Cooking-ez.com

1,045 easy and fully explained recipes, with 11,454 photos and 77 videos

Génoise (Genoa sponge)

A Génoise (or Genoa sponge) is a very light and delicate cake. It is good on its own, but is more often used as the base for many different French-style gâteaux, with layers of mousse or cream between 2 (or more) layers of sponge. It is a tricky recipe to get right, rather technical, but here's a simple and very effective method.

152,486 54.5/5 for 15 ratings

Last modified on: March 10^th 2019

For 1 Génoise (Genoa sponge), you will need:

1 4 eggs
2 50 g Noisette butter
3 110 g caster sugar
4 15 g Vanilla sugar
5 125 g flour
6 30 g flaked almonds (optional)
Total weight: 530 grams

Change those ingredients for: 1 Génoise (Genoa sponge) 2 Génoises (Genoa sponge) 3 Génoises (Genoa sponge)

Change measures: Metric

Metric weight Metric volumes

How long does it take?

Time required for this recipe:

Preparation	Resting	Cooking	Start to finish
33 min.	15 min.	25 min.	1 hour 13 min.

Keeping: A few days in an air-tight tin.

At what time?

When will I finish if I start the recipe at a certain time?
When should I start for the recipe to be ready at a certain time?

Work this out...

Step by step recipe

Stage 1 - 10 min.

Génoise (Genoa sponge) : Photo of step #1

Put 4 eggs in a pan of hot water from the tap and leave for 10 minutes to warm, just to warm eggs not to cook them.

If your eggs have been in the fridge, leave them for 20 minutes, renewing the hot water halfway through.

Stage 2 - 5 min.

Génoise (Genoa sponge) : Photo of step #2

Also fill the food-processor bowl with very hot water and leave to warm up.

This is so that the eggs can be beaten in the warm, which improves their texture. In most Genoa sponge recipes, the eggs are beaten in a bain-marie, which is more difficult.

Stage 3 - 5 min.

Génoise (Genoa sponge) : Photo of step #3

Preheat the oven to 200°C (390°F).

Empty and dry the food-processor bowl, break the eggs into it and add 110 g caster sugar and 15 g Vanilla sugar.

Stage 4 - 10 min.

Génoise (Genoa sponge) : Photo of step #4

Beat immediately at high speed until the mixture is light and fluffy...

Stage 5

Génoise (Genoa sponge) : Photo of step #5

...and sticks to the beater slightly.

Stage 6 - 5 min.

Génoise (Genoa sponge) : Photo of step #6

Reduce the speed and add 50 g Noisette butter, pouring in a thin stream (through a sieve to remove all the small impurities left after heating).

Stage 7 - 5 min.

Génoise (Genoa sponge) : Photo of step #7

Stop the machine and sieve 125 g flour into the mixture.

Stage 8 - 1 min.

Génoise (Genoa sponge) : Photo of step #8

Incorporate the flour into the mixture quickly using a hand whisk.

Important: this is the tricky part. You have incorporated lots of air into the mixture be beating the eggs and sugar together and it is this air in the form of tiny bubbles that will make the mixture foamy and give you a light sponge. You need to incorporate the flour as quickly as possible (within 30 seconds if possible) so that the mixture doesn't "fall".

Stage 9 - 5 min.

Génoise (Genoa sponge) : Photo of step #9

Prepare a mould or tin by lining the bottom with a sheet of cooking parchment, as Genoa sponge sticks terribly and turning it out can be difficult.

You can also scatter a few flaked almonds in the bottom.

Stage 10 - 2 min.

Génoise (Genoa sponge) : Photo of step #10

Pour the batter into the mould and bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

Stage 11 - 25 min.

Génoise (Genoa sponge) : Photo of step #11

Turn out while hot onto a wire rack.

Remarks

For a chocolate Genoa sponge, reduce the flour by 50g and add 20g of powdered chocolate or cocoa powder.

Nutritional information

Whole recipe
Energetic value	Proteins	Carbohydrates	Fats
1,742 Kcal or 7,293 Kj	42 gr	223 gr	81 gr
87 %	16 %	21 %	12 %

Per 100 g
Energetic value	Proteins	Carbohydrates	Fats
329 Kcal or 1,377 Kj	8 gr	42 gr	15 gr
16 %	3 %	4 %	2 %

% are calculated relative to a Recommended Dietary Intake or RDI of 2000 k-calories or 8400 k-joules by day for a woman (change to a man).

How much will it cost?

For 1 Génoise (Genoa sponge) : 2.00 €

Note : These prices are only approximate

Change currency:

Some recipes that use this recipe

Framboisier

This is a classic French raspberry-flavoured dessert. It generally consists of raspberries in cream sandwiched between two layers of cake. In this version, the cake is genoa sponge and the cream is vanilla-flavoured and mixed with mascarpone. This is just as good made as a large rectangle or, as...
13,6184/5 for 10 ratings 2 hours 38 min.

