A ring of caramel-coated cream puffs is arranged on top of a puff pastry disc. Honoré is named after the French patron saint of pastry chefs, St. She shares her recipe and techniques for pound cake and others in her class, Coffee Shop Cakes. It’s a rich, buttery loaf sliced and served simply with tea or coffee. Quartre Quarts is the French version of pound cake. For a fantastic lesson on pound cake recipes, check out the next cake. Classic petit fours include layers of pound cake, buttercream and jam, with a crisp, sweet icing coating the exterior. Theses itsy-bitsy cake-gems are a tea party essential! Traditionally, petit fours are tiny 1″ cubes of cake, but varieties can be found in basically any shape - hearts, domes, circles, triangles and more. The name may sound saucy, but it’s not! The wheel-shaped pastry was named in celebration of the Paris-Brest bicycle race.
Paris-Brest is a layered French cake consisting of a ring of pâte à choux dough filled with hazelnut praline cream and topped with toasted, sliced almonds. Other variations include jam, fresh fruit or even chocolate in the filling. A classic Gâteau Basque, like this one from Savoring Time in the Kitchen, consists of a firm cake dough that’s filled with pastry cream. Gâteau Basque is a cake France shares with the same region in Spain. The cake can be topped with a variety of things including whipped cream, jam, fruit puree, ganache or more fresh strawberries. Fraisierįraisier cakes, like this one from My Evil Twin’s Kitchen, are bright, cheery celebrations of summer! They’re constructed with layers of genoise cake, creme mousselini and a signature row of sliced strawberries around the bottom edge.
Kathryn Gordon shares a recipe along with detailed instructions on how to use darquoise in her class Classic Techniques for Contemporary Layer Cakes. They can be stacked and filled with cream and berries for a rustic dessert or layered within intricate entremet-style cakes. Photo licensed via Creative Commons by Flickr member pinotshopĭacquoise is a layer of meringue that typically contains finely ground nuts. Modern versions include candy, ganache, chocolate drips, sugar flowers and more. It’s a feast for the eyes and the senses, composed of cream puffs dipped in caramel and wrapped with spun sugar.
These towers of cream puffs are the traditional wedding cake of France. This recipe from Natasha’s Kitchen is a great place to start if you’ve never made one before.
Like many other kinds of French cakes, a Charlotte is less of a strict recipe and more of a technique. A cake pan is lined with cookies, cake or even bread and then filled with whipped cream, fruit puree, jams, pastry cream or fresh fruit. Modern versions can be found in endless flavor combos. It’s finished with chocolate buttercream to resemble tree bark and topped with marzipan leaves or meringue mushrooms. The traditional recipe consists of thin chocolate cake rolled with a buttercream or whipped cream filling. This holiday classic is known as a Yule log here in the States, but in France it’s a buche de Noel. Baba Au Rhum is decadent as is, but can be made even more luxurious with the addition of whipped cream or pastry cream. Once the cake is baked it’s soaked in rum (hence the name). They’re typically baked in small, cylindrical molds like the one above made by Chef Iso, or in larger bundt pans. Baba Au Rhumīaba au Rhum or Rum Baba are tiny, yeast-leavened cakes.
These 16 fabulous French cakes are a great introduction to the world of gateaus and tortes, with recipes ranging from simple and sublime to detailed and decadent. It’s no secret that the French take their desserts very seriously! More than just cake and buttercream, French cakes can contain layers of meringue, pastry cream, mousse, pâte à choux, puff pastry, whipped cream, jam, ganache and more.