Genoise Rose

I decided that I really needed to have the Nordicware rose pan in order to bake the Genoise Rose.  Yes, there are many other shapes of pans available, but the rose pan seems like a very classic and elegant shape that I could use many times in the future.  Since I wasn’t sure where I could find the pan,  I decided my best bet was to go to the specialty baking store about an hour away.  So last weekend we headed straight there and yes, we did indeed find the pan, along with numerous other pans that I drooled and debated over for far too long.  In the end, I was strong and I only bought the rose pan.  What was really funny about this purchase though, was that after running errands all day, the last stop I needed to make was to a hardware store.  Would you believe that on one of the first few aisles in that hardware store, there was the Nordicware rose pan! I guess next time I’m looking for a specialty shaped baking pan, I’ll check out the local hardware store!

Anyway, I have been admiring my beautiful pan all week and looking forward to Sunday when I would bake the genoise rose. I have never made a genoise cake before so I wasn’t sure what to expect.

The first step in the recipe is to make beurre noisette .  You must warm the butter over low heat and spoon the foam off the top of the butter.  You continue to do this until you see the solids in the bottom of the pan become browned.  This really was not a difficult thing to do, but it did require constant attention so as not to burn.

The next step involved warming the eggs over steam until they were lukewarm to the touch.  Then you whip the eggs on high speed for five minutes.  The mixture was to quadruple in volume  and become “thick.”  My eggs definitely increased in volume but I wasn’t sure how thick they were supposed to get.  Does thick mean soft peaks?  I whipped the eggs for about 7 minutes and decided I’d better stop.  Later, after reading Marie’s post, and seeing that there was a video on Rose’s site, I found out that the eggs should be at a ribbon stage.  I think it would have been helpful to have that included in the recipe.

Then you gently fold in flour and cornstarch and then butter.  The recipe said that if you have whipped the eggs long enough then you should fill the pan up to about ¾” of the rim.  I think I had about an inch of space after I poured the batter into the pan so I think I must have been pretty close.

The cake went into the oven and looked lightly browned when I checked it.  I removed the cake from the pan immediately as instructed and I was so happy when my cake came out all in one piece. I prepared the syrup using Cointreau and applied it after the cake had cooled.

We actually waited almost 48 hours before we were able to sample the cake because we had so much going on.  Marshall really liked  the cake but was wishing for some berries to go along with it. Of course he is the kind of person that usually eats the cake and leaves the frosting.   For myself, who is definitely a frosting person and an ooey gooey cake kind of person, it was just way too dry for my liking.  I do think if you treated it more like a pound cake and put a berry sauce over the top of it then it would be very good.