Sugar Waltz: 22/99: Génoise Rose

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

22/99: Génoise Rose

I woke up this morning before my alarm. I stirred in bed, thinking that I was so glad that I did not have to get up yet. Ah, sleep. It feels so good.

Wait, it actually feels too good. I shouldn’t feel this good at 6:30 am in June. I grabbed my phone and looked at the time. 8:19. Ah.

That just threw my day completely off for some reason.  Nothing really went wrong except for me being 30 minutes late to class and just feeling behind in everything. 

So I finally got out of class at 3, came home and discovered that MY OVEN IS FIXED!!! I was absolutely thrilled.  Then I looked next to the oven and discovered a box with my name on it. What on earth?

I opened the box and guess what was in it? The Rose cake pan!!! My sweet mom sent me a little happy in the mail and it came on the perfect day.  Fixed oven + new rose pan = baking happiness + the génoise rose. 

First things first, does the oven actually work? I baked a pan of muffins first just to make sure it didn't burn them up.  

 Success. Ladies and gentlemen, I have a working oven again! Hooray!  I quickly measured out my ingredients so I could make my very first cake in my house here. The recipe calls for 5 eggs but with my previous experiences with génoise, I knew better than to just put five eggs into it.  I switched from buying Large eggs to buying extra large eggs because the yolks are bigger.  By the yolks being bigger, I mean that they are actually the size that a large egg yolk should be (20 grams a piece). They just have too much white (should be about 30 g in a large egg).  So I used 5 extra large egg yolks and 4 extra large egg whites. It worked out almost perfectly. I figured being 3 grams off wouldn't affect it too terribly much. 

Then you combine the eggs and sugar. 

Next, is one of my least favorite steps in making a génoise. You put the mixed eggs and sugar over a pot of simmering water and stir until it gets warm to the touch.  I don't know why this step bothers me so much.  It's something about constantly stirring and wondering if it's bad for my bowl since it's touching the bottom and then getting my finger dirty from sticking it in the mixture to see if its warm.  

But the good news is that after that step is done, my favorite step comes into play: Whisking the mixture on the highest speed possible and watching it quadruple in volume and lighten in color.  

Once you fold in the beurre noisette (butter that's been browned on the stove and then filtered so that it doesn't have milk solids) and then fold in the flower and cornstarch, it's time to pour into the pan.

In the last genoise I made, I could not get the batter to fill up the pan all the way. It was way below. And then when it cooked it was even more short than it was supposed to be tall. But this time it was great. Rose said it would be about 3/4 inch below the top of the pan. Check it out:

So out it came, a successful génoise rose:

Then for the Triple Sec syrup to brush on top.

Once the sugar water mixture that you make comes to a boil and then has cooled, you add your orange liquor. I used an off brand of Grand Marnier and it was great.  You just pour the liquor in, mix it up, and then it's ready to be brushed onto the cake!

I didn't put all of the syrup on the cake which was bad in the end i think. I was scared that I was going to make it mushy but instead it turned out to not have enough flavor. I took it to a RUF meeting tonight (Reformed University Fellowship) and some of it got eaten but not a ton. I heard a few people comment that it was good when talking to other people so at least I know that they honestly liked it. I still had a good bit left when I got home so I poured the rest of the syrup on and it was SO much better. It tastes great with all of the syrup.  So note to self, always pour all the syrup on the cake.