The Cooking Ninja

Recently I have just discovered that the French version of a Pound cake is called Quatre-Quarts which means four-fourth. It's a traditional and popular cake of the French region of Britanny and as its name implies use the same quantity of the 4 ingredients.

There are many version of making a quatre-quarts ... from my significant other's simple home recipe to a more complicated one. So what's the big difference between the two of them ?

A Simple Quatre-Quarts (Pierre's recipe)

Preparation : 10 minutes
Baking : 1 hour
Makes : 1

Ingredients

• Weight 4 eggs
• Same weight for plain Flour, sugar and melted butter (salted)
• 1 packet of baking powder (11 gram)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 175°C (350 F)
2. Lightly greased and flour one 9 inch round cake pan.
3. Put all ingredients in a large bowl.
4. Stir till combined.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan.
6. Bake at 175°C (350°F) for 55 - 60 mins or until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.
7. Cool cake in pan for 10 minutes. Then remove cake from its pan and let cool on a wire rack.

NOTE :

For a more raised and spongy textured quatre-quarts, use 1/3 corn flour and 2/3 plain flour

Quatre-quarts

(taken from Le Grand Livre des Desserts - Fior Editions)

Preparation : 25 minutes
Baking : 1 hour
Makes : 1

Ingredients

• 250 g Butter, softened (salted)
• 250 g Sugar
• 2 tsp Lemon zests (chopped)
• 4 Eggs
• 250 g Self-raising flour (sifted)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 40 ml Milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 170°C (325°F)
2. Lightly greased and flour one 9 inch round cake pan.
3. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Add in lemon zests and beat in the eggs one at a time.
5. Use a spoon and stir in sifted flour and baking powder alternately with milk. Alternate flour and milk in 2 or 3 batches. Mix till well blended.
6. Pour batter into prepared pan. Smooth out batter surface. Bake in oven for 1 hour or until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.
7. Cool cake in pan for 10 minutes before removing cake and letting it cool on a wire rack.

Conclusion

It's hard to decide which version I like better. The simple home recipe has a more dense texture and great butter flavour which is delicious with a cup of tea whereas the book recipe has more of a lemon flavour than butter. Even without adding the lemon zests, the aroma of the butter is not as intense as the home recipe. But it has a lighter cake texture.

The book recipe can be adapted to different versions.

• Quatre-Quarts à l'orange (Orange Quartre-Quarts) Add 2 tbsp Orange zests (grated) to butter mixture and replace milk with 40 ml orange juice.
• Quatre-Quarts à la noix de coco (Coconut Quartre-Quarts) Add 90 g Coconut (grated) into the mixture before mixing in flour and milk.
• Quatre-Quarts aux noisettes (Hazelnut Quartre-Quarts) Mix 125 g Chopped Hazelnut before stirring in flour and dissolve 2 tsp Instant Coffee (powder) in the milk.