Ever have a beautiful recipe turn out horribly bad? My apologies to Flo Braker (contributing author), as the following ‘perfect genoise’ ended up being ‘not-so’.
I whipped together the sugar and eggs for close to 30 minutes (almost six times longer than what was called for) and still ended up with no ‘ribbon’. And as you can clearly see, I couldn’t get the recommended three layers out of the genoise… heck, there was no way I was getting TWO layers out of that thing. So, to salvage the cake and that night’s dessert, I just topped it with the macerated strawberries and whipped cream. No fluffy cake layers, just a straightforward strawberry shortcake-type treat. I have no doubt that it could taste any better; however, it could’ve looked prettier. 
Sophia of Sophia’s Sweets and Allison of Sleep Love Think Dine are our hostesses for the week. Click the links to their blogs for the recipe and as always, to check out who participated in this edition, head on over to the TWD ‘Leave-Your-Link’ post!
French Strawberry Cake (pg. 273)
Source: Baking With Julia by Dorie Greenspan
{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
Ha–that’s what my husband wanted me to do with my cake. He didn’t think I could slice it into layers without destroying it. He was right. haha. Mine didn’t rise much at all, either. I only had the patience to beat it for 15 minutes. I gave up after that. Oh well…hope I learn some secrets, b/c it seems like it’s the base cake for a bunch of other recipes in the book. Yikes.
It looks beautiful even without the height. You might try it again. I had my KA on 4 and it was KA and it was taking too long to whip the eggs so I turned up my KA to 6 and things went much smoother.
Your cake may not have been perfect, but your photos are stunning! I love the plate too. And you are totally right, what matters is how it tastes – and I don’t think it would have tasted any better with a perfect genoise.
Your dessert looks good! I think lots of us had issues with the genoise but you came up with a good save! I have the professional model KA and it took about 6 minutes on medium to get the ribbons!
Great decorating twist. It looks delicious!
Well Jessica….you made your cake look absolutely gorgeous! I had a terrible time with this recipe! Beautiful photos!!
If we ate with our eyes yours would certainly taste fantastic. I made it twice. The first time I whipped on medium and never got a great ribbon. The second time on high and it whipped much better.
From the first picture, you can’t even tell it is not a three layered cake
I ended up beating the eggs and sugar mixture for 10 min on medium-high speed.
Your cake looks great! If you hadn’t told me, I’d have thought it came out perfectly.
Wow, 30 minutes- that’s dedication! I hope it tasted as great as it looks!
I think yours turned out beautifullly, especially in the photo… nice job!
I still think it looks delicious! So disappointing when a recipe doesn’t turn out as planned, glad you were able to salvage it!
oh what a pity yours did not turn out as expected.. but to give you credit .. you still manage to make the cake look so luscious.. one almost forgets about the cake!!!:)
You made it look very pretty, Jessica. And even though mine didn’t rise either we still liked it.
It looks delish regardless – I’d happily tuck into this.
Rise or no rise your cake looks fantastic! Very beautifully done.
Looks fantastic!
I hate it when a recipe doesn’t turn out right for no reason, but you pulled off a win with the look of it!
Your photos are so lovely! My cake didn’t go as planned either. Oh well. We both know we are great bakers so we’ll definitely get it next time, right?
Love the strawberries on top- way to roll with it!
We are our own hardest critics, aren’t we? I didn’t care for mine either but the family enjoyed it. Once I stopped beating myself up about it, it was better! I am still in debate with myself about making this one again sometime…
I love the perfect rusticity (that’s probably not a real word) of your cake. Great save
that’s too bad, but you still managed to get something pretty tasty out of it!