I've been watching too much Great British Bake Off (again) and as a direct result decided that I should challenge myself to make something other than my standard butter cakes for a layer cake that I was preparing for some friends' party. I wanted to try a génoise cake, which is leavened with beaten eggs instead of baking powder and baking soda. I also had a can of pumpkin lying around, and with the aforementioned arrival of Fall, I wanted to use it. Happily, Williams-Sonoma had already beaten me to this combination, so I followed their recipes for both génoise cake and pumpkin mousse. These are condensed in the Recipe Box.
I had to bake this cake twice. The first time, the layer was pretty pancake-like; far too thin to be split. The second attempt was far more successful. The differences amount, I think, to the use of fresh eggs, the temperature at which the eggs are used, the degree to which they are beaten and the size of the tool used to fold the mixture.
Even though génoise is leavened with eggs, and the best eggs for whipping are fresh, I first unwisely elected to use some eggs that were perfectly safe but which had admittedly been in the fridge for awhile. I also used them cold, straight out of that fridge, which may or may not have contributed to the failure of this layer. For the génoise, the eggs are beaten whole with the sugar over a double boiler until they reach 140F (60C), or, for those of us without a candy thermometer, until the sugar is entirely dissolved. They are then beaten on high until 'pale and tripled in volume'. 'Pale' may not be the best measurement, as I don't think the eggs had been whipped up enough to support the cake when I stopped at 'pale' the first time. A better measurement is to stop when they hold a ribbon, which I later discovered Martha gives as one of her tips for this type of cake.
That is how far I beat the eggs the second time. These eggs were also fresher and at room temperature when I used them. Room temperature eggs create more volume, and therefore are likely to produce a better result in a cake in which they are the leavening agent. The final important difference between the first cake and the second was the size of the folding tool. The dry ingredients must be carefully folded into the beaten egg and sugar mix, and the wider the spatula the more effective each fold. None of my spatulas are particularly wide, and with the first cake I could hear the bubbles in the batter popping with every turn of the bowl and twist of the spatula. To try to minimize this damage, I used a cake scraper the second time. While this was a bit messier because the scraper lacks a handle, it did work quite well.
The same recipe, same ingredients and same amounts produced twice the cake. What a difference a little practice makes! The third or fourth time might really have been the charm, but with enough cake for three layers I quit while I was ahead.
The pumpkin mousse was far less problematic, once I got past the complications of using leaf gelatine instead of powdered. The recipe calls for 2 1/4 tsp or one sachet of powdered gelatine, which through using Nigella's conversion and some maths (which of course I did not write down) I calculated equals 3 1/3 leaves of Dr Oetker's platinum grade leaf gelatine. I don't know if that's actually accurate, but that's how much I used and it worked just fine.
First set the gelatine to soak as directed on the packet, and then mix a 1/2 cup of the pumpkin puree with the sugar and salt in a saucepan over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Mix in the gelatine and let it cool to room temperature before mixing it into the remaining pumpkin and adding the spices. I didn't have any rum, so I substituted a 1/2 tblsp molasses mixed with a 1/2 tblsp calvados in the hopes that this would approximate its sweet dark flavour.
Like the dry ingredients of the génoise getting folded into the beaten eggs, the pumpkin mixture gets folded into whipped cream. Whip the cream to soft peaks in a large bowl, and use a large spatula (or a cake scraper) to fold the pumpkin mixture into it in thirds.
To set up the cake, the layers should be built up inside of the clean springform pan. I used the first, denser cake layer as the base layer of the cake, and split the second layer to make a three-layer cake; the recipe was intended to be two layers, but why have less cake when you can have more? For a little added punch and moisture, I drizzled the residue of the rum-substitute onto the middle layer.
The whole thing should then be left in the refrigerator for at least four hours, but as I was using the cake the next day, and wanted it to be very stable on its journey, I froze it. To finish it off, pipe a whipped cream border before serving.
The pumpkin mousse essentially tasted like a light pumpkin pie - not a bad thing in my book. It was very good paired with the lightness of the génoise, and added a bit of moisture. The crowning achievement of the cake, however, or its most resounding endorsement, was one host's claim that there had never been so much success in getting Brits to eat pumpkin. Still, I doubt they'll be queuing up at Starbucks for a Pumpkin Spice latte any time soon.
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