My Dad Turns 82 and His Birthday Cake Sucks

Geniose. That's the name of the cake I advise you never to try. Apparently its name means it originated in Genoa, so no wonder Columbus went looking for new turf.

The interesting thing about the Geniose is that it does not use any leavening agent. Instead the baker first whisks 4 large eggs with 1/2 cup sugar and 1 t. vanilla over a pot of almost simmering water until it is frothy and warm to the touch. Then begin beating with a mixer at moderatly high speed for 8 to 10 minutes until the mixture triples in volume. I was very worried about this step but it happened just as Julia had predicted. Next begin sifting in the flour, which is a combination of 1/2 c. cake and 1/3 c. all-purpose flour. The trick here is to sift a bit in, and ever-so-gently fold it into the egg-sugar batter without deflating it, and then repeat until all the flour is incorporated into the batter. The final step is folding a bit of the batter into 6 T. clarified butter and then returning the butter-batter into the main mixture, again without reducing the volume. While it appeared to be in the extremely tricky category it went off without a hitch and came out of the oven just perfectly. That is, unless you count eating.

But I didn't know about that yet. Instead I plowed right ahead with the Italian Meringue frosting. A meringue is made by beating egg whites, first a slow speed until they foam, adding a bit of cream of tarter and salt, and then continuing to beat at high speed until they form soft peaks. The harder part of this recipe, making the sugar syrup, involves combining sugar and water and boiling them to the soft ball stage. I rely on both my candy thermometer and the practical test (dropping a drip into a glass of water to see if it puddles into a 'soft ball' on the bottom)to confirm that my syrup has reached the proper state. When it has, remove it from the heat and begin dribbling it into the egg whites while beating them at fairly high speed. You are done when the syrup has been totally incorporated into the egg whites and they are both glossy and standing tall.

Julia says that French cakes are single layer, so I doubled the recipes to make a more standard American cake. Then I cut both layers in two and discarded one, to make a 3-layer cake. To assemble the cake I took the first layer, dripped a tablespoon of embibing syrup (made by boiling a few tablespoons of rum with 1/4 c of sugar and 3/4 c of water), added a huge dollop of meringue, followed that with another layer, syrup, dollop and a layer of blackberry jam, and finally the last layer with just syrup and meringue.

It did look good. At least it looked good when it left my house, but 4 hours later when we were eating it the frosting had lost its edge and the whole thing was looking a bit dilapidated. But that was the least of its problems. Because in addition to looking past its prime it was dry, coarse and tasteless.

So I searched the internet to see if other bakers were making this cake with similar results. And they were. Some were having technical problems, which I did not, but pretty universally people say it is a lousy cake. Some had tried it with all cake flour, which I had considered, but they said the results were the same. This cake may well have been what Marie Antionette was referring to.

The Bottom Line:
Genoise Cake-Thumbs Down