RHC: Génoise Rose

It will be a short write-up this week, for a pretty straightforward cake. Oh, how far I've come when I feel like saying "it's a simple génoise", and mean it. No agonizing (well, not much) over the browned butter. Not so worried about when the egg and sugar mixture is lukewarm, and then whether it has been beaten to sufficient heights. Folding in the flour/cornstarch went (ahem) smoothly, as did the addition of the browned butter, vanilla, and egg mixture. Then it was into the rose bundt pan, and into the oven.

The biggest trouble I had this week was dealing with the cake just out of the oven. Mine domed pretty significantly in the middle, which created a rather precarious situation when putting the greased cooling rack in place then inverting the whole assembly to turn out the cake. The outside of my rose bundt pan is non-stick, too, so.... Well, let's just say the cake came out rather quickly. And forcefully. No more dome--it was squashed into the grid of my cooling rack, I think. (OK, maybe it was just the expected collapse of the delicate cake...maybe.) I lost a few edge bits, and also had some sticking of the golden crust in the pan despite my spraying with baker's spray. Must make a note to use the spray more heavily next time I use this pan. I brushed the cooled cake with a syrup made with Grand Marnier, then left it to sit overnight before taking the whole cake to my office today. (The folks next door are on vacation, and my weekend was rather full so the cake-baking didn't start until Sunday afternoon.)


Though I'm much more confident in my génoise skills, I haven't learned to like the cake itself any better. The texture was wonderfully light, it had a nice flavor even though the syrup did not penetrate as well as I thought it would, but I remain more attracted to the basic butter cake with its rich mouth-feel. Co-worker B. loved it, however, and snagged a second piece. C. was more in my camp--the flavor was nice, but she didn't love the cake. V. wished for strawberries and whipped cream to accompany it, and we all thought that sounded good. (Though I will choses a biscuit based for strawberry shortcake, not the sponge cake type. I'm consistent, anyway!) My supervisor C. just said "not really my sort of cake". The rest was left anonymously in the break room, and had mostly disappeared by the end of the day despite the number of people who are on vacation this time of year.