Génoise cake

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A Génoise Cake is a sponge cake named after the city of Genoa and closely associated with French cuisine that does not use any chemical leavening and instead uses air suspended in the batter during mixing to give volume to the cake. It is a whole-egg cake, unlike some other sponge cakes that beat their yolks and whites of the eggs separately; the eggs, and sometimes extra yolks, are beaten with sugar and heated at the same time using "bain marie" or flame, to a stage known to patissiers as the "ribbon". Génoise is not the same thing as pain de Gênes, which is an almond cake of possible Jewish origins; however, Génoise is very close in composition and basic use to pan di Spagna ("Spanish bread"), an Italian sponge cake known to have Sephardic Jewish origins. Génoise is generally a fairly lean cake, getting most of its fat from egg yolks, but some recipes also add in melted butter before baking.

Génoise is a basic building block of much French patisserie and is used for making several different types of cake, from simple layer cakes to rolled cakes (such as jelly rolls or Bûches de Noël) to ladyfingers to other uses. While eggs, flour and sugar are constants, there is some division over whether to permit melted butter as part of the recipe; some recipes require it, some do not. A chocolate génoise can be made by substituting cocoa powder for some of the flour, and is sometimes used as a substitute for the richer cake used in the standard Sachertorte recipe. When the cake is finished baking it can be sliced into two or three layers and filled with chocolate, fruit, pastry cream, or whipped cream.

The cake is notable for its somewhat dry texture, noticeably different from most cakes made in the Anglophone world; as a result, it is very commonly soaked in flavored syrups or liqueurs and often served with a buttercream frosting.

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[edit] References

  • Child, Julia, Julia's Kitchen Wisdom. New York, Knopf, 2000, ISBN 0375411518.
  • Child, Julia and Simone Beck, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, volume 2. New York, Knopf, 1970.
  • Editors of Cook's Illustrated, Baking Illustrated. Brookline, MA, America's Test Kitchen, 2004, ISBN 0936184752.
  • Editors of Domus magazine, The Silver Spoon (US English translation). New York/London, Phaidon Press, 2005, ISBN 0714845310.
  • Roden, Claudia, The Book of Jewish Food. New York, Knopf, 1997, ISBN 0394532589
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