A Genois

I have a sweet tooth. I always wanted to be able to bake yummy stuff from scratch, but the only thing that ever came out half right was a lemon pound cake. I don't think I have even made cookies, Marv and the girls did the cookie baking.

I have found a couple places close to where I live that have delicious pastries, Porto's and 85 degrees, and Lizzie always brings me a slice of cake from San Diego's Extraordinary Desserts. But still I'd like to bake something once in a while.

Now I have time to experiment and try to bake something easy. I found a recipe for  "Bizcocho borracho de naranja" , is a cake that uses flour, sugar, eggs and butter. Once is baked and while still warm, you make little holes with a toothpick and bathe it in a mixture of orange juice and sugar that has been cooked and cooled. I added some Grand Marnier to make it truly "borracho". The results were underwhelming. It was too dense and dry, and the mixture of orange juice and sugar didn't add anything. But I ate some.

So last night I tried again. It was almost midnight and I wasn't sleepy, so I found another recipe that was even easier, I halved it because  I didn't want to have a lot left over. It called for 4 eggs, half cup sugar and half cup flour and 1/4 tsp baking powder. No butter. The secret was to beat the sugar and eggs for a long time till it almost tripled in volume. SUCCESS!

It was delicious!!! I ate about a quarter of it while still warm. Then I added the orange juice and sugar and cooked it until it was caramelized, then added the Grand Marnier. Awesome. I should have taken a picture but there's only a little piece left. 

I will be making some variations of this delicious sponge cake, and I will take pictures :)