Génoise in Strawberry Champagne Sauce

Strawberry spectacular!

Génoise in Strawberry Champagne Sauce, page 242 in the “Spectacular Desserts” section of the “Better Homes and Gardens - New Baking Book”. The exact title is: Olive Oil Génoise in Strawberry Champagne Sauce.

I generally don’t make any dessert that contains the word “spectacular”, or any fancy foreign word (especially in French – which to me is like the couture of all cuisines) in its description. “Spectacular” sounds a little too intimidating to me - if a dessert is “spectacular”, it must be hard to make - and “génoise”?? Well, that just sounds too sophisticated and I didn’t even know what the word meant. And so for the past two years since I purchased this “Better Homes and Gardens - New Baking Book”, never once did I try any of the recipes in the “Spectacular Desserts” section, that is, until last week.

Olive Oil Génoise in Strawberry Champagne Sauce is the first of the “Spectacular Desserts” recipes that I have ever tried. I chose this recipe because after reading the step-by-step instruction carefully, I realized how simple it actually was (especially if you own a KitchenAid Stand Mixer). In addition, I also liked the fact that it only contains 275 calories per serving, which is a fraction of what those other fancy desserts usually contain. How can I not love this “Better Homes and Gardens - New Baking Book”? Not only can I pick and choose any of the 600 plus recipes based on how easy the recipe is and how nice the picture looks in the book, but I can also pick and choose the recipe based on its nutritional value.

The recipe for the génoise calls for 6 eggs, ¾ cup sugar, 1/3 cup extra-light olive oil (not extra-virgin olive oil), and 1¼ cups sifted all-purpose flour, and the mixture is to be baked in a 9-inch springform pan. However, since I didn’t want to use so many eggs, I only used 2/3 of each of the ingredients, starting with 4 eggs, etc. (hence, I’d like to speculate that I only consumed 2/3 of the given calories and fat per serving,) and I used a 6½-inch springform pan. To my relief, the génoise turned out well and those high school math classes really paid off. The génoise was nice and fluffy and the strawberry champagne sauce gave a complementary fruity-syrupy flavor to it. It was spectacular indeed!

P.s. After googling “génoise”, I now know what the word means.