Parties of a Cakely Proportion

Clearly, I am a lover of all things sweet and baked. So I decided, why not have a party where that's all you eat?! I mean, other than the obvious and eventual sugar crash and stomach sick from too much sweet food, it sounded like a wonderful idea. This weekend, it happened!

For it, I made a genoise cake, which is a bit like a really fluffy American yellow cake. Europe and Japan loves this type of cake--light, airy, and dry. To help it keep its moisture, I slathered the layers in a glaze of 1c water, 1c sugar, and 2tbs triple sec. The actual recipe comes from my new favorite cookbook! You can see this cake which was decorated with strawberries and whipped cream in the bottom right corner of the picture. The picture was taken early in the evening before everyone had arrived; the pickings here are sparse compared to the end result!


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Be sure to have all ingredients at room temperature for this recipe! The key is to have a light hand and to not rush the folding process or you will end up with a dense, unpleasant cake.

Genoise Cake (from The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion)
6 eggs and 1 egg yolk
3/4c superfine sugar
1/8tsp salt (1 pinch)
3/4c flour
1tbs cornstarch
4tbs unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
2tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Place the eggs, 1/2c of the sugar, and salt in a baine marie, whisking until sugar dissolves and the mixture is just warm to the touch. Do not let the eggs scramble! If the eggs reach a temperature higher than 110F, your eggs will become a very sweet dish of scrambled eggs. Begin beating the eggs at medium-high. You will do this until the eggs triple in volume, and when lifting the beaters/whisk, the eggs fall in a thick, luscious ribbon and are slowly reabsorbed into the mixture. If you are using a stand mixer, this can take anywhere from 5-10 minutes. A hand mixer will take considerably longer. If you choose to mix by hand, I pity you, but you will have some nice guns to show for it!

While the eggs are beating, whisk the flour, cornstarch, and 1/4c of sugar together, creating a bit of a dust storm in your kitchen. (You want this mixture to be light and airy because you will be folding it into the eggs, which are prone to falling.) Once egg mixture has increased significantly in volume and has become a light yellow color, using a large whisk, beging folding the flour mixture in. Add the flour in thirds. Pour 1/3 of your batter into a medium-sized bowl containing the butter and vanilla mixed together. Stir until uniform to lighten the butter-and-vanilla mixture. Fold in the rest of the batter.

You can pour/spoon this batter into a springform pan (30 to 35 mins baking time), 8" or 9" baking pans (20-25 mins; you must bake these all at once or the batter will be no good), or a jelly roll pan (14-18 mins). Do not open the oven while baking or the cake is prone to falling! The cake is done when the sides have pulled away from the pan. A cake tester is not needed.