This is White Genoise from the Cake Bible. I made it on Wednesday for Chinese New Year Saturday. The cake was easy to make and it’s a good chance to use my stash of egg whites (the cake used 9 egg whites). I overwhipped the egg whites a bit and I thought for sure it would not turn out. It looked fine, though it did pulled away from the sides of the pan when I took it out of the oven. Since I can’t try the cake until dinner I decided to go ahead and syrup it anyway.

I froze the cake Wed night and took it out Friday morning. Made the frosting (Chocolate Chip Whipped Cream) late afternoon. I gotta say that it’s so much easier to frost a cake that’s really cold, the frosting goes on faster and it’s easier to smooth. I added a bit of melted chocolate to the frosting to tint it brown. The writing on top of the cake is a chinese character that means “fortune” (got it from Google ) and on the sides I piped “happy new year.” Both were done with ganache.

I think the whipped cream curdled a bit but not sure. In any case, curdled or not, it taste great. My friends all liked the cream. Yes the cream. The cream is the star of the cake - no one mentioned the cake at all - which did turn out a bit dense but still good.

Hey, Jenn, the cake came out so pretty!  I love the cheerful fluffy whipped cream border, and the speckled color of it is lovely!  The design and the similar (but still contrasting) colors of the ganache and whipped cream also look great together—makes it all look sort of de-bossed (or whatever the term would be for the opposite of embossed).

Ha! Ha! re the cream vs. cake mentions!  Maybe your friends are of the “the cake is simply a vehicle for the frosting” school (sort of a chip/dip thing).  More likely, I’d say that that whipped cream was so amazingly incredible—a 14 out of 10—that it consumed their entire consciousness—a flash of light blinding them to anything else, including the cake, which was do doubt a (slightly dense) 10 out of 10!

Aaaaaahhhhh, and now you can go back to cake freedom without all those whites making you feel guilty every time you open the freezer!

Thanks for the cold cake frosting notes, BTW!

Anne, thanks for the compliments on the decorations! I was aiming for rosette but ran out of cream. The piping was my “version” of shell border. When I try to do shell border that’s how it turned out . The cake itself is pretty plain so I think that’s why no one mentioned it. It’s good though because then combined with the cream it feels pretty light and not an overpowering taste.

About the egg whites, I still have enough egg whites in the freezer to make another White Genoise .

Jenn, it looks great!  I love the chinese characters!  I think your gen looks a little lighter in texture than mine, don’t you think?  How much liqueur did you go with in the end?

I’m totally with you and your guests, I loved the whipped cream a lot and the cake came in second but they were good together.

Here’s a pic, I was inspired by Jenn and made a similar cake- white genoise, chocolate chip whipped cream, cointreau and decorated with a little grand marnier ganache that I had left over in the freezer.  Mine is one half recipe baked in an 8x2 pan, then torted.

Julie, thanks for the compliments!  I think you’re right, mine’s a little lighter. I wonder why! I overwhip mine and you think that you underwhip yours, right?

I ended up using the full amount of alcohol as the recipe. I had a slice today (there were leftovers from the party) and I can still taste (and smell) the good alcohol a bit. It is good! Not as boozy as the Bull’s Eye but noticeable. I also used a little bit more orange zest than the recipe and I love the taste of it in the cake. I actually can taste the orange more than the whipped cream today. I wonder if the cream flavor has disintegrated, considering it’s been several days?

Jenn - 07 February 2011 07:13 PM

Julie, thanks for the compliments!  I think you’re right, mine’s a little lighter. I wonder why! I overwhip mine and you think that you underwhip yours, right?

Yes, I think I may have underwhipped a little- my whites did not have stiff peaks if there was a medium amount on the beater, but if there was a smaller amount on the beater, the peak held its shape.  I also may have overfolded by one or two passes with the whisk.  Lastly, I used Wondra, which produces a shorter cake, and, at least for me, is very sensitive to over-folding.

Looks lovely! Is the white genoise easier to make than the genoise classique? In my experience, egg white foams have been easier to work with. I too hate it when I have too many egg whites in the freezer, and I always am reluctant to make a recipe that uses extra egg yolks. I want to make white genoise and mousseline soon to use up some egg whites!

You guys are giving me genoise fever!!  I may have to bake one this weekend…