Vanilla Genoise Recipes

VANILLA GENOISE, VANILLA SPONGE CAKE

Steps:

• Line the bottom of two 8" cake pans with a parchment round, or butter and flour the pan. Preheat the oven to 350°F (don't use the convection setting).
• Melt the butter in a small saucepan, cook until the milk solids sink to the bottom of the pan and become brown. Drain the butter into a medium bowl, leaving the milk solids in the pan. Stir the vanilla into the browned butter and set aside.
• Put the eggs, sugar and salt in a mixer bowl. Set the bowl over a pan of simmering water (don't let the bowl touch the water) and whisk until the eggs are slightly warmer than body temperature. Put the bowl onto the mixer and whisk until the eggs are tripled in volume.
• Sift half the flour over the egg mixture and use a balloon whisk to fold, repeat with the remaining flour. Whisk 1 cup of the batter into the browned butter to lighten the butter, then whisk in another cup of batter.
• Fold the butter mixture into the batter just until combined. Don't over mix or you'll loose some volume in the cake. Divide the batter evenly between the pans.
• Bake until the cake springs back when pressed in the center, about 30 minutes. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack.
• Cool completely before filling and frosting.
• Trim the top of the cake to level, if desired, split each cake into two layers.
• Brush the layers generously with syrup before filling & icing.

YELLOW GENOISE CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 12-by-18-inch standard jelly-roll pan, line with parchment paper, butter and flour the paper, and set aside.
• Set the metal bowl of an electric mixer over, but not in, a pot of simmering water. Combine sugar and eggs in the bowl, and whisk until mixture is warm to the touch, about 2 minutes.
• Transfer the bowl to an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, and beat on high speed until mixture is very thick and pale, 6 to 8 minutes. With a rubber spatula, gently transfer mixture to a large clean mixing bowl. Sift in flour in three additions, folding gently after each. In a small bowl, combine butter and vanilla, then add in a steady stream as you fold in the third addition of flour. Fold gently, and pour out onto prepared pan. Smooth top with offset spatula.
• Bake until cake is springy to the touch and golden brown, 18 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven, and let cool on a wire rack. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 1 month. When ready to use, turn out cake onto a cutting board covered with a clean piece of parchment or wax paper, and peel the paper off the cake.

GENOISE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease one 8 inch round cake pan. Line with parchment paper and grease it as well. Lightly flour pan and paper.
• Sift together the flour, 2 tablespoons sugar, and salt onto a piece of wax paper.
• Place the eggs into a mixing bowl set over a pan of hot (not boiling) water. Add the 1/2 cup sugar to the eggs and whisk until the mixture feels warm (not hot) to the touch, about body temperature. Place the bowl onto a mixer and beat on medium speed until the mixture becomes pale yellow in color and falls off the end of the whisk attachment in long ribbons. Add the vanilla. Add about 1/3 of the flour mixture to the beaten egg and fold in. Continue to add the remainder of the flour, folding it in each time.
• Place about 1 cup of the batter into the bowl containing the melted butter and combine the butter with the batter. Add this back to the main batter and fold it in. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
• Immediately bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for about 25 minutes or until the top is a light brown. Cool in pan on a rack about 10 minutes and then invert onto a rack. It is best to invert it again onto another rack so that it cools with the top up. Let cool completely before cutting or frosting.

GéNOISE SPONGE WITH BLUEBERRY COMPôTE AND VANILLA CREAM

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Grease and line two 22cm/9in round cake tins.
• For the génoise sponge, place the sugar and eggs into a large bowl and whisk with an electric whisk until thick and pale.
• Gently fold in the flour and melted butter until smooth. Divide between the prepared cake tins.
• Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until the cakes are risen and springy to the touch. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool. When cool enough to handle, turn out on to a wire rack to cool completely.
• To make the blueberry compôte and vanilla cream, place the blueberries, sugar and four tablespoons of water into a small saucepan. Place over a medium heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool and thicken.
• Place the cream into a large bowl and add the vanilla seeds. Whip with a whisk until thick.
• To serve, spread the cooled compôte over the top of one cake and top with the whipped cream. Place the other cake on top and dust with icing sugar.

