Steam-Baked Genoise Sponge Cake

Genoise sponge cake is, frankly, a tricky cake to get right. It’s leavened entirely by whipped whole eggs, which must be handled delicately in order to keep their loft. But baking the cake with a bit of steam in the Anova Precision Oven gives the cakes a bit more lift while baking and its precise temperature control means you don’t need to second-guess your baking time. Still, you’ll want to make sure to follow the recipe carefully before placing the cakes in the oven. Be sure to avoid greasing the sides of the cake pan; this batter needs to grip those sides to rise to its fullest height. Warming the eggs and sugar together before beating will help to dissolve the sugar quickly and help the protein molecules in the eggs unravel, which in turn will help them to hold more air and help it to rise. When it comes time to incorporate your dry ingredients, you’ll want to gently sift a mixture of flour and cornstarch over the surface of the egg foam before even more gently folding to combine. From there, you’ll mix a small amount of the batter with melted butter (think of it like tempering egg yolks) before (once again!) folding it very carefully into the main batter bowl. You’ll notice a pattern here — be gentle when mixing! Tapping the cake pan on the counter before baking helps to eliminate any unstable bubbles that formed when transferring the batter to the cake pans. Tapping it once more when the cake is finished baking allows the air inside the cake to be released, which prevents it from collapsing. This recipe makes two 1- to 1 ½-inch thick, 8-inch round cakes that make an excellent blank canvas for whipped cream and seasonal fruit. You can also add in additional flavor by drizzling the cakes with flavored simple syrup or your favorite liqueur. If you’d like to make a four-layer cake as pictured above, you’ll want to make the recipe twice; we don’t recommend doubling the batter mixture. We strongly recommend using the gram weights to measure the ingredients for this recipe.