TWD: Berry Surprise Cake

In 2002 I fulfilled one of my life-long dreams and attended culinary arts school. I had graduated from BYU, was still single and wanted to learn to cook and cook well. I found myself in Colorado attending Cook Street School of Fine Cooking in Denver. Those were some of the best months of my life! As I looked over the recipe for this week, Berry Surprise Cake, I realized that the last time I made genoise was probably in school. Yikes! If I remember correctly, we spent an entire afternoon on how to make genoise and how to treat the eggs carefully so as to have the perfect texture. Maybe I should have referred to my notes from school and I would have had more success this time!

I felt pretty good about my first attempt. The eggs whipped up well and the folding process did not deflate the egg mixture much at all. The cake went into the oven and when I checked on it the first time it had risen and looked just lovely. I went to check again and it had sunk in the middle. Ugh! It wasn't horrible but I decided it was worth a second attempt to see if I could get it right. Second go around I used the suggestion on the the P&Q to "fold" the flour in with a whisk. After "folding" the mixture looked nice and smooth yet was still fluffy enough to almost fill the pan to the top. I thought I had it perfect. Into the oven it went. Much to my dismay, the second cake sunk even more than my first attempt. Drat! Oh well. With two cakes I figured I had more than enough cake to level each cake and hollow a little out of each one so that there was lots of room for the creamy filling. 

Fresh raspberries were hard to come by,  but I found fresh blueberries and blackberries on sale at our local Sunflower Farmers Market and decided they would be a great substitution. I did as others suggested and added a little extra sugar to the filling. Sweet, but not too sweet. I also decided to make a sauce out of some blended blueberries, a little sugar and some fresh lemon juice. Not only was it pretty on the plate, it complimented the cake very well.

We had friends over for dinner on Saturday night and I served the Berry Surprise Cake for dessert. It was received with great success and everyone loved it. Although I have not yet mastered the art of genoise and those "diva" eggs got the best of me, I still ended up with a fabulous cake. I will definitely attempt this one again. I think it would make a lovely summer dessert. If you are interested in the recipe head on over to Meet Me in the Kitchen. 

Until next week...Happy Baking!