“A party without cake is just a meeting”
― Julia Child
The Quatre-Quart is a French classic for the goûter (children’s tea). It is a cake you can find in pretty much every shop in France, for those of you who don’t live in France but want a delicious and pretty straight forward cake recipe, you have found what you are looking for! This will bring a touch of French butter heaven in your kitchen!
Le Quatre-Quart, an incomplete history:
After doing quite a bit of research on the origin of the Quatre-Quart and asking people around, I am sad to admit that all I know is that it comes from Brittany and was originally made using fresh eggs, flour, salted butter and sugar! An equal amount of the four ingredients (each ingredient representing a quarter, explaining its name… Four quarters) is used making this cake not only super easy to make but one of French mothers’ favourite!
The Lord Pound-Cake, a British cousin:
Did you know that the Quatre-Quart has a British cousin called the Pound-Cake. As its name states, the Pound-Cake is composed of a pound of self-raising flour, a pound of eggs, a pound of sugar and a pound of butter!
The story of Lord Pound-Cake is first shared in 1747, Hannah Glasse in her book, “The Art of Cookery made plain and easy”. This recipe evolved over the centuries with the invention of raising agents and by introducing more liquids to the recipe making it lighter and fluffier, transforming it into what we now know as a sponge-like cake.
It will probably make you gain a pound, as it is a bomb of indulgence!
“I think one of the terrible things today is that people have this deathly fear of food: fear of eggs, say, or fear of butter. Most doctors feel that you can have a little bit of everything.”
― Julia Child
The original Quatre-Quart recipe:
. What you will need:
. Three eggs (weight your eggs as it is the base ingredient of this recipe- An egg weights between 50 and 55 grammes)
. The same weight of flour
. The same weight of salted butter (you can use plain butter if you prefer)
. The same weight of sugar
. You can always add a bit of vanilla extract, lemon or orange zest or even some nuts or chocolate pieces if you want.
How to do it:
. Pre-heat your oven at 180°C.
. Separate the egg whites from the yolks. Put the butter to melt at low heat (make sure you keep an eye on it!). While your butter melts from hotness… Mix the egg yolks and the sugar until bubbly and foamy. Add the flour to the mix while alternating with the melted butter until you get a nice smooth mix.
. Whisk your egg white nicely until firm! It’s time to gently add those to your batter. Make sure you incorporate the stiffened whites gently to keep the air in the batter as these are your only raising agent (but despite from that, no pressure at all!)! If you want to add any extra ingredient, you can do it now.
. Put the batter in a tin lined with parchment paper or buttered and floured. Bake your mix in your preheated oven for 30 minutes. I advise you to time it at 20 and to check with a knife if the cake is cooked fully, if something sticks to the knife, leave it in the oven for 5 minutes more.
You will see that the cake will raise quite a bit and then crack at some point (cake can crack under the pressure too!). Your cake will have the texture of pillow made from tastiness, if baked properly, you should be able to poke it without destroying its shape. This cake recipe without raising agent is incredible, it is also the vintage, pre-18th century, way of making cakes fluffy and light! Cooking is an incredible way to learn more about history!
Baking trick #14: If you see that the top of your cake is colouring too fast causing your cake to burn before actually baking, cover it with some tin foil or wax paper to prevent this from happening!
!!!You are welcome!!!
The modern Quatre-Quart recipe:
. What you will need:
. Three eggs (weight your eggs as it is the base ingredient of this recipe- An egg weights between 50 and 55 grammes)
. The same weight of flour
. The same weight of salted butter (you can use plain butter if you prefer)
. The same weight of sugar
. A tea spoon of baking powder (count a third of a tea spoon per egg)
. A pinch of salt
. You can always add a bit of vanilla extract, lemon or orange zest or even some nuts or chocolate pieces if you want.
How to do it:
. Pre-heat your oven at 180°C.
. Mix the eggs with the sugar until you have a nice bubbly and foamy mix. Put the butter to melt (make sure it doesn’t burn or colours!). Add the flour, the pinch of salt and the baking powder progressively to the mix. Finally, add the melted butter to the mix. If you want to add any extra ingredient, you can do it now.
. Put the batter in a tin lined with parchment paper or buttered and floured. Bake your mix in your preheated oven for 25 minutes. I advise you to time it at 20 and to check with a knife if the cake is cooked fully, if something sticks to the knife, leave it in the oven for 5 minutes more.
You will see like in the original recipe, that the cake will raise quite a bit and then crack at some point (cake can crack under the pressure too especially when you add a raising agent to the mix!). Your cake will have the texture of pillow made from a sweet cloud as you can see in the Gif.
My last tip for you, is to eat this cake for breakfast… Now that you are a grown-up there is nobody stopping you… Slice it, cover it in chocolate and bananas or whatever you want! This cake is a happiness maker!
MaDAlicEsite 