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
- Nonstick Cooking Spray
- 6 Large Eggs, in the shells
- 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon (110 g) Sugar, divided
- 3/4 cup (85 g) Cake Flour
- 3 TBS. (22 g) Cornstarch
- 1/8 tsp. (a pinch) Salt
- 1 tsp. (5 ml.) Pure Vanilla Extract
- 2 to 4 TBS (28 g to 56 g) melted, browned butter
- 1/2 cup Water
- 1/2 cup (105 g) Sugar
- 3 TBS Rum
- Jam
- Powdered Sugar and Whipped Cream to serve
- Arrange a shelf in the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Spray a 10-inch spring form pan and line the bottom with sprayed parchment paper. Set aside.
- Place the eggs in a bowl and cover by several inches with very hot tap water. While you are gathering the rest of the ingredients, hold the eggs, drain the water, and cover again with hot tap water.
- In a medium bowl, beat together well 1 tablespoon (11 g) of the sugar, the flour, cornstarch, and salt. Set aside until needed.
- Separate 2 eggs, reserving the yolks.
- In a large saucepan, bring about 2 inches of water to a boil. Rinse a mixer bowl with tap water as hot as possible to warm, then dry well. Whisk 4 whole eggs, 2 egg yolks, and the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar together in the warm bowl. Check the temperature of the mixture. You want to get the mixture between 86 and 90 degrees F. This is not warm, but feels almost neutral- just barely cool to touch. You may not need any further heating. Whisk constantly.
- Place the bowl of warm egg mixture on the mixer with the whisk attachment. Beat on high speed for 2 minutes only. Turn the speed down to medium or just below medium and beat for 10 minutes, until the foam is completely cool, thick, and shiny.
- Sift part of the flour mixture on top. Very carefully fold once only by dipping a large spatula into the foam at the 12 o'clock position, dragging it across the bottom. At the 6 o'clock position, lift up some foam and spread it across the top. Sift more of the flour mixture and fold again. Try to incorporate all the flour in about three to five batches and fold carefully to blend.
- Place the browned butter into a mixing bowl and stir in the vanilla extract. Spoon in 1 cup of the batter and fold together. When this is well blended, fold this mixture into the main batter.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the center springs back slightly when touched. Immediately after removing the cake, run a thin knife or a thin spatula around the edge between the cake and the pan so that the cake can settle as it cools.
- Allow the cake to cool 3 to 5 minutes in the pan, then invert the cake onto the rack, remove the pan, peel off the parchment, and reinvert the cake onto another rack.
- When the cake is completely cool, place in the freezer for about 20 minutes. Slice the cake horizontally into 2 layers. Slip a large spatula under the top layer and invert it on a cake plate.
- Brush on 4 tablespoons of the genoise sugar syrup, then spread on a generous amount of berry jam..
- Invert the remaining layer onto the jam. Sift powdered sugar on top. Slice up and serve with whipped cream.
- In a saucepan, bring sugar and water to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in 3 tablespoons of rum (or any liqueur you'd like). Set aside to cool.
- 10-inch spring form pan
- parchment paper
- thermometer
- electric mixer
- double boiler, or saucepan and heat proof bowl