GENOISE CAKE RECIPE (VANILLA SPONGE CAKE RECIPE)

Steps:

• Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line a 9x13 inch baking dish with parchment paper, and set aside. (see note 1 on making different sized sponge cakes)
• Sift your flour, salt, and baking powder into a medium sized bowl, and set aside.
• In a large bowl, combine your eggs and sugar. Using an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the eggs and sugar for 10 to 15 minutes, or until about tripled in volume, thick, and a pale yellow color. You should be able to draw a figure 8 with the batter and it should remain on the surface of the batter for about 2 seconds before sinking back down. It will take a bit longer to whip the eggs if using a handheld mixer (versus a stand mixer).
• Add your flour mixture to the whipped eggs. Carefully fold the dry ingredients into the egg mix until incorporated. Take care not to over mix! It's okay if you see a few streaks of flour in the batter because we're going to give it another mix in a second.
• In a medium bowl, combine your melted butter, vanilla extract, and add about 1/2 a cup of the cake batter. Mix to combine. (This is to make sure the butter incorporates into the rest of the batter easily without sinking to the bottom of the bowl!)
• Pour your butter mixture into the rest of the batter. Fold everything together until it's all combined, and you no longer see any streaks of flour or butter. It's going to deflate a bit, which is normal! But keep an eye out to make sure the batter doesn't deflate too much.
• Pour your cake into your prepared baking dish. Place in the center of your preheated 350°F oven, and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool the cake for about 10 to 15 minutes in the pan, then flip onto a wire rack to cool completely.

4-INGREDIENT SPONGE CAKE (VIDEO RECIPE)

Steps:

• Preheat Oven to 350˚F. Line bottoms of two 9″ cake pans with parchment paper (do not grease the sides).
• In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment (this is the one I have), beat 6 large eggs for 1 minute on high speed. With the mixer on, gradually add 1 cup sugar and continue beating 8-10 minutes until thick and fluffy.
• Whisk together 1 cup flour and 1/2 tsp baking powder then sift this mixture into fluffy egg mixture one third at a time. Fold with a spatula with each addition just until incorporated. Scrape spatula from the bottom to catch any pockets of flour and stop mixing when no streaks of flour remain. Do not over-mix or you will deflate the batter.
• Divide evenly between prepared cake pans (it helps if you have a kitchen scale to weight the pans). Bake at 350˚F for 23-28 minutes (my oven took 25 min), or until top is golden brown. Remove from pan by sliding a thin spatula (here's the one I love for cakes) around the edges then transfer to a wire rack and remove parchment backing. Cool cakes to room temperature then slice layers equally in half with a serrated knife.

VANILLA GENOISE CAKE

Steps:

• Oven to 350 degrees F.
• Line the bottom of One 8 or 9 inch round cake pan OR 8-inch square pan, OR 11x17 sheet pan with parchment, and spray lightly with some sort of spray release (like Pam).
• Combine the butter and vanilla in a small bowl.
• Set aside somewhere warm (you want the butter to stay melted).
• Combine the flour with 3 tbl.
• of the sugar and sift again.
• Set aside.
• In the bowl of your mixer, combine the eggs and rest of the sugar.
• Place the mixing bowl in a large pan of hot (not boiling, very hot tap water is good) water, and mix with your VERY CLEAN hand (kids love this part) until the eggs feel warm to the touch (body temp)*.
• Return the bowl to the mixer and whip on high speed until cool, light and at the ribbon stage (when you lift the beaters, ribbons of batter fall back into the bowl and don't disappear very quickly).
• Now, everyone says to use a rubber spatula, but I find it much easier to use my hand to do this next part**.
• Sprinkle about 1/3 of the flour onto the eggs and quickly and gently fold into the batter.
• Fold in half the remaining, then the rest.
• Take about a handful of the batter and mix into the small bowl of butter and vanilla until well combined.
• Gently fold that back into the batter.
• Divide between the pans and bake as follows: for an 8" square, 20-25 min.
• ;an 8" round, 25-30 minutes; a 9" round, 20-25 minutes; and an 11x17 sheet pan, 15-20 minutes.
• The cakes should JUST BEGIN to shrink away from the side of the pans, and should spring back when you lightly touch them in the center.
• Remove from oven, let cool about 10 minutes in the pan then turn out onto a flat surface and let cool completely before peeling off the parchment.
• Set aside until ready to use.
• DO NOT OVERBAKE.
• This cake is best if allowed to sit a day before using in trifles.
• NOTE 1: Genoise is supposed to be a dry cake.
• It was made specifically to take moist toppings so it could soak them up.
• *NOTE2: I learned to use my hand when warming yolks in culinary school.
• The idea is that as soon as it feels warm on your hand, it is at the perfect temperature to whip to ribbon stage.
• **NOTE3: I learned to fold flour into delicate batters like this with my VERY CLEAN hand in culinary school also.
• At first I thought it was stupid, but I quickly saw it was the best way to be able to tell if all of your flour is mixed in and avoid any un-incorporated flour bits.
• I mix angelfood cakes this way, too.
• Children love to do this!

