Light and Airy Genoise Sponge Cake Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to light fluffy cakes? ›

Leavening agents, such as baking powder and baking soda, play a crucial role in making cakes rise and achieve a fluffy texture. These agents produce carbon dioxide gas when combined with liquid and heat, creating air pockets that lighten the batter.

Insufficient creaming of sugar and eggs will also make a tight texture because there isn't enough air trapped in the mix to give it a lift. Adding too much liquid will make it dense and pudding like. Genoise sponge will become heavy if the melted butter is too hot when added and if it is not folded in evenly.

A traditional sponge cake isn't made with butter. Instead, it whips egg whites, sometimes egg yolks, and sugar together, giving the cake a fluffy texture. A Genoise cake, on the other hand, often uses butter.

If keeping for less than a day, store the sponges in an airtight container, preferably in the fridge. As genoise sponge can dry out if kept for any longer, it's best to freeze the individual sponges and then defrost overnight in the fridge. To add more moisture, you can soak the sponges in a light sugar syrup.

Self-raising Flour

This flour is a mixture of plain flour and a raising agent, and because it is combined commercially, it is great for when making cakes and cookies as the raising agent is evenly distributed within the flour so helps baked goods to leaven nicely.

Solution: Make sure you're using wet measures for wet ingredients and dry measures for dry; check the freshness of your baking soda and powder, and check your oven temp to make sure it's hot enough. A cake that bakes too slowly takes longer to set and may fall, causing a dense texture.

Genoise Sponge Cake

In this type of cake, the eggs are beaten with both yolk and white together, along with sugar until they are mousse-like. The flour is then folded in along with some oil or butter for added moisture. Due to the added butter, this sponge cake is more moist and tender than its sponge cake siblings.

Make sure that all of the ingredients are at room temperature. If the ingredients are at different temperatures then they may not combine properly and the cake will be dense. If the eggs are stored in the fridge then remove them several hours before using, so they are properly at room temperature.

Avoid over-mixing of flour as it activates the gluten amount, which makes the cake hard, and as a result, you will get a rubbery cake. Always check the freshness of your baking soda and powder, as it plays a very crucial role while baking a cake. Proper measurement is the key to getting a perfectly baked cake.

The genoise cake is the European equivalent of the American sponge cake. Whole eggs are whipped with sugar before flour is added; the batter is often then fortified with melted butter, which sets the genoise cake apart from the classic iteration of sponge cakes.

Which is better Victoria sponge or genoise? ›

The Victorian is usually regarded as the healthier, lighter of the two, but I believe this is mostly due to the Génoise usually being rendered as a layer cake with a lavish buttercream filling, though if I remember right it can also be used as a base for madeleines and ladyfingers.

Angel, chiffon, and genois are all sponge or foam cakes. Angel and chiffon have separated egges, whites whipped in both, yolks discarded in Angel food cake. Sponge and genoise use whole eggs. Genois uses melted butter, chiffon uses oil, Angel uses no oils at all, but uses Cream of tartar.

Some cakes are supposed to be a bit on the dry side: think nonfat foam cakes like angel food, or a lower-fat genoise.

If your cake is hard, the problem probably lies in the beating. The butter must be beaten well in the early stages to give the mixture enough air for a light and fluffy texture. To achieve this the butter must be lukewarm and therefore not too hard.

It can be stacked for wedding cakes so it could probably take a bit of chopping around. I have only ever used it for light summer gateaux and birthday cakes.

8. My cake is very dense. This could be because a/ the cake mixture hasn't had enough air beaten into it, b/ the eggs were added too quickly and curdled or c/ there's not enough raising agent.

Baking powder has an acid, baking soda needs an acid. 1/4 teaspoon baking soda to 1 cup flour. 1 teaspoon baking powder to 1 cup flour. Baking soda makes things 'spread' and baking powder makes things 'puff'.

Overmixing ingredients can create a dense batter that doesn't get that same airy rise. Mismeasured baking powder (too much or too little) may also give you a flat cake. Make sure you have just the right amount of this leavening agent to give your cake the right lift.

Baking powder does most of the heavy lifting in the rise department and while baking soda aids in leavening, it also helps neutralize the acid." Take buttermilk pancakes, for instance. Fryer says the "swift reaction between the buttermilk and the baking powder and baking soda makes lofty, fluffy pancakes."