This cake is made with Genoise sponge, filled with cream cheese, whipped cream, white chocolate and spicy poached grapes added in the filling and decorated with caramelized bananas and dark chocolate.
As you may see from this piece of the old cake, the filling has a pink colour due to the poached grapes I added.
Note: The post has been updated ten years later, by new photos and videos, when I made again in 2019.
I left some of the old photos, so that you can see the original cake. The new recipe does not have any poached grapes in it.
What is a Genoise Sponge
A Genoise sponge is a cake that is leavened naturally with eggs using the foaming method which is the gentle warming of the eggs with sugar and beating them until they are foamy and thick.
It is a delicate cake which forms the basis for many filled, frosted, and glazed cakes.
Until now I was making a basic sponge cake without butter, so when I saw this recipe, I decided to give it a try as the method is much different than the other sponge.
To make a Chocolate Genoise sponge:
Reduce the all-purpose flour by 1/4 cup and substitute with 1/4 cup cocoa powder.
Sift together the all-purpose flour, cocoa powder and corn flour (cornstarch).
Basic Genoise Sponge Cake
Génoise sponge is an essential base for many pastry applications. Read on to see some more marvelous recipes you can make using this sponge cake base.
Ingredients
- 50 grams unsalted butter, melted
- 6 large eggs, room temperature
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon caramel flavoured vanilla essence
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 120 grams (1 cup) sifted cake flour (see note)
Instructions
- Position rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to180°C (350F°) or 160oC if using a convection oven.
- Line a 26 - 28 cm (10 - 11-inch) spring form cake pan with parchment paper.
- Combine the flour with corn flour and sift twice Mix in the salt.
- Melt the butter in small saucepan or frying pan over low heat, until it starts slightly browning, until the moment you see specs of brown bits. Allow to cool and pour into a large mixing bowl; set aside.
- Put the eggs with sugar, over a double boiler and with a hand mixer, beat until white and fluffy, for about 10 minutes.
- Pour the melted butter, and mix until combined.
- Add the flour a little at a time and gently fold with a spatula with each addition just until incorporated. Scrape spatula from the bottom to catch any pockets of flour and stop mixing when no streaks of flour remain. Be careful not to deflate the batter.
- Pour batter into prepared tin.
- Smooth batter evenly and bake until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 30 - 35 minutes, depending on your oven.
- Cool 10 minutes, then run a table knife blade around the outside edge of cake, freeing the sides and allowing air to get under the layer.
- Invert cake onto rack, remove the parchment paper and allow to cool completely.
- Our sponge cake is now ready to be decoratedas we like.
Notes
To make your own cake flour add 2 teaspoon corn flour (cornstarch) in a measuring cup and then fill it with all-purpose flour.
Sift twice and mix in the salt.
Nutrition Information
Yield 12 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 152Total Fat 6gSaturated Fat 3gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 3gCholesterol 102mgSodium 82mgCarbohydrates 21gFiber 0gSugar 13gProtein 4g
A Genoise Sponge Cake for our 29th Wedding Anniversary
“Knowing you will be with me in all my tomorrows, makes my today so wonderful”.
Flashback on the old recipe
On Saturday morning I was still feeling terrible after three days of flu so when my husband asked me if I needed anything from the supermarket, I told him to buy a few basic things such as eggs, flour, cream cheese and white chocolate.
Yesterday morning I was already feeling much better so I started thinking what to make with the ingredients I had.
I knew that I wanted to make a white cake, as the last cake I made two weeks ago, was a very dark chocolate cake. (I was planning to post this cake last week but it has to wait a few more days).
For the filling I made some whipped cream which I used half with the cream cheese and flavoured with some poached red grapes.
I made these again on Tuesday, this time I made a larger amount and used some different spices such as cinnamon, cloves, peppers and star anise.
When I pureed the grapes to add to the cream cheese mixture I made sure that there were a couple of peppercorns in the mixture as well as a clove.
That gave the cream cheese a lovely spicy taste as well as some colour to the cream.
For the topping I used half the whipped cream with white chocolate and baileys liqueur.
I caramelized the two ripe bananas with honey, brown sugar and almonds.
When I finished the decoration I still thought that something was missing so I melted some couverture chocolate and added the leftover almonds and caramel which were in the tin.
Since my piping bag was already in the sink I just used a plastic bag to make some stripes, which however did not work very well because of the almonds.
The list of ingredients looks huge but it was not a very difficult cake to make.
The whole procedure takes about two hours, including cooling and refrigerating time as simultaneously you can prepare the next step.
You can use the same mixer bowl to whip the cream, then to add the cream cheese and a third time to whip the chocolate and whipping cream without having to wash it three times.
The same applies for the bain Marie in which you can melt both chocolates.
Although the cake was supposed to wait for today, no one of us could wait until today, so we ate half the cake yesterday and the children had a second piece as well.
Update April 2019:
A few days ago, after Easter it was my second son’s birthday and the nameday of my son George so I made this cake again but without the grapes, as there are no grapes in April.
This time I used three bananas. To carameize them I used 3/4 cup crushed almonds with the skin on, in which I added 1/2 cup cane sugar, 1/4 cup honey, 1/2 tsp cinannamon, which I mixed with some water, just enough to make it like a paste.
