Quatre-quarts cake with a twist

I usually don't plan my cooking or baking to feed this blog, but to feed my family; sometimes to feed my friends or my son's little mates. I'm always cooking or baking to show someone my love or my appreciation. The recipe I am sharing today was meant to give my partner and I a little after-dinner treat: A French classic Quatre-Quarts cake with a twist.

This cake then became a special breakfast for a special day: a mum-at-home day. Another figure of speech, as we spent all day outside attending our playgroup, then a lunch date and a play and walk date in Western Springs - no doctor appointment for today (Yay!) but a beautiful spring day (Hooray!!!), just a wonderful day with my two boys.

The story of this yummy, fluffy cake does not stop there, though. After breakfast, this cake became a sort of a friendship cake as a shared dessert with one of my girlfriend and our children, and then as a shared afternoon snack with other friends. It's always nice to share some food with your beloved ones. 

For a first time home-made recipe, the verdict was unanimous: YUUuuuuuuuummm!

Happy end for this trip companion!

The Quatre-quart (i.e., four-quarters) cake is a French classic from Britany (Bretagne). It was named after the proportions of the core ingredients that make it: 1/4 flour, 1/4 sugar, 1/4 butter and 1/4 eggs. Originally, it does not contain anything else (apart the baking powder), but I had some pecan left and I like the marriage with choc chips, so I added some. I also added some milk; I'm not quite sure why but I think it makes the cake a bit lighter and moister. It's up to you to follow the original recipe or to customise it to your desires!

Ingredients

- 200 g butter, at room temperature, or beurre pommade*

- 200 g caster sugar*

- 8 CS slightly warm milk

- 4 eggs (size 6), at room temperature

- 200 g flour

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 80 g pecan (more or less to your taste, optional)

- 80 g chocolate chips (more or less to your taste, optional)

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven, fan bake at 170C.

2. Grease and flour a cake mould (oblong shape).

3. Cream together the beurre pommade* and the sugar. This consists in whisking them together with an electric beater until the sugar has completely dissolved. Gradually add the warm milk to help the sugar dissolves. This can take several minutes.

4. Add the eggs one by one and whisk well before adding the next egg.

5. Mix the flour and the baking powder into the preparation with a wooden spoon or a spatula. Stop mixing when all the flour is absorbed.

6. Add the pecan and choc chips.* Do not over-mix. The batter should be creamy, very light and fluffy, instead of runny.

7. Bake at 170C for 40 minutes.*

Tips

* Beurre pommade is butter than has been let come to room temperature. It is very soft, like a moisturising cream, and is easily spreadable. If you butter is too hard, cut it into small cubes and whisk it with a beater, then add the sugar when the butter has softened.

* White sugar is fine too.

* If you don't like getting all the pecans and choc chips at the bottom of your cake (see the picture), then coat them with flour (taken out of the overall quantity of four) before you add them to the preparation. This will fix the nuts and choc chips in the preparation. Here I decided not to do it as I quite like the double cake effect: nuts and choc at the bottom and the more traditional Quatre-quarts at the top. 

* Always check the baking time as it may vary from one oven to another one. Some good tips to avoid the cake to burn on the edges: place the mould on a baking tray and spread a little bit of water on the top of the cake before you put it in the oven. If the top still gets brown, cover with foil.