HCB - Red Fruit Shortcake

This week's cake was a winner! The Heavenly Cake Bakers baked the Red Fruit Shortcake. Although this sponge cake is supposed to be topped with 3 kinds of red fruit (strawberries, raspberries and red currants), I made it with all strawberries which worked really well too. That's not where the deviation from the recipe ended (and if you've read my blog a couple times, you're not surprised) :o) For a change of pace, I baked the cake in a heart shaped pan. The genoise rose beautifully and is probably my most successful (aka high) genoise to date! I also decided to make my standby orange syrup to brush on the genoise, mainly because I wasn't patient enough to wait for the macerating fruit to release all of their juices :o)

Who says heart-shaped cakes are for V-day only? :o)

Here are some step-by-step pictures:

Look at that height!

With such a lovely height, I decided to cut the cake in half. I brushed both halves with syrup and spread some homemade Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam in between and on top.

Homemade jam in the middle and on top. Yum!

Thinly sliced strawberry were neatly arranged on top for a more dramatic effect :o)

Ta-dah!

Of course I have to share with a picture of the inside. The crumb of this cake is absolutely beautiful. It absorbed the syrup so well while remaining soft and tender, without becoming soggy.

Look at that crumb!

I served this cake following a Cous Cous dinner at our house. My friend Wafae and her family enjoyed it very much. For variety, Wafae baked and brought a banana cake that was topped with jam and toasted sliced almonds. Nobody went hungry that night :o)

Final thoughts/tips:

• Hubby loved this cake too but then again, I knew he would because he prefers light cakes like sponge cakes. He gave it an 8.5 out of 10.
• I loved this cake too. It's definitely something I'd make again. The best part is that it doesn't take that long to make.
• Whenever I make genoise, I don't bother taking the eggs out of the fridge ahead of time, because they will be heated on top of simmering water anyway. For the same reason, I use regular granulated sugar instead of superfine sugar, because it dissolve in the warm egg mixture anyway.
• As you might remember from my previous post, I forgot the sugar in last week's cupcakes. This week I tried very hard not to forget anything, and yet I did. I forgot the vanilla extract in the genoise but after the orange syrup soak, nobody seemed to notice :o)