Those Cakes We Like … Are Celebrating The Big 4-0!
And you can't have a birthday celebration without a cake.
For those of you who might have missed it, I’ve just celebrated a big birthday, and finally graduated from university with a bachelor’s degree in history (with honours — yay me!). As is my tradition, I have once again made my own birthday cake. After all, the best way to get the cake you want is to bake it yourself. I’m very specific about my birthday cakes: There has to be a fruit element — fresh fruit is always preferable. I prefer whipped cream over buttercream or fondant. And I usually prefer to avoid chocolate. This year I’ve broken one of those rules: I made myself a chocolate cake, with cheesecake filling, strawberry compote, fresh strawberries, and Chantilly cream topping. This cake is a cross between a gateau and a cheesecake and is made using a genoise sponge — a sponge made using air incorporated into the batter to create a rise rather than using any artificial rising agents such as baking powder.
A Little Slice Of History
Although mostly associated with French cuisine these days, the genoise sponge originates in Genoa, which is in Italy. It is not to be confused with Genoa Cake, however. Genoise sponge has been around for a very long time: The earliest mentions of this kind of sponge date from around 1500, and it has been popular in the kitchens of France and Spain since the 18th century. It was introduced to the court of King Ferdinand IV of Spain by Giovani Battista Cabona, the personal chef of the Genoise Ambassador to Spain, Dominico Pallavicini. Don’t you miss the days when diplomacy was conducted using baked goods instead of intimidation and tariffs?
In modern baking, the genoise sponge is a highly versatile sponge, used in layered cakes such as gateau and opera cakes, piped or molded cakes such as lady fingers and madelines, and rolled cakes such as Buche de Noel and Swiss Rolls. Syrups are often used with genoise sponges in order to add moisture and different flavours, or it is perfect for pairing fruit and cream.
This cake will comfortably serve between 16 and 20 people, depending how generous you’re feeling. Your carbohydrates for this recipe are 31.93g per portion (based on 16 portions), or 510.8g for the entire cake. Please do not attempt to eat the entire cake yourself in a single sitting. (Rebecca here! I’ve added imperial measurements to Cakes’s metric, as sourced by the internet. You should really use her numbers and a scale for precision, but these numbers are … close.)
Your Equipment
Mixing bowl and whisk (or stand mixer)
2 x 9 inch cake tins (preferably springform)
Saucepan
Piping bag
Star shaped piping nozzle
Glass bowl (or bain marie)
Wire cooling rack
Baking parchment (cut into 2 9 inch circles)
Cake acetate (or more baking parchment)
Your Ingredients
For the sponge:
6 large eggs
150 g sugar (3/4 cup)
100 g self-rising flour (self-raising flour) (3/4 cup)
50 g cocoa powder (1/2 cup)
A little butter or oil to grease the cake tins
For the strawberry compote:
600 g strawberries (if using frozen fruit you should allow them to defrost) (3 cups)
50 g sugar (1/4 cup)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp water
For the cheesecake filling:
600 g cream cheese (20 ounces)
100 g confectioners/icing sugar (1 cup)
284 ml pot of heavy whipping cream (double cream) (1 1/2 cup)
Approximately 15 fresh strawberries, halved.
For the topping:
140 ml heavy whipping cream (3/4 cup)
1 tbsp confectioners/icing sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cocoa powder
3 large strawberries
50 g dark chocolate (optional) (2 oz)
The Important Bit
There’s a little bit of advance preparation work to do before you can get baking. The first thing you’ll need to do is prepare your strawberry compote, as this needs to chill for at least an hour before you use it. Simply pop all your compote ingredients (600 g halved strawberries, 50 g sugar, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tbsp water) into a saucepan and allow to simmer on a medium-low heat for around 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. I like to give the strawberries a little bit of a mash with a fork at the end, just to further break them down. Place in a jar or tub and store in the fridge for at least an hour, but no more than 3 days. The compote should set a little as it chills.
The next step is the genoise sponge. First, preheat your oven to 350F (180C).
Pre-sieve your flour (100 g) and cocoa powder (50 g) and set aside.
Grease your cake tins with a little butter and line the bottom with a circle of baking parchment.
In your stand mixer or mixing bowl, whisk the 6 eggs and 150 g sugar together until you have a pale mixture, roughly doubled in size — it should be thick enough to leave a trail when the whisk is lifted out of the bowl. Some recipes insist that this step should be done over a pan of hot water for best effect, however I have not found much difference between the two methods, and Dame Mary Berry agrees with me.
Carefully fold your flour and cocoa into the whisked egg mixture. The best way to do this is by using a figure of 8 motion, being careful not to knock too much air out of the cake batter.
Divide your cake batter between your cake tins and place into the oven for 25-30 minutes.
The cakes should be well risen and have started to separate from the sides of the cake tin when they have finished baking.
Turn the cakes out onto a wire rack and allow to cool.
Give your stand mixer, or mixing bowl and whisk, a clean, along with your cake tins and get ready to make your cheesecake filling. Firstly, whisk your 284 ml of heavy whipping cream until it forms stiff peaks when the whisk is withdrawn. Now add your 600 g of cream cheese and 100g of confectioners sugar and whisk for another minute or two.
Line the sides or your cake tins with a ring of cake acetate or baking parchment which is just taller than the sides of your cake tin. Place the first of your sponges back into the cake tin.
Use your strawberry halves to line the outside of your cake, cut side facing outwards. Now fill the centre with the cream cheese filling and use the back of a spoon to smooth the top.
Pour over the strawberry compote and then place the remaining sponge on top.
Return the cake to the fridge while you clean up and prepare to make the cream topping.
In your stand mixer (or mixing bowl and whisk) whisk the 140 ml of heavy whipping cream with 1 tbsp of confectioners sugar and ½ tsp of vanilla extract until the cream forms stiff peaks.
Remove the cake from the fridge, carefully remove the cake tin, and spread a couple of tbsp of the cream topping across the top of the cake.
Use a sieve to dust the top of the cream with cocoa powder.
Place the remainder of the cream into your piping bag, equipped with the star shaped piping nozzle. Pipe small stars around the outside edge of the cake and 3 large stars in the middle.
Top with 3 fresh strawberries, or return the cake to the fridge while you prepare the chocolate to coat the strawberries.
Melt the chocolate carefully using a microwave on the lowest setting (1 minute, followed by 30 second bursts until the chocolate is fully melted) or use a bain marie to melt the chocolate over a pan of hot water.
Carefully dip the strawberries into the melted chocolate to coat the outsides. Now place the chocolate coated strawberries onto a plate and pop them into the fridge to set for 30 minutes or so.
Remove the cake and the strawberries from the fridge and carefully place the chocolate coated strawberries in the centre of the cake.
Serve alongside a celebratory drink of your choice.
After all that hard work, I’m off for a nice nap — I am getting older after all.
And since I was a naughty Cakes and I forgot to take an ingredients photo, you can have a Smaug. He’s not happy that I wouldn’t share any of the cream with him. Hopefully, he’ll get over it soon.
Join me next moth for one of the most British recipes there is, and one of my favourite savoury treats to bake — the pork pie. If I’m feeling generous, I may include a recipe for piccalilli with it.
Until then…
Share love, share joy, share cakes.
And don’t forget to…
All of it is awesome, just like you CWL! Happy B-day and Congrats!!!
Speaking of birthdays, tomorrow is President Obama's birthday.