The next recipe is my son, Noah’s, favorite birthday cake. He’s been eating it since he was six years old.
Genoise
- 6 large eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup sifted flour
- ½ cup sweet butter melted and clarified
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and lightly flour two nine -inch layer cakes pans
Put eggs and sugar in a large bowl. Stir until they are combined. Set bowl over a saucepan containing one to two inches of hot water. Water in the saucepan should not touch the bowl, nor should it be allowed to boil. Place saucepan over heat for five to ten minutes or until eggs are lukewarm. Stir four or five times to prevent them from cooking at the bottom of the bowl.
When eggs feel lukewarm to your finger and look like a bright yellow syrup, remove bowl from heat. Begin to beat, preferably with an electric mixture. Beat at high speed for ten to fifteen minutes, scrapping sides of bowl with a rubber spatula when necessary until mixture becomes light and fluffy and has increased in volume to almost three times its bulk. The mixture will look like whipped cream.
Sprinkle a little flour at a time on top of egg mixture and fold in with a rubber spatula. Use a gentle motion. Then add the butter and the vanilla using the same technique. Be careful not to over mix.
Pour batter into pans and place in oven. Bake for 25 minutes or until tops spring back when touched. Cool on racks.
Rinse and hull two pints of strawberries. Put ten large ones aside for the top of the cake. Take the others, slice, and put in a bowl. Add powdered sugar according to taste – probably one or two tablespoons and about a tablespoon of lemon juice. Allow to macerate.
Whip two pints of heavy cream. When whipped, add three tablespoons of powdered sugar (or more if desired) and one teaspoon of vanilla.
Remove first cake layer from pan and put on serving plate. Thinly spread two teaspoons of melted strawberry jam on cake or sprinkle two tablespoons of Grand Marnier on the cake layer or do the same with the juice that has accumulated at the bottom of the bowl the strawberries are in. Spread a thick layer of whipped cream on the cake and put the strawberries over that. Then add the top layer. Frost with the rest of the whipped cream. Take the reserve strawberries, dehull, glaze them with melted strawberry jam, and arrange on the top of the cake. Take handfuls of finely chopped pistachios and use them to decorate the sides of the cake. Serve and enjoy.
