To me, the white genoise seems like a very odd cake. A couple weeks ago, I decided to try it out, because I wanted to use up all those egg whites in my freezer. I’ve always had much trouble with the classic genoise, because of the unstable whole egg foam. The Golden Genoise was a bit easier, because the egg yolk foam was more stable. I suspected that the White Genoise should be even easier, because stiffly beaten egg whites are quite stable and usually easy to work with. So I went through the recipe and baked the cakes. The only mistake I made was that I forgot to incorporate the buerre noisette until the very end. I got no flour lumps, and I did not notice any deflation of the batter even though I probably over folded. Instead of water, I used a mixture of Frangelico and coffee.

In the end, the cakes cake out at their maximum height—1.25 inches as listed in The Cake Bible. I assumed then that everything was ok. I cut into the cake, and I saw a spongy structure, lots of bubbles from the egg white foam. However, the cake wasn’t very light or spongy. It was dense, chalky, and dry. I could taste the chalkiness of the cornstarch. Is this how it’s supposed to taste? Any tips on this particular cake?

Also, another thing that has puzzled me….why not use cream of tartar to stabilize the egg whites? Wouldn’t this be better? Cream of tartar is usually called for in the chiffon cakes and almost any Rose recipe that uses egg white foams. I don’t understand why it’s not used in the white genoise.

michaelnrdx - 18 January 2013 08:07 PM

The only mistake I made was that I forgot to incorporate the buerre noisette until the very end.

The recipe says to fold in the butter mixture (butter with some of the eggs folded in to lighten them) at the end, so it sounds like you did that part correctly.

Instead of water, I used a mixture of Frangelico and coffee.

What did you use in place of the cointreau?  It’s possible this may have made the batter more acidic, which would cause the eggs to set earlier in the baking process.  Hard to say for sure if there was any problem.  If you just omitted the cointreau, your cake wouldn’t have had enough liquid and would need syrup to make it moist and tender.

However, the cake wasn’t very light or spongy. It was dense, chalky, and dry. I could taste the chalkiness of the cornstarch. Is this how it’s supposed to taste? Any tips on this particular cake?

  Hector has made this cake successfully, and his texture looked good.  I seem to be white-genoise-challenged- I’ve made lots of classic genoise, both chocolate types, golden gen, bull’s eye gen (from RHC), but I’ve never made a successful white gen.  Perhaps Hector (or someone else who has made this cake) will chime in.

Also, another thing that has puzzled me….why not use cream of tartar to stabilize the egg whites? Wouldn’t this be better? Cream of tartar is usually called for in the chiffon cakes and almost any Rose recipe that uses egg white foams. I don’t understand why it’s not used in the white genoise.

  I think this is because it has so much sugar beaten into the whites, the sugar stabilizes the meringue.

I didn’t put any Cointreau or syrup on it—probably why it was dry. I had forgotten to mix part of the batter with the buerre noisette first before incorporating. I had totally forgotten about the butter until the very end when I saw it still sitting on my counter. At that point, I just poured it in and folded. The butter didn’t get incorporated well, as there was a layer that was more greasy. But it didn’t make any flour nuts or deflate the batter.

Michael, I made the cake several times and only when I followed the recipe exactly, it worked.  Pls try it again, also, if a genoise calls for syrup pls do not skip!

I’ll try this again when I’ve amassed enough egg whites. This time with syrup. How should the texture be like? How does it compare with the Classic or Golden Genoise?