Breton Pound Cake (Quatre-Quarts) with berries and whipped cream

It’s berry season!

And what could be a better pairing for berries than a hefty slice of pound cake with a generous dollop of whipped cream? But not just any pound cake, a Breton Pound Cake!

In French, this Breton Pound cake is called a “quatre-quarts“, which translates to “four quarters”. It is very popular in Brittany, of course, but also widely known and enjoyed all throughout France. It consists – just like a classic pound cake – of four ingredients of equal weight: one quarter flour, one quarter butter, one quarter sugar and one quarter eggs.

It traditionally doesn’t require any leavening agent (ie. baking powder) or flavoring (ie. vanilla extract). So what makes this Breton Pound Cake different from a classic Pound Cake?

Instead of classic salted or unsalted butter, this cake requires the use of sea-salted butter, known in French as “Beurre Salé”. This “Beurre Salé” is commonly consumed in the North-Western part of France (especially Brittany) and is used heavily in local baked goods (like in these Salted Butter Breton Sablés).

It includes 3 to 5% more salt than the salted butter found in the US/Canada, which is in the form of sea-salt flakes. It gives this pound cake lovely salted-buttery notes, all while enhancing all the flavors.

If you live outside of France and can’t buy “Beurre Salé”, you can recreate it by using unsalted butter with some sea-salt flakes (such as Fleur de sel or Maldon). I do not recommend you use salted butter as a substitute: it usually has a higher water content than unsalted butter, so it could give you an inconsistent result.

This Breton Pound Cake (Quatre-quarts) is so humble, yet moist, with a slightly dense crumb (not too dense, nor gummy) and with lovely salted butter notes. In the Spring, it is the perfect canvas for whipped cream and fresh berries.

Pairing it with fresh strawberries is actually very common to do in Brittany, using small local strawberries from Plougastel, which are so beloved in the region. In the Summer, you can use stone fruits like cherries, peach or apricots. In the Fall, spiced stewed apples and in the Winter, a warm chocolate sauce or blood orange marmalade.

The next day, you can toast slices of it in your toaster (it is delicious!) or make French Toast with it. It is also ideal for trifles.