Makes 1 very large cake or 2 large layers.
One of the very best basic cakes, from which any number of tortes can be made, Genoese is especially good for soaking up rum or brandy, as in a Zuppa Inglese.
• 8 eggs
• 1½ cups sugar
• grated rind of 1 lemon
• 1¾ cups sifted flour
• ½ cup butter, melted and cooled
1. Break the eggs into a large bowl, and place that bowl inside an even larger one, which is about half full of hot water. Add the sugar and grated lemon rind to the eggs and beat them with an electric mixer for 8 to 10 minutes. They should be puffed up to 3 times their former volume, creamy white in color, and they should fall in a thick ribbon when scooped up with a spoon.
2. Take the bowl of beaten eggs out of the hot water and put it in a bowl of cold water. Beat the eggs for several more minutes, until they are cool. Sprinkle the sifted flour over them and fold it in with a small spatula or flat wooden spoon, using the minimum number of strokes needed to blend the flour into the eggs.
3. Pour the melted and cooled butter over the cake batter, leaving out only the milky sediment in the bottom of the saucepan. Again, fold in the butter with light, smooth strokes, stopping as soon as it is incorporated.
4. Pour the batter into a large (10-inch) buttered and floured springform pan, or into 2 large (9-inch) buttered and floured layer pans. Smooth the batter very gently in the pans, and bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for about 45 to 50 minutes, or until the cake is golden brown on top and pulling away from the sides of the pan.
5. Remove the cake or cakes from the pans and cool on cake racks.
