I’ve had a bad habit lately of making poor conversions of cups to grams when it comes to baking. This is typically a minor error, actually, almost invariably looking up how much one cup of something is supposed to weigh and then dividing it in half when what I really intended to do was find out how much a quarter cup of something weighed. The results are mostly unnoticeable, but in the case, it definitely leads to a drier cake.
I’d come up with this idea to make a light and citrusy birthday cake and, in principle, it should actually turn out quite nicely. In practice, it was kind of a mess and I didn’t particularly enjoy it, but I’m still sharing it anyway because I think the cake is ridiculously funny in its Gaudi 1950′s housewife cookbook kind of way and because it’s still fundamentally a good cake.
The cake itself is a Génoise base, which I think is a lot of fun to play with. It’s essentially a fat-free cake leavened entirely with eggs whipped to a high volume over a bain-marie. The base is extremely versatile, used from everything from sheet cakes rolled up to make Yule Logs to piped out ladyfingers to make tiramisu. The cake by itself tends to be fairly dry though, which is why it is typically punched with some sort of flavored syrup, which I think is a great technique for adding both pizazz and moisture to cakes. Unfortunately, I didn’t make enough syrup, so I doubled the quantity for the recipe.
So here you have it — what should for all intents and purposes be a decent cake, which took a turn for the worse by my various foibles and was eventually such a disappointment that kids, moments earlier chanting, “Le gâteau! Le gâteau!!!” left their plates more or less untouched. Admire its sunken, uneven layers (they were cut to exact thickness but the bottom layers did not receive such a liberal syrup treatment and did not compress) and its ridiculous garnishes.
Citrus and Apricot Génoise Cake
Lemon Syrup
- 2 lemons, zested and segmented
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 cup of water
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Orange Syrup
- 2 oranges, zested and segmented
- 1 cup fresh orange juice
- 6 tablespoons sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cake x 2
- 3 eggs plus 3 yolks
- 3/4 cup (150g) sugar
- pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup (60g) cake or all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup (30g) cornstarch
- 375ml jar Apricot jam
Sour Cream Glaze
- 1/4 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- zest and juice of 1 lemon
- 3 cups icing sugar
Directions:
To make the syrups, place the zest, flesh, juice (and water), sugar, and vanilla extract into small, separate saucepans and bring to a boil. Continue to cook for a few minutes, then set aside to cool completely.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees with the rack positioned in the middle. Line the bottom of a 9″ springform pan with parchment and butter the paper and the sides of the pan.
To make the cake, bring a small pot 1/4 filled with water to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Combine the eggs, sugar and a pinch of salt in a non-reactive, heat resistant bowl and place over the pot, making sure that the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. Using an electric mixer, whisk until the mixture is warm (check with your finger) and has increased in volume.
Remove the bowl from the heat and continue whisking until the bowl is cool to the touch and the mixture has tripled in volume and become pale and light.
Sift together the flour and cornstarch, then fold 1/3 of the dry ingredients into the batter, making sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl and thoroughly mix. Immediately transfer to the cake pan and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown, firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Once it has finished baking, immediately run a knife along the edge of the pan, remove the ring and transfer the cake to a cooling rack to cool completely. This recipe is for one cake and I used two, though I only have one springform pan. The recipe will double fine if you have two pans, and is otherwise equally suited to a sheet pan, just reduce the baking time appropriately.
To assemble the cake, once the cakes have cooled, carefully slice each of them in half with a large serrated knife. Remove the parchment paper and choose the half with the smoothest bottom. This surface will be the top of the cake, the other flat piece will be the bottom. Using a brush, distribute the lemon into both halves of one of the cakes and the orange syrup into the other. Arrange the bottom on a flat plate (to prevent sinking in the middle) and spread 1/3 of the apricot jam on top. Add an alternate flavor of cake on top, and spread another 1/3 of the apricot jam. Repeat with the remaining layers of cake and jam and finish with the smooth top.
To make the glaze, whip together the butter, sour cream, vanilla and lemon, then gradually whip in all of the icing sugar until you have a stiff glaze. Using an offset spatula, distribute the glaze over the outside of the cake to coat.
I don’t know why you’d want to completely emulate this monstrosity, but you can use this recipe with orange food coloring and orange zest and pipe with a small rosette tip to make the meringues. To make the candied blood orange slices, thinly slice a blood orange with a mandolin, place in a small saucepan covered with sugar and bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook until the sugar just starts to caramelize, then quickly transfer the slices to a piece of parchment paper to cool.
