The Babe's Birthday

Alyss turned 23 this week and she did not want a Twinky Cake to celebrate, in fact she did not want a cake at all, but she has a mother so she will have a cake. Julia is a bit skimpy on her cakes, only listing two master recipes, the Spongecake and Genoise. The Spongecake was listed first in her book so that's where I started.

Right off the bat I was a little perplexed by the size of the cake. She recommends slicing it in two, which I could not understand. Why cut it in two when you can just make it in two cake pans? Unfortunately I did not find her list of equipment until 8 pages and two cakes later, when I discovered that she uses 2" cake pans. They are on my list to pick up this weekend, but meanwhile the spongecakes were baked in the standard 1.25" pans that we all have.

She starts you out creaming the sugar,egg yolks and vanilla. Then you continue by beating the egg whites with some cream of tartar, salt and sugar until they form stiff peaks. The interesting part is that at this point you begin taking turns folding the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture and then sifting in a little flour. And I am serious about the 'little' part. The entire cake only takes 9 tablespoons of flour! When it is all folded together, add a few tablespoons of tepid melted butter and pour it into your greased and floured pans.

Unfortunately after baking they were only about 3/4" high, which isn't high enough to be a cake you are proud of, so I made a second round of cakes. It seemed like it was becoming a big job.

But that was before I began the frosting. Julia doesn't even have a 'master' for frosting, but she does include some recipes, so I chose the French Butter-Cream appearing on p. 468 in The Way to Cook. I knew I was into BIG COOKING when step one directed me to make a sugar syrup by cooking it to the soft ball stage. I always rely on the thermometer for this because I never have the self assurance to confidently proclaim 'soft ball stage' before it has progressed on to 'hard ball stage', which is also 'start over' stage. When your syrup is ready pour it in a steady stream into a previously beaten mixture of 2 eggs and 6 egg yolks. While you are pouring you need to also be mixing furiously with your wire whip to keep the eggs from cooking and the syrup from hardening. Yikes! Pretty soon I had a big glob of hardened syrup hanging onto the end of my whip so I quickly poured it all into my stand mixer and mixed away until it was, incredibly, perfect. Now you have to beat this mixture over barely simmering hot water to heat the eggs enough to cook them and save your guests from salmonella. She didn't suggest a double boiler and I wasn't smart enough to realize I needed one until I had tried unsuccessfully to get it hot enough with various other contrivances. Finally it was hot, and then you have to turn around and beat it over ice cubes to get it cold enough to add an entire pound of butter without melting it.

This was lots of work. Everyone who looked at the cake gained a pound and those of us who ate some gained more. It tasted good, and the entire thing got eaten, but I thought it was a bit dense, which I blamed on the fact that I baked them in two pans, creating more surface area which allowed for more drying out.

The Bottom Line
Spongecake-Thumbs Down