.) / Then gently fold the butter mixture into the egg batter. / Pour into the prepared pan (buttered or lined with parchment paper), smoothing the top. / Bake at 170C until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean (about 25-30 minutes). / Cool on a metal rack, with a slightly damp cloth or kitchen paper covering it. / When the cake has cooled completely, run a small knife around the edges to release the cake. / Divide the cake into two halves by slicing a bread knife through in the middle (or use dental floss) / Gently brush some sugared liqueur on the cut side of the two halves (I used my homemade limoncello which is a vodka infused by lemon zest sweetened by sugary water). / Whip the double cream with castor sugar. Taste while you whip. / Brush a layer of cream on one of cake layer, followed by halved strawberries and then another layer of cream. Top it up with another cake layer. Then brush the rest of the cream around the cake as frosting. / Decorate the top of the cake with halved strawberries. Make glazing by melting apricot jam in some hot water. Brush it over the strawberries. Keep the cake in fridge for at least 1 hour before serving.

What I felt

My parents and hubby quite liked it. The genoise sponge had a very very light texture despite its lack of chemical leavening agents. I think I'll never eat or make Victoria Sponge or other type of sponge cakes leavened by baking powder again. They also liked the cake because I only used minimal amount of sugar in whipping the cream so it's not very sweet compared with the store-bought ones. However it didn't look great. I really need to practice more in frosting a cake (It's my first attempt at frosting a cake except piping faux butter cream on cupcakes). I think I had over-whipped the cream too. It became a bit too stiff to spread over the cake. I also removed the cake from pan too early without letting it cool completely. So it tended to crumble when I slice it.

How good was it? 7/10, the sponge was 11/10, but my cake decorating technique got 3/10.

How easy was it? 7/10. It needs some knowledge in folding in flour without deflating the air trapped by the egg mixture. But that's all. It's a lot easier than whipping egg whites as you don't have to decide if the egg whites have been whisked enough or too much (which I still find daunting sometimes).

How economical was it? 8/10. I'd say it's quite economical but it depends on the quality of the strawberries (or other fruits) to be used. And you need to buy a bottle of liqueur too (if you don't have any already).

Will I make this again? Yes. Certainly. But I'll probably try to halve the recipe to make a smaller 5-inch cake. Or may even challenge myself by using a thin flat pan to make a swiss roll.