Genoise Layer Cake
A super light cake that was much used in the 1970's and was used on Great British Bake Off as a showstopper theme. We used strawberries but any berries would work - as would tinned fruit like peaches. There is an art to preparation, but it doesn't take very long to bake.
Prep Time45 mins
Cook Time20 mins
Total Time1 hr 5 mins
Servings: 10
Ingredients
- 50 g butter plus extra for melting & greasing
- 250 g plain flour
- 250 g caster sugar
- plus 1 tbsp
- 8 medium eggs
- 600 ml double cream
- 400 g punnet strawberries
- icing sugar or chocolate gratings to dust
- 50g flaked almonds
Instructions
Heat oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5. Brush 2 x 20cm cake tins with melted butter, and line the bases. Remember to dust well with flour. Prepare a pan of simmering water.
Place the sugar and eggs in a heatproof bowl, then pop over the simmering pan of water. Whisk around 5-6 minutes until the mixture has tripled in volume and is pale in colour. When you have removed from the heat you can gently fold in the melted butter.
- Gently fold in the flour and a pinch of salt and pour into your cake tins.They only need around 20 mins to cook. (It will be golden and a skewer comes out clean.) Allow the cakes to cool a little before removing from the tin and cooling fully on a wire rack.
- Whip the cream. Whizz about a quarter of the strawberries with 1 tbsp sugar until smooth, then fold this purée through the cream to get a ripple effect.
- To assemble the cakes, cut each one in half horizontally. Spread the first section with cream and some berries, then continue to layer adding sliced strawberries at the sides and cream/fruit on the top before dusting with icing sugar or grated chocolate shavings.
Notes
This recipe is adapted from Paul Hollywood's sponge in the BBC Good Food recipe guide.
You can use any fruit and decoration. In our version we added some flaked almonds to compliment the strawberries.