I cut one of the bananas into longer slices, as at the time I was thinking of making a different decoration on top but I rejected that idea. I then dipped the bananas in this mixture and baked them for half an hour and let them cool.
When the bananas were baked, the above mixture of honey, sugar, water and cinnamon created a syrup, which I used to wet the sponge.
I cut the Genoise sponge in three layers and on the first I added some of the cream and the longer slices of bananas.
I made the filling and topping with 400 grams cream cheese, 400 ml heavy cream, 200 grams white chocolate and flavoured it with caramel flavoured vanilla essence.
I reserved some round pieces of bananas for the outer decoration and some were pureed, together with the almonds and mixed in half of the filling and some bananas were added among the layers.
With the leftover cream I decorated the cake.
Before serving the cake, I added some chocolate shavings on top.
White Chocolate Genoise Sponge Cake with Caramelized Bananas
This cake is made with Genoise sponge, filled with cream cheese, whipped cream, white chocolate and decorated with caramelized bananas.
Ingredients
- Basic Génoise Sponge Cake, as above
Caramelized Grapes (for the original recipe):
- 25 red grapes (verikon or fraoula) deseeded
- 1 ½ cups of Mavrodaphne or Commandaria wine
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 3 - 4 cloves
- 1 tsp peppercorns (black, red, green, white)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- ½ tsp crushed coriander seeds
- 1/8 tsp yellow mustard seeds
- 1/8 tsp salt
Caramelized bananas:
- 2 ripe bananas
- 2 tsp thyme honey
- 2 tbsp brown cane sugar
- 1/3 cup almonds, grinded
Whipped cream:
- 750 ml heavy cream
- 2 tsp icing sugar
Cream cheese filling:
- 400 grams cream cheese
- ½ of the whipped cream
- 2 tbsp pureed grape sauce
- 25 ml baileys liqueur
White chocolate:
- Half of the whipped cream
- 200 grams white chocolate (Milka)
- 25 ml baileys
- 1 tsp butter
Dark chocolate:
- 50 grams couverture chocolate
- 1 tsp butter
- 2 tbsp whipped cream
- Leftover almonds and caramel from bananas (optional), about 1 tablespoon
Instructions
- Prepare the caramelized grapesand set aside.
- Prepare the sponge, as above.
- Prepare the bananas: In a bowl add the honey and the bananas cut about 1 cm thick diagonally. In another bowl mix sugar with almonds.
- Coat bananas with honey and then dip in the sugar-almond mixture.
- As soon as the sponge cake is ready put theme on parchment paper and bake for 15 minutes Set aside to cool.
- Whipped cream: Beat cream with icing sugar until peaks form Divide mixture and refrigerate half Note: I did not add too much sugar in the cream as the white chocolate I used (MILKA) was very sweet.
- Cream cheese filling: Add cream cheese to the remaining whipped cream and whip. In a food processor add the poached grapes with a couple of peppercorns and one clove, as well as the baileys liqueur and process. Add to the cream cheese mixture and refrigerate until ready to use.
- White chocolate: In a bain Marie melt the chocolate and add the baileys and butter and mix. Allow to cool and put in the mixer bowl and whisk until creamy. Add the half whipped cream and mix to combine. Reserve a couple of teaspoons of whipped cream for the dark chocolate.
- Dark chocolate: In a bain Marie melt the chocolate. Add the whipped cream, butter, caramel and almonds and mix. Allow to cool before using to decorate the cake.
Putting the cake together:
- Divide the sponge cake and put one piece in a platter.
- Put the spring form ring on the cake and add the cream cheese filling. Put the second piece of sponge cake and remove the parchment paper. Refrigerate for an hour.
- Remove the spring form ring and decorate the cake with the white chocolate cream.
- Add the caramelized bananas and the dark chocolate.
- Serve the cake with poached red grapes or only with the syrup of the grapes.
Notes
You can substitute the grapes with any other fruit you prefer.
Nutrition Information
Yield 12 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 602Total Fat 45gSaturated Fat 26gTrans Fat 1gUnsaturated Fat 15gCholesterol 115mgSodium 271mgCarbohydrates 38gFiber 2gSugar 31gProtein 7g
PIN FOR LATER
Kopiaste and Kali Orexi!
lissie
Saturday 17th of October 2009
Belated Happy Wedding Anniversary, Ivy! May the Lord bless you and your husband with many more happy years of togetherness!
you have made a very tempting and delicious cake...
even I was not well for a few days...actually under bedrest
Polprav
Friday 16th of October 2009
Hello from Russia! Can I quote a post in your blog with the link to you?
cakebrain
Thursday 15th of October 2009
Happy Anniversary! What a terrific looking cake to celebrate with!
Rosabela
Thursday 15th of October 2009
Congratulations on your wedding anniversary!! 29 years is a long time :-) The cake looks and sounds wonderful. Thanks for the tip about a replacement for cake flour. Now I can try the many recipes that I overlooked that called for cake flour. :-)
Lisa
Wednesday 14th of October 2009
Glad to hear you are feeling better. A very happy anniversary to you and your husband! Such a beautiful cake to celebrate.