Lemon Curd Genoise Part I

Trying my hand at making and assembling a layer cake. For the base, I decided to go with a genoise, which is the perfect embodiment of spring. It's light, delicate, with a touch of sweetness. A French sponge cake with added fat/butter/oil (as opposed to an American angel food cake).

Most recipes call for clarified butter (heat butter to form a beurre noisette, then use a coffee filter or cheesecloth to get clarified butter), but I elected an easier alternative, almond/hazelnut oil. The effect is the same, providing the cake with moisture and a distinct flavor.

It took me three tries to make a successful genoise; the first trial was completely experimental, where I gleaned several important observations. The second trial was semi-successful, but I wasn't very happy with the recipe- too spongy. The third trial was made with Rose Levy Beranbaum's recipe from her "Cake Bible", and this recipe was the most succesful. I should warn you that if you have a cholesterol problem, you should not attempt her recipe.

Genoise

- 12 yolks separated
- ~1/2 cup almond/hazelnut oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 175 g sugar (~190 g sugar to 1 cup)
- 100 g flour (~120 g flour to 1 cup)
- 3 Tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tsp salt

**I made a few adjustments: used slightly less flour, and substituted wheat starch for cornstarch. Used about 0.5-0.66 cups flour and 3 Tbsp cornstarch.

1. Whisk the yolks and sugar together.
2. Whisk over simmering water bath for up to 3 minutes; temperature should not exceed 120 degrees F. You don't want the egg mixture to curdle, but heat just long enough until the mixture turns a pale yellow and ever-so-slightly thickens. Whisk until sugar is dissolved.
3. Remove from heat, and transfer immediately to stand mixer.
4. Beat on HIGH for about 5 minutes (with the paddle attachment), or until the mixture doubles-triples in volume. Add in vanilla extract, beat for 30 seconds more on high. Then switch to medium high and beat another minute. The egg foam at this stage should come off the paddle in thick ribbons.
   
5. Add several spoonfuls of the now egg foam to the almond/hazelnut oil (in a separate container), and gently fold in until well mixed.
   
6. Add the mixture of flour+salt+starch (which you mixed beforehand), but sift the flour mixture (in thirds) into the egg foam. The sifting allows the flour mixture to be more easily combined.
7. Working quickly without breaking the foam, fold the flour mixture into the egg foam, until there are no more flour streaks.
8. Add the clarified butter/oil/batter mixture to the egg foam/flour mixture. Carefully fold in.
   
9. Transfer to greased baking pan of your choice.
10. Bake in pre-heated oven at 350 degrees F for about 25 minutes. Do NOT open the oven, or the cake may collapse.
11. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes, remove, and cool on wire rack.
    

In my first two trials, I utilized a recipe which called for 6 whole eggs, 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar. I found these quantities caused several errors. The cake was much too sweet, there was too much flour, and with 6 entire eggs, the volume was too large to effectively fold the flour in.

The biggest advantage to Rose's recipe is that it only uses yolks. The yolks add more substance to the cake (without sacrificing the airy spongy texture of a genoise), and are forgiving enough to let you completely fold the flour in without deflating the egg foam.

Fresh from the oven.

The next step is to assemble the cake.