Fraisier (French strawberry cake)

This classic French patisserie is a delicious assembly of 2 layers of genoa sponge filled with strawberries and crème mousseline (confectioner's custard with butter). The sponge is soaked in strawberry syrup and the cake is topped with a thin layer of marzipan.
134,5474/5 for 4 ratings 2 hours 43 min.

Black Forest gateau

Black Forest gateau is a sophisticated dessert which comes from Germany. It is essentially a combination of four flavours: chocolate, cherries, cream and kirsch. Here is my own version.
114,8244.6/5 for 11 ratings 2 hours 32 min.

Baked Alaska

The name may be odd, but Baked Alaska is an elegant dessert. The core of this version is a "sandwich" of vanilla ice cream and blackcurrant sorbet between 2 layers of sponge soaked in rum-flavoured syrup. This is then covered in a layer of meringue and put in a very hot oven for just a few minutes...
12,3214.3/5 for 12 ratings 6 hours 47 min.

See all recipes that use it

Source

After Hervé This, who states that this Michel Bras's method.

More recipes?

This recipe uses (among others)

	Flour: You can get more informations, or check-out other recipes which use it, for example: Prune Far, French Family Cake, Pogne de Romans, How to seal a terrine or casserole dish, Oaty walnut cake , ... All
	Caster sugar: You can get more informations, or check-out other recipes which use it, for example: Toffee apple upside-down cake, Plum tart, Quick Strawberry Millefeuille, Agen prune cake, Home-made terrine of foie gras, ... All
	Noisette butter: You can get more informations, or check-out other recipes which use it, for example: Pistachio "Financiers", Chocolate madeleines, Financiers, Pistachio madeleines, Pancake batter, ... All
	Vanilla sugar: You can get more informations, or check-out other recipes which use it, for example: Plain cake, Jam doughnuts, Tarte Normande, Apricot blancmange, Breton sablé biscuit dough, ... All

Other recipes you may also like

Frozen Nougat

Impress your guests with this delightful dessert, a smooth mixture of meringue and dried fruit, which can easily be prepared several days beforehand.
80,3874.5/5 for 2 ratings 1 hour 28 min.

Confectioner's custard (Crème pâtissière, or French pastry cream)

Quite similar to crème anglaise but much thicker. It is used in many pastries like choux pastry (pâte à choux) or millefeuille.
269,409 303.8/5 for 37 ratings 36 min.

Sweetcrust pastry (pâte sablée)

Sweetcrust pastry is one of the basic pastry of French patisserie, used in many tart and cakes recipes, but it can also be rolled out and cut into biscuits, delicious with tea or coffee. This recipe is given for those who have a mixer (Kenwood, KitchenAid or other), but it can also be done with your...
99,3845/5 for 1 ratings 33 min.

Sugar syrup

This syrup is mainly used as a basis for all sorbet recipes, which consist of this syrup and fruit pulp, but it can be also used to soak biscuits for example, or for fruit salads.
118,4995/5 for 1 ratings 8 min.

French croissants

In this famous and highly technical recipe from a piece of yeast-based flaky dough we are going to cut and shape ("roll") croissants.
98,8204.8/5 for 5 ratings 2 hours 34 min.

News list of cooking-ez.com

Note: We'll never share your email with anyone else.

Post your comment or question

Your 5 comments or questions on this recipe

I'm sure you can't imagine how many genoise I've missed, before having a good and nice one (like on the photos).
Keep courage!
Posted by jh april 12^th 2013 at 15:16 (n° 5)
@ jh Thank you for your reply. I will give attention to this point on future occasions. It may be that I was paying too much attention to the instructions that I have only thirty seconds to get the flour into the batter? I did use a balloon whisk to do the mixing of the flour, and the eggs and sugar were whisked by high-speed whisking in a Kenwood machine. When I have spent time whisking in the flour, I seem to have knocked too much air out of the batter, hence my haste to get the flour in and the batter into the tin
Posted by Biggles april 12^th 2013 at 12:07 (n° 4)
@Kristin: You're right, hand beaten genoa sponge is a sign of courage...

@biggles: It could be a problem of not enoughly mixed flour to the egg+sugar mixture.
Posted by jh april 12^th 2013 at 10:28 (n° 3)
My sponge turns out uneven, far too often. (i.e, one side higher than the other) I don't know if it is the fan that is disturbing the rather light batter. Anyone else having the same trouble please?
Posted by Biggles april 11^th 2013 at 20:27 (n° 2)
Thank you for the recipe and clear instructions. I halved the recipe since I am cooking for two and it still came out beautiful. But beating the eggs and sugar mixture with the hand mixer took a very long time! :)

Thanks,
Kristin
www.erisbeauty.com
Posted by Anonymous april 11^th 2013 at 17:07 (n° 1)

Follow this recipe (as 4 people already do)

If you are interested in this recipe, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the recipe is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.

Note: We'll never share your email with anyone else.

Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.