June | 2012 | Is this a keeper?

I was very excited to tackle the French Strawberry Cake and leave my Oasis Naan behind ha ha! This recipe was intriguing because I didn’t know what a genoise batter was and it allowed me to buy a couple of new kitchen gadgets which is always fun. 🙂 If you would like the recipe for French Strawberry Cake you can check out our host blogs…Sophia’s Sweets and Allison of Sleep Love Think Dine. I made this cake for our Father’s Day celebration…made two of them to make sure everyone would be able to have a piece. It is getting to be a tradition as to “which” new recipe I will be bringing for them to try out!! 🙂 Since I am not a huge fan of whipped cream, I made one the way it is suggested all covered in whipped cream and one more rustic, with whipped cream only on the top and inside the layers.

So, I had to look up what a genoise batter was and thought I would share for those of you who also don’t know…”Génoise is a basic building block of much French pâtisserie and is used for making several different types of cake. A génoise cake (pronounced [ʒenwaːz]; Genoese cake or Genovese cake) is an Italian sponge cake named after the city of Genoa and closely associated with Italian and French cuisine that does not use any chemical leavening, instead using air suspended in the batter during mixing to give volume to the cake. It is a whole-egg cake, unlike some other sponge cakes that beat their yolks and whites of the eggs separately”. So light and airy!

The recipe sounded intimidating to me…it even warns you when the batter is at it’s most fragile state. I have to say, I followed the directions exactly and had no problems. I quite enjoyed the new process. The recipe calls for beating the eggs for 4-5 minutes…I found it to be more like 15 minutes but I did acheive the “ribbon” they were describing! 🙂 Check out the air bubbles in the batter!

To keep the air and not overfold in the flour, I sifted the flour over the batter. I felt this really helped to keep the batter from deflating.

I have to admit I was very skeptical that I was going to be able to cut this pretty thin cake into thirds!!! I froze the cake and then used my new serrated baking knife…wow what a difference the right tool can make! It was a challenge but I can’t imagine how I would have done it with a regular knife. Look at the air in the cake!!! I thought this looked amazing. 🙂

I worked on the strawberries: adding the sugar and letting them sit….and then the whipped cream.

Now to the assembling of the three layer cake!!…got to use my second new gadget…an offset knife! 🙂 Now I wonder how I never had one before…worth it!

I had so much fun making this recipe and it was a total hit at our family celebration! My niece told me it was “the best cake I have ever eaten!”…which I told her I would just have to include in my blog! Most people had two pieces so I would have to say…this one is definitely a keeper!

I was still so excited over the success of the sticky buns when I began the new recipe, Oasis Naan. It sounded pretty simple in comparison to the recipes we have been tackling lately!! 🙂 If you would like to have this recipe check out the host blogs at Always Add More Butter and Of Cabbages and King Cakes

I thought this flat bread sounded really good and was anxious to try it out…especially since I have had some success and not so intimidated by bread recipes anymore! I think that was my first mistake… shouldn’t have felt so confident!! 😦

I followed the recipe and found the dough to come together nicely. I had my oven hot, the dough sectioned into 8 pieces, and my toppings all ready. I prepped the dough, liberally piercing the center as instructed, sprinkled the toppings and popped two of them into the oven. Something was wrong…I did not have “flat” bread but “puffed” bread! Oh no!! Ok, I thought…well the next two I will really pierce the center, leaving a nice crust around the outside…nope!

Needless to say, my Oasis Naan was not a flat bread at all but quite a puffed bread. It tasted ok, but actually everyone thought it was very doughy…more like a pretzel….especially with the coarse salt. Not sure where I went wrong and will be very curious to check out other blogs to see if they had similar results. I have to say, I still really had fun and the family, as usual, was up for the tasting. Not too sure I would make these again, so I would have to say these weren’t a keeper.

Check out my Oasis Naan “puffed” bread… ;0 You can totally see my strong piercing…what a crack up!!!