Genoise Tea Cake
Genoise tea cake…this is yet another attempt to perfect my genoise cake-making ability. I don’t know. It was better than the genoise I made for the Princess Cake, but it didn’t rise perfectly. I think I need to move on from genoise. I can’t take this emotional roller coaster anymore. I even dreamt about genoise cake last night. How crazy is that?! So, I’m giving up for now. Besides, I’m craving pie anyway.
I did a few things differently this go around. First of all, I made this cake completely in the nude. Just kidding. I wanted to see if you were still reading this. I followed Shirliey O. Ocorriher’s advice from her book Bakewise and here’s what I did:
- Most genoise recipes call for whisking the sugar and eggs over a double boiler to bring it to a slightly warmer temperature. I took it a step further and used a candy thermometer to make sure that I reached 86 degrees F.
- I used 2 extra egg yolks for added stability.
- I baked the cake in a spring form pan.
- I folded in sifted flour first then I folded in the melted butter. Melted butter deflates genoise batter, so having the flour already folded in gives it extra stability.
There are two important components when making geonois. First, make sure your whipped eggs and sugar reach the ribbon stage. That is where the foam falls off of the whisk in ribbons and remains on top of the mixture for 10 seconds.
The second, and probably most important component when making genoise is to properly fold in the flour (and melted butter if you’re using). To fold, you gently scrape the bottom of the bowl in a vertical direction. Begin at 12 o’clock in bring it to 6 o’clock. Then you carefully lift up the batter you’ve pulled through and lay it on top of the the rest of the batter. Gently. Oh so gently. Now, turn the bowl 15 degrees and begin again.
Hey, this looks pretty good!
Once cooled, cut in half and fill it with whatever you’d like. I used a berry jam.
Sprinkle with powdered sugar, dollop on some whipped cream, make yourself a cup of coffee (or tea) and find a silent place in your house to enjoy this afternoon cake.
yum
