Quatre Quarts: French Pound Cake
Quatre quarts, the French pound cake, gets its name from the four essential ingredients that are used in equal quantities: eggs, sugar, butter and flour. This makes it very simple to remember – 250g (9 ounces) of each ingredient and 4 eggs.
Ingredients · Servings 10
- 4 eggs
- 250 g sugar (I reduced the quantity to 150g (3/4 cup))
- 250 g full fat butter
- 250 g flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
Method · 1 h 45 min
- Place the butter in a saucepan and melt over medium heat until it has a nice golden color and a subtle nutty smell. The butter will melt and bubble initially, but keep stirring with a wooden spoon until it reaches the desired color. There's a fine line between noisette butter and burnt butter, so keep a constant eye on it and stir constantly. For me it all took 5-6 minutes.
- After caramelizing the butter, let it cool to room temperature.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/356° F, no fan.
- Grease a cake/bundt pan with butter and dust it with flour!
- Put the eggs and sugar in a bowl and beat until light and airy.
- Add the vanilla essence and lemon zest (optional), then the flour mixed with baking powder, and mix.
- Finally, add the caramelized butter and whisk until smooth.
- Pour the mixture into the baking pan and bake 60 minutes. When the cake is ready, a toothpick inserted in the middle will come out clean.
- Let the cake cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then flip it over onto a rack and let it cool completely.
- Dust the cake with sugar and serve with coffee or tea. It's something else!
A cake containing this amount of (preferably) French butter can only be excellent. But what if the butter were caramelized! The French beurre noisette is simply butter melted over a low heat until it has a pleasant nutty smell. And my goodness, the smell in my kitchen!
While baking, the whole house became filled with the beautiful aroma – caramelized butter with a hint of vanilla. Easy to make and simply delicious!
Quatre Quarts: French Pound Cake
Instructions
- Place the butter in a saucepan and melt over medium heat until it has a nice golden color and a subtle nutty smell. The butter will melt and bubble initially, but keep stirring with a wooden spoon until it reaches the desired color. There's a fine line between noisette butter and burnt butter, so keep a constant eye on it and stir constantly. For me it all took 5-6 minutes.
- After caramelizing the butter, let it cool to room temperature.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/356° F, no fan.
- Grease a cake/bundt pan with butter and dust it with flour!
- Put the eggs and sugar in a bowl and beat until light and airy.
- Add the vanilla essence and lemon zest (optional), then the flour mixed with baking powder, and mix.
- Finally, add the caramelized butter and whisk until smooth.
- Pour the mixture into the baking pan and bake 60 minutes. When the cake is ready, a toothpick inserted in the middle will come out clean.
- Let the cake cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then flip it over onto a rack and let it cool completely.
- Dust the cake with sugar and serve with coffee or tea. It’s something else!
