French crepes are thin and delicate pancakes and can be filled with anything you like – nutella, jam, cream, sugar, fruit … … [read more]
Apricot Cake
Or cake aux abricots in french! Apricots are plentiful this time of year and this is an easy way to use them to make a cake thats perfect as an afternoon snack.
Ingredients :
- 6 ripe apricots
- 3 large eggs
- 130g softened butter
- 125g sugar
- 1 sachet vanilla sugar
- 250g flour (I replaced half the flour with cornflour as this gives a lighter texture to the cake but just using flour is good too!)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 large pinch of cinnamon
Method :
- Pre-heat oven to 180°C
- Wash and dry the apricots, remove the stone and chop
- Sieve the flour and the baking powder together
- Use a fork to mash the softened butter until you get a beurre pommade*
- Mix in the sugar, the vanilla sugar and the cinammon
- Add in each egg separately, mixing well each time
- Fold in the flour
- Add in the chopped apricots
- Bake in oven for 45 minutes (keep an eye on the cake, it might take less time)
*A beurre pommade is butter that has been let come to room temperature and then mixed with a fork or spoon until you get a spreadable mixture
Sablé Cookies
Chocolate Pear Cake
Chocolate and pears go so well together, the dark chocolate and sweet moist pears make a lovely combination. I have already posted a pear and chocolate loaf , ideal with afternoon tea, this is more of a dessert which is perfect served with a scoop of ice-cream.
Biscuit Roulé
Gougères “Cheese Puffs”
Bayonne ham and Olive Madeleines
Pear and Chocolate Loaf
Marble Cake or Gateau Marbré
This is another traditional french cake that is very popular at goûter time and is a real favourite with french kids.
Financiers with Raspberries
Financiers are a french pâtisserie made with ground almonds. In 1890 the pâtissier Lasne re-visited an old recipe from the 17th century for a small oval cake called visitandines (called after the religious order of sisters who created the cake), using the same ingredients but changing the shape. As his shop was situated in the financial district in Paris and almost all his clients worked there, he called his cake a “financier” and gave it the shape of a gold bar.