Genoise part one

  As it's already the fourth day of the year, you've probably had enough of dieting and health and are, following half a week of iron will power, desperate for a little bit of well earned cake. Being sympathetic to your needs, I'm happy to oblige.

  Actually, as it's the birthday of the management's mum, also known as senior management, (Just stick to the recipes and leave the jokes to comedians. -Ed.), I volunteered to make a cake. I threw together a couple of genoise sponges and as they are so easy and spectacular, I thought I'd share the recipe along with a hot cooking tip I just discovered.

Fresh out of the oven and smelling heavenly.

  But first an anecdote. The genoise sponge is a classic old recipe and was one of the things we did at cooking school, though we had to do it the old way because that's what college was like. The 'old' way is by hand and with separated eggs. In general, you have to be careful using aluminium pots and bowls because, unlike stainless, if you use metal implements you end up scraping aluminium particles into the food.

  The chef told us to put twelve yolks and a pile of sugar into a stainless bowl and (I think we can see where this is going. -Ed.) whisk it over a pan of simmering water until they turn white. When you're whisking by hand this takes about half a very long and exhausting hour. About twenty minutes in, one of my classmates exclaimed to the chef that her eggs had gone grey. I don't need to explain how that happened and nor did the chef. He just inverted her mixing bowl onto the table and told her to clean up and go home. Whoopsie.

  Don't worry, you're going to use an electric whisk so the eggs are whisked in about five minutes. Also, it's really unlikely you have any aluminium mixing bowls so you'll be fine. Whisking over a pan of simmering water gives you a lovely, thick and well aerated mix and is part of the secret to this cake's success, though I've just realised that I need to tell you more so come back tomorrow as I'm not going to fit it all in tonight.

Kirk out

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