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Cake recipe seems weird

PostPosted: Sat Apr 15, 2006 6:09 pm
by Howard
Recipe for Chocolate Raspberry Genoise cake calls for 1/3 cup cake flour and 1/3 cup corn starch. Flour and cornstarch at 1:1? Is this common? I'm going to use another genoise recipe for this cake but...Enquiring minds want to know!!
Thanks

Here's the link to the complete recipe - (it's copyrighted)

Chocolate Raspberry Bavarian Cake

Re: Cake recipe seems weird

PostPosted: Sat Apr 15, 2006 6:20 pm
by Mike Filigenzi
hroth521 wrote:Recipe for Chocolate Raspberry Genoise cake calls for 1/3 cup cake flour and 1/3 cup corn starch. Flour and cornstarch at 1:1? Is this common? I'm going to use another genoise recipe for this cake but...Enquiring minds want to know!!
Thanks

Here's the link to the complete recipe - (it's copyrighted)

Chocolate Raspberry Bavarian Cake


Wish my wife was home - she'd probably be able to shed a little more light on this. I took a quick look through Berenbaum's The Cake Bible, though, and found a recipe for Genoise Classique that uses 1/2 cup of cake flour and 1/2 cup minus 1 T. of cornstarch. She says that the cornstarch tightens the grain and holds the moisture supplied by the eggs and sugar. FWIW, this recipe seems to have the highest ratio of cornstarch to cake flour of any of the genoise in the book.

Mike

Re: Cake recipe seems weird

PostPosted: Sat Apr 15, 2006 8:08 pm
by Howard
Thanks, Mike. Looks like the recipe was not so weird after all.
Here is the one I used:

Chocolate Genoise Recipe
This one uses NO cornstarch. Looks like some research is in order for me later.

Re: Cake recipe seems weird

PostPosted: Sat Apr 15, 2006 8:26 pm
by Mike Filigenzi
Howard wrote:Thanks, Mike. Looks like the recipe was not so weird after all.
Here is the one I used:

Chocolate Genoise Recipe
This one uses NO cornstarch. Looks like some research is in order for me later.


Nice article on genoise there!

My wife got home shortly after I posted, so I asked her about the corn starch thing. She said that in her experience, that's something the French do with genoise. She's seen plenty of recipes that don't call for it, so it would seem like it's not necessary.

How'd the cake turn out?

Mike

Re: Cake recipe seems weird

PostPosted: Sat Apr 15, 2006 8:35 pm
by Howard
Well, now that you ask, it seems kind of flat. I wonder if I should just make another layer rather than trying to cut this one in half. Hmmmm.

Re: Cake recipe seems weird

PostPosted: Sun Apr 16, 2006 10:04 am
by Howard
I made another cake using the recipe with the cornstarch. This one rose to about 2 inches which is what I needed. I've yet to assemble it and will try to post a picture when its done.
Thanks for your help.
Howard

Re: Cake recipe seems weird

PostPosted: Mon Apr 17, 2006 2:34 pm
by Jenise
Interesting difference betwen w/ and w/o cornstarch, Howard. That's the only diffference between your two efforts?

Re: Cake recipe seems weird

PostPosted: Mon Apr 17, 2006 2:47 pm
by Howard
Hi Jenise,
I'm at work so I can't compare line by line the recipes. I do know that with the first (no cornstarch) I beat the heck out of it with the beater blade of the kitchenaid mixer. With the second, I used the whip attachment and I think the batter was stiffer. Also, the first recipe called for adding melted butter, which means another session of trying to carefully fold something into the batter. I think the batter wasn't whipped well enough the first time AND I had to manipulate it more than the second so there was more chance to deflate it prior to baking. Don't know if it's significant or not, but it's hard to just blame the cornstarch. Regarding the second, it was delicious so the 1:1 cornstarch didn't add any, well, starchy flavors. I'll try to post a picture when I get home.

Re: Cake recipe seems weird

PostPosted: Mon Apr 17, 2006 4:45 pm
by Mike Filigenzi
Howard wrote:Hi Jenise,
I'm at work so I can't compare line by line the recipes. I do know that with the first (no cornstarch) I beat the heck out of it with the beater blade of the kitchenaid mixer. With the second, I used the whip attachment and I think the batter was stiffer. Also, the first recipe called for adding melted butter, which means another session of trying to carefully fold something into the batter. I think the batter wasn't whipped well enough the first time AND I had to manipulate it more than the second so there was more chance to deflate it prior to baking. Don't know if it's significant or not, but it's hard to just blame the cornstarch. Regarding the second, it was delicious so the 1:1 cornstarch didn't add any, well, starchy flavors. I'll try to post a picture when I get home.


When I get home, I'll check the Cake Bible recipe. She claims that it's a particularly good genoise - I'll be curious to see if hers differs from the one you used.

Mike