Chocolate Genoise with Berries

I was quite excited last week as I bought a new camera, Fujifilm X-Pro 1.

As much as I like my old camera GF1, I think it’s time to upgrade.

I took a few shoots in the front garden, it’s bright & sunny so flowers are blooming.

To celebrate my sister’s birthday, I baked a chocolate genoise filled with layers of berries.

We had an incredible tea time, we had freshly baked scones, hazelnut macaroons with fruity & tangy berry tea.

A great way to enjoy the spring.

Recipe:

Chocolate Genoise (2 x 8” round)

8 eggs

220 g caster sugar

60 g unsalted butter

75 g cocoa powder

220 g plain flour

Preheat oven to 180C & grease two 8” baking pans.

Combine eggs & sugar in a large mixing bowl & sit over a pan of simmering water, beat with electric beater at high speed until hot then remove from heating.

Continue beating for another 8-10 min until pale & fluffy.

Melt the butter until it starts to turn golden (beurre noisette) then with the whisk running add the melted butter.

Sieve in the flour & fold gently into the mixture.

Divide the batter between the pans and bake for 25-30 min or until a skewer comes out clean.

Cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out on a wire rack to cool.

Syrup

100 g water

2 tbsp Grand Marnier

Combine all ingredients.

Decoration
450 g blueberry, raspberry & blackberry (150 g each)

300 g strawberry
300 g whipping cream
50 g 72% chocolate, chopped

Whisk up 250g cream with 1 tbsp of sugar.

Make chocolate ganache by melting the chocolate with 50 g of cream over simmering water.

Assembling
Carefully slice off the top crust from each cake, cut the sponges in half horizontally to make 4 sponge layers & brush generously with the syrup.

Place the bottom layer on a cake stand & then spread with a layer of whipped cream.

Layer some berries on top, slicing larger ones, sit the second sponge on top.

Cover with cream & berries then sit the final sponge on top, cover with chocolate ganache and berries to decorate.