Strawberry Génoise with Whipped Cream

I made this a while back; it's a recipe that would be good for people that don't like a very sweet dessert.  Unfortunately, I prefer mine a tad sweeter than this and believe there are better recipes for génoise out there.  This is a lot of work, too--quite time consuming.  The beginning part where you have to hold the bowl over the water made me feel like my arm was going to fall off before I got it to the correct temperature lol.  Needless to say, I won't be doing this one again.

Original recipe here:
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/strawberry-genoise-with-whipped-cream.html

Ingredients:

--génoise--
4 eggs
1/2 c. sugar
3/4 c. cake flour, sifted
3 T. unsalted butter, melted

--filling and topping--
1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. water
1 tsp. kirsch
2 c. heavy cream
2 tsp. confectioners' sugar
3 c. strawberries, hulled and cut into to slices; reserve a few to garnish

Instructions:

1. For génoise: heat oven to 375°F.  Line bottom of a 9" springform pan with parchment paper.

2. In metal bowl of electric mixer, whisk together the eggs and sugar by hand until combined.

3. Place bowl over, but not touching, simmer water in a saucepan.  Gently whisk until mixture reaches 140°F on an instant-read thermometer (this took me far longer than the supposed 3 minutes the recipe indicated.  Am guessing they used room temperature eggs?)

4. Put bowl on the mixer and beat with the whisk attachment until mixture is pale and almost tripled in volume, 5 to 8 minutes.

5. Remove bowl from the mixer.  Sift the flour over the egg mixture in 2 additions and carefully fold in with a rubber spatula.

6. Fold a large dollop into the melted butter, then fold back into the egg mixture.

7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.  Bake until top of cake is browned, about 20 minutes.  Transfer pan to wire rack and let cool completely.

8. Run a table knife around edge of the pan, then pop off side of pan.  Invert the cake onto a work surface and turn the cake right side up, leaving the parchment in place.

9. Slice the cake into 2 equal layers.  Put the top layer, cut side up, on a serving plate.

10. For filling and topping: in a small saucepan over medium heat, combine granulated sugar and water.  Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves.  Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature (I transferred mine to a different bowl to help this go faster).

11. Add kirsch to the sugar syrup mixture.  brush cake with about half of the syrup.

12. Whip the cream and confectioners' sugar to soft peak stage.

13. Place sliced strawberries in a bowl (except for the reserved ones).  Fold about 1/4 of the cream into the berries.

14. Spread mixture over top of cake on serving platter.  Position remaining cake layer, cut side down, on top.  Remove parchment paper.

15. Brush with remaining syrup, then spread remaining cream over top and sides of cake.

16. Use reserved strawberries to decorate/garnish cake as desired.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.