How to Bake Genoise Sponge

Yields: one 9’’ cake

Preparation time: 30 mins

Cooking time: 1 hour

Ingredients needed to make Genoise Sponge:

For the sponge cake:

• 9 oz all purpose flour
• 9 oz caster sugar
• 1 ¾ butter, melted
• 8 medium eggs

For the blueberry compote:

• 3 1/2oz caster sugar
• 9 oz blueberries

For the vanilla cream:

• 1 vanilla pod, split longitudinally into halves and seeds scraped out
• 18 fl oz double cream

To serve:

• Icing sugar, for dusting

Cooking instructions for Genoise Sponge:

• Warm up your oven to 350 degrees F.
• Grease two 9’’ round cake pans with small knob of softened butter and spread a sheet of parchment paper on top.
• To make the cake, crack the eggs in a large bowl and beat them thoroughly along with sugar until they blend together to form a pale, thick mixture.
• Add the flour in batches and fold it into the mixture after every addition, until all of it is incorporated into the mixture.
• Drizzle the melted butter over it and stir them together to mix well.
• Pour half of the batter in one prepared pan and the other half in another pan.
• Bake one cake for half an hour or until it puffs up and is baked through.
• Remove it and let it rest on a wire rack while the other cake is kept in the oven to bake in a similar fashion.
• Cool the 2^nd cake slightly and flip both of them onto a wire rack; set aside to cool completely.
• Meanwhile, to make the compote, place the blueberries in a small saucepan, along with sugar and splash some water into it.
• Cook it over moderate heat until it begins to simmer and continue to do so for the next 5 minutes.
• Turn off the heat and let it stand until it cools down completely and turns thicker.
• To make the vanilla cream, pour the cream into a bowl and stir in the vanilla seeds.
• Whip the cream thoroughly until it thickens and forms soft peaks.
• Spread the blueberry compote on top of a cake and top it up with a layer of vanilla cream.
• Cover it with the 2^nd cake and smother its surface with generous amount of icing sugar.
• Slice and serve.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons