GENoise – Basic Sponge Cake Recipe

Genoise Cake or Genoese cake or Genovese cake is an Italian basic sponge cake named after the city of Genoa and associated with italian and french cuisine. This  Basic Sponge cake is rich, delicate cake forms the basis for many filled, frosted, and glazed cakes.

In a Genoise cake, instead of using chemical leaving, air is suspended in the batter through mixing to give volume to the cake. Genoise cake, this basic sponge cake calls for no butter or very little amount of melted butter and hence this cake is perfect to be refrigerated as well and it doesn’t harden when refrigerated.

A simple cake is always hard to make. Getting the perfect texture is harder. Every time this Genoise cake, basic sponge cake comes out perfectly my heart can’t stop dancing. Today i am sharing a fool proof recipe for Genoise cake and how i have used it to make a layered cake for Valentines Day.  I also made Rose cake using the same recipe as the base. Do try it out too.

 

 

Ingredients

To make a two layered 8″cake you will need

6 no – Eggs , Room temperature

60 ml – Milk

80 gms – Unsalted Butter

180 gms – Granulated sugar

180 gms – All purpose flour

2 tbsp – Water, room temperature

1 tsp of – Vanilla Extract

 

Method

Grease and line an 8″ pan with parchment paper.

Sieve flour for 5 times atleast. This process helps incorporate air into the flour, which in turn helps make the cake light and airy.

In a saucepan melt the butter with milk.

Pre heat the oven to 170ºC.

Take water in a wide mouthed vessel and boil the water.

Take eggs and sugar in a glass bowl. Place this bowl on the vessel with boiling water.

Make sure the water does not touch the bottom of the glass bowl. 

Using a electric beater, beat the eggs till the sugar dissolves and the egg mixture is warm to touch. Around 60ºC. This process keeping a pan of hot water in which a cooking container is placed for slow cooking is called Bain Marie .

Now take the glass bowl away from heat and start beating it for further 5 minutes on high speed. I whisk it using KitchenAid Stand Mixer on speed 6.

In the meantime place the saucepan with butter in the Bain Marie water to keep it warm.

You will see that the egg quantity has doubled. Now turn the speed to low (speed 2 on stand mixer) and whisk for further 3 minutes.

Add 2 tbsp of water and vanilla extract and give it a quick whisk. Adding water helps mix the flour evenly.

Now add flour to the egg mixture and using a metal spoon fold it. Make sure you mix it well from the bottom.

Fold it 25 times to be precise.

Now add the melted butter and milk mixture and fold it for 15 times making sure it is mixed well.

Pour the batter into the pan. Now drop the pan on the platform from 1/2 ft hight. Yes, you heard me right.  Drop  it for a couple of times. This will make sure there are not air bubbles trapped in the batter. 

Bake the cake for 25 to 30 minutes in the pre heated oven or till the top is nice and gold and the skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Take it out and let the cake sit in the pan for 5 minutes. 

Take the cake out and let it cool completely on a cooling rack.

Once cooled you can slice it or wrap it in an aluminium foil and leave it out for a day or two or refrigerate. When sliced the texture should be like a sponge and the cake should be soft and delicate. OH !! just as is, the cake is perfect to have. It just melts in the mouth.

Now that i have given you the recipe, i will just briefly explain how you could make a layered cake. 

 

For layering Ingredients

2 slices of – 8″ genoise cake (preferable the flavour that you would like the cake to be. I have used Mango extract instead of Vanilla)

6 Tbsp – Granulated sugar

1 tsp – Vanilla extract

1/2 ltr – Whipping Cream

2 drops of gel food colour

1/2 cup – Icing Sugar

 

Method

To make the soaking syrup, boil the granulated sugar and vanilla extract along with 1/2 cup of water.

Whip the whipping cream along with icing sugar till stiff peaks form. 

Place one slice on a cake stand and using a brush soak the cake with sugar syrup well. let the cake soak it well. Repeat the process once more. Let the cake soak the syrup again well.

Spoon some whipped cream on the slice and spread it evenly using a spatula.

Place the second slice on top. Soak this slice with sugar syrup again like the first one. 

Now spoon the whipping cream on top and start spreading it evenly on top. once the top is covered well, cover the sides with the cream. 

Place in the refrigerator for half an hour. This will help the cream set a little which will make it easier to handle and finish it well.

Finish the icing the way you like. I am not an expert in sharp edges nor do i like it. I like keeping it casual and hence i do not put in too much effort finishing it neatly 🙂

Hope this has been a useful post. Do write in to tell me how you liked it.