VANILLA GENOISE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• In a bowl of an electric mixer, combine the egg yolks, 1 cup of the sugar, salt, and vanilla. Using the whisk attachment on high speed whip until thick, 3 to 5 minutes. Reduce to medium speed and slowly add the hot water. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Increase to high speed and again whip until thick. Fold in the flour and then the melted butter. Set aside.
• In a clean bowl of an electric mixer using the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites on medium speed until frothy. Increase to high speed and slowly add the remaining 1/2 cup sugar. Whip the egg whites until stiff and then fold them into the reserved batter. Gently spread the batter in the prepared baking tray. Bake until the cake is golden brown and springs back lightly when touched, about 20 to 25 minutes. Cool the cake in the pan. Remove the cake from the pan by running a knife along the inside edge of the pan and inverting it onto a work surface. Carefully peel off the parchment paper.
• The genoise can be made a day or two in advance. Store wrapped in plastic wrap at room temperature. It also freezes well.

VANILLA GENOISE

Steps:

• Equipment: 11 x 17 x 1-inch baking tray, the bottom lined with parchment paper
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• In a bowl of an electric mixer, combine the egg yolks, 1 cup of the sugar, salt, and vanilla. Using the whisk attachment on high speed whip until thick, 3 to 5 minutes. Reduce to medium speed and slowly add the hot water. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Increase to high speed and again whip until thick. Fold in the flour and then the melted butter. Set aside.
• In a clean bowl of an electric mixer using the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites on medium speed until frothy. Increase to high speed and slowly add the remaining 1/2 cup sugar. Whip the egg whites until stiff and then fold them into the reserved batter. Gently spread the batter in the prepared baking tray. Bake until the cake is golden brown and springs back lightly when touched, about 20 to 25 minutes. Cool the cake in the pan. Remove the cake from the pan by running a knife along the inside edge of the pan and inverting it onto a work surface. Carefully peel off the parchment paper.
• The genoise can be made a day or two in advance. Store wrapped in plastic wrap at room temperature. It also freezes well.

JULIA CHILD'S GENOISE CAKE

Steps:

• Brown butter in a saucepan, remove from heat to cool. Preheat oven to 325. Prepare 8x 2 pan--square or round. Butter, place parchment in bottom, butter the parchment. Whisk four eggs with sugar and vanilla over hot water until the mixture is warm to your finger. (The water in the bottom of the double boiler should not be boiling.) The mixture should be warm and foamy, not thick. Then place bowl beneath a stand mixer; mix 5-6 minutes until the mixture makes the ribbon. Next, alternately add the sifted flour and tepid butter to the batter, constantly and gently folding, taking care not to deflate the batter. Do not add the residual leavings of butter. Pour batter into the prepared pan, smooth with a spatula, and bake at 325 for 35-45 minutes. Cake is done when it rises and doubles, and springs back when you touch it. Cool 10 minutes, remove pan. When completely cool, cover. Can be frozen.