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
- Preheat oven to 175°C (350 F)
- Lightly greased and flour one 9 inch round cake pan.
- Put all ingredients in a large bowl.
- Stir till combined.
- Pour batter into prepared pan.
- Bake at 175°C (350°F) for 55 – 60 mins or until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.
- 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
- Preheat oven to 170°C (325°F)
- Lightly greased and flour one 9 inch round cake pan.
- In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add in lemon zests and beat in the eggs one at a time.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.