Easier and tastier than a sponge cake - The 'Wow' factor of the Gateau Lorrain

After a computer break down, lots of baking and parties, super busy work weeks and a teething crisis (4 teeth in 4 days nights, I am finally back... as a survivor... Poor baby though, that was terrible for him. No.2 is back to normal with a new and so unexpected routine of 4 hours sleep a day (twice 2-hours sleep). Who knows how long it will last? There is definitively a God! thanks to Him!

Given the usual workload and the obvious absence of any backup or granny (as an expat family), I chose a fairly easy cake that I filled with vanilla custard, decorated with whipped cream, tangelo jelly and and fresh fruits. I declined three version of this cake: one for the daycare party, one for our private family party and one for our friends party. Easy, beautiful but still pretty healthy - success guaranteed!

The base for the cake is from an original French recipe: the gateau Lorrain. Few years ago, this cake has been showcased on a French blog Les Ateliers d'Hys. It's been a hit and almost all cooking blogs showcased their own declination of the gateau Lorrain. I literally fell in love with this cake - it is moist, fluffy so delicate. I love it straight, with cream, custard, fruits, whatever I love it!

The must: it uses only white eggs, so it is a perfect and easy recipe to use white eggs left after a custard or ice cream.
The gateau Lorrain is also considered as a travel cake because you can keep for several days (only if you don't fill it or cover it with cream or any other dairy. That said, I could not confirm as mine is usually eaten in a few hours!

Ingredients

- 140 g white eggs (approx. 4)
- 130 g caster sugar*
- 90 g flour
- 85 g melted butter, cold
- 2-3 tbsp sugar + butter for the tin
- icing sugar for the decoration (optional)

Depending on the final outcome you are after, you may change of tin size. This recipe can make a 2 layers cake of 18-20 cm diameter, or a larger but flatter cake.

Instructions

Preheat the oven at 180C, fan bake.
1. Melt the butter and cool down.
2. Grease the thin with butter and dust with sugar all over the tin. Put in the fridge. This is optional but highly recommended if you don't plan any icing or decoration. It gives a little crust very enjoyable when eaten straight.
3. Whisk the white eggs until stiff and add half the sugar. Whisk a little bit more.
4. Then add the other half of the sugar and the flour and mix with a spatula for 2-3 mins.
5. Add the melted - now cold - butter and mix for 1 minute.
6. Cook for 30 mins.*
7. Cover with foil half way through the cooking time if the top starts colouring.
8. Once cooked, rest on a rack and dust with icing sugar for the finishing. This not needed if you plan to decorate the cake with some icing, cream or chocolate.

Ideas for decorating/filling

- whipped cream and fresh fruits (e.g., kiwi fruit and fresh strawberries wit pistachio dust as above pictures)
- meringue, fruit jelly on the top and fresh fruits:

- filled with vanilla custard and raspberries, a thin layer of raspberry jam on each cake layer, topped with kiwi fruits and banana, the edge a covered with whipped cream:

- one of my favourite: fresh raspberries and mascarpone mousse, raspberry coulis, butter cream and pistachio dusting. For this on below, I buttered and dust the tin with sugar before the batter, lovely caramelised crust:

Good to know...

* white sugar is fine too, and you can even reduce the quantity a little bit especially when it is meant to be for little ones.
* The original recipe says 40-50 mins baking, but 30 mins have always been enough for me and I bake this cake quite often.