Vanilla Genoise with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

It has been almost 5 years since I last baked a proper batch of cookies or cake.  It took a lockdown and a birthday to get me to set aside my mental block with baking and get started again. 5 years ago unbeknownst to me I set out to bake cookies in a convection oven that was on its last leg. I wanted to bake for my friends and cousin. My friend had come down from Bangalore and my cousin was visiting, it was Dassera time I wanted to make something sweet and nice. Since it was festival time and my friends parents don’t eat egg I had prepped the dough to make eggless cookies which meant plenty of butter. As it happened the cookies went in and came out black and crisp and I blamed myself for the longest time, until it was discovered that the machine was at fault. For whatever reasons after that, I just didn’t bother to bake again… ever.

The pandemic has made me realise a few things about me:

1.      I can do whatever I set my mind to do.

2.      I can bake an incredibly soft sponge cake &

3.   I have been using all the travel time I complained about before the pandemic to do other things which are in no way incidental to my work ergo making my productivity the same as it was before the pandemic.

If you’ve read my Litchi Cheesecake post you’ll know that I enjoy going to the fun zone of the internet to talk to likeminded people and exchange recipes, stories and most importantly manga recommendations! It was there that I learnt of this Korean Chef’s channel on YouTube called ‘Cooking see’. He makes ASMR videos, which means he isn’t talking out loud and relaying the instructions, which is perfect for me as I love watching cooking videos on mute.

I was looking for a very light & fluffy sponge cake recipe. I also wanted to bake a small cake as it is just the both of us at home and we really didn’t want to have too much leftover. Okay! Alright! I was lying. I wanted to make a tiny cake because I wasn’t confident at all as to how it would turn out! The good news is that I am blogging about it, which means it turned out fine. Also for those of you who know me, know about my resourceful backup plans. I made a decadent Mango Cheesecake in the morning, a day before Marley’s birthday and in the afternoon got cracking on mission ‘Sponge Cake’. Marley was confident that the cake would turn out fine, I wasn’t.

Here’s what you need to make the Genoise:

Ø  3 eggs(white and yolk separated)

Ø  1gm Salt

Ø  90gms Sugar

Ø  90gms Cake flour

Ø  30gms Vegetable oil

Ø  30gms Milk

Ø  2ml Vanilla Extract

Now that you have your ingredients simply follow the following steps:

Step1: Ensure all your ingredients are at room temperature. Then separate the egg yolk and whites. Put the yolk in a medium sized bowl and the whites in your main mixing bowl.

Step 2: In the bowl with the yolk add salt and Vanilla extract. Break the yolk gently and whisk until mixed completely. Then set aside.

Step 3: Beat the egg whites until white and frothy. Then add the sugar in 3 parts and beat till you get stiff white peaks. Each time you add sugar you’ll notice the consistency of the meringue changing. After adding all your sugar you should get to peaking consistency.

Step 4: Add the yolk mixture to the meringue and mix well.

Step 5:  Add the flour and gently fold it into the wet mixture using a spatula. I sieve my flour in advance, you may sieve the flour into the mixing bowl.

Step 6: In a medium sized bowl add vegetable oil and milk and mix it and add a little bit of the cake batter to this mixture and mix well. Then combine this mixture with the batter and mix well. This is done to help the oil blend well and create air pockets for a moist cake.

Step 7: Take a 6 inch cake tray and line it with butter paper. If you don’t have butter paper then the grease the pan with butter and add some flour and tap it around the tray till the tray is completely coated with flour. Turn your tray upside down to remove any excess flour. Pour your cake batter into the tray and tap it twice to remove air bubbles.

Step 8: Pre-heat your oven/microwave to 170℃(338℉)/150℃(302℉) and bake the cake at the same temperature for 30 minutes.

Step 9: Once done, take it out of the oven and let it cool for about 10 -15 minutes then remove the cake from the tray and set it on a cooling rack.

Step 10: Once the cake cools down, refrigerate it for an hour or over night before decorating it with frosting.

Here’s what you need to prepare the Buttercream Frosting:

Ø  50gms Unsalted butter

Ø  3drops of Vanilla extract

Ø  30gms Icing sugar (powdered sugar)

Now that you have your ingredients simply follow the following steps:

Step 1: Ensure that the butter is soft. In a mixing bowl add all the ingredients and beat it until light & fluffy.

Step 2: Remove sponge from the refrigerator and using a cake comb or a spatula slather the cake with frosting and spread it evenly with a spatula/cake comb.

Tweaks and Tricks:

Ø  I use a 23 litre IFB microwave. Hence I use the convection setting to do the baking. In my nervousness, I forgot to adjust the temperature for the microwave and set it the same as a traditional oven and ended up slightly burning the top of my cake.

Ø  Microwave convection ovens cook faster hence use this simple trick for any baking – always cook it 20℃ less than the required traditional oven temperature.

Ø  Refrigerating your cake will make decorating the cake with frosting very easy.
Ø  This cake lasts in the fridge for at least 2 days. (I can’t give you full stats on that as we didn’t have any more cake left to see if it would last longer in the fridge.)

P.S: The cake was demolished even before I took a picture.