OK. I'll start out by telling you that this cake was a flop. The curd and ganache turned out great, but I think I win the award for shortest genoise (more about that later).
For the curd, I used the poor neglected Florida sour orange. You can find these trees growing wild in various places around the state. They are pretty much good trees turned sour. The fruit made a wonderful curd and my mother-in-law also makes an awesome sour orange pie with them (think key lime pie but with sour oranges).
Now for the cake. The batter started out fine. My eggs whipped up nicely. I mixed them for the minimum 5 minutes but they appeared quadrupled in volume. The batter really started to fall when I put in the butter/egg mixture. I knew once I put it in the pan something wasn't right. But, I thought maybe I'd get lucky and it would rise more in the oven.
No such luck.
Well, I wasn't going to attempt to cut a 1/2 inch cake in half. So, I had this grand idea of slicing it down the middle to make it look like an orange slice once finished. Ha.
Unfrosted it looked more like a grilled cheese.
I syruped it up, frosted and "decorated" with curd. Not my most beautiful cake ever.
Despite the fact that this was the densest, chewiest cake I have ever made, it still was not bad. If I do attempt to make it again, I might stay away from the genoise and make a butter cake instead.
The flavors overcome a lot, don't they? I had trouble with the cake too. Thanks for the butter cake suggestion!
ReplyDeleteyour unfrosted cake looks a bit like the time when i made the woody's lemon cake and mine look like it was hand and egg sandwhich..lol! But i think after frosting, your slice of cake still looks great and mouthwatering!
ReplyDeleteI made four of Roses's Genoise, from which I failed two. It could be tricky even if you've made several times.
ReplyDeleteI find your cakes'pictures great. I loved the first one that looks like a half orange slice. Pretty!
I'm not far behind you in the race to the shortest génoise...I must keep practicing. But that curd overcomes a lot of shortcomings (if you'll pardon the pun) in the cake department.
ReplyDeleteYou're pretty creative! Love the half-orange idea. I'm glad you were still able to enjoy it. And butter cake sounds like a great substitution for the genoise.
ReplyDeleteOuch. But what a great recovery.
ReplyDeleteLooks good - great save!
ReplyDelete:)
ButterYum