I once had a discussion with a Parfumier who believed that taste was secondary to the nose. She explained that one will experience the fragrance of a strawberry before one actually tastes it. I said, strawberries don’t have a fragrance, unless they’re warm, and even then it’s a stretch. But she insisted that the reverse is true.

This Strawberry Shortcake Genoise is so intensely strawberry that I couldn’t help but recall that conversation. Does my nose taste these strawberries or is my mouth doing the work? I concluded that what was happening was not in my nose, but dans ma bouche. For sure.

Incidentally, I think that I prefer Strawberry Shortcake with traditional shortcake to genoise. While the texture of the genoise is beautiful, a cake that is dense and a little crusty, a cake that soaks up the juices, and softens even more with whipped cream is my preference to the light, delicate and airy genoise called for in this recipe.

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