Let Them Eat More Cake

Not familiar with fabulous young Frenchwoman Clotilde Dusoulier? Well hurry over to check her blog Chocolate & Zucchini and before digging in to her recipes online, check 'ABOUT US' near top of her lefthand sidebar so you get to know this bundle of cooking energy!

Clotilde's first book, also titled Chocolate & Zucchini, Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen, was published last year. Filled with great recipes, beautiful photographs (taken by her), and very interesting stories about her family and life, her opening words in the foreword ~ "Food joyously occupies a large portion of my waking thoughts - it even makes appearances in my dreams............." sets the scene for some great reading and cooking!

I shared Clotilde's Gateau de Mamy in an earlier post ~ it's my all time favorite and if you arrive for tea in the gazebo one afternoon, you will most likely tuck into a slice, or two (it's that light and delicious) with your cup of tea. Today I'm sharing another of her very simple to make, but yummy French style cakes ~ I made it again yesterday and have found it to be a keeper. This one is not in her book but was featured on her blog.

Here it is fresh from the oven.

Le Gateau Piege

For the pan:

1 fat pat of butter

1 heaping tablespoon sugar

For the batter:

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, really softened (this is important)

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

2 eggs

1 medium organic orange (about 7 oz.) scrubbed

1 cup flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

A good pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter bottom and sides of a 9 or 10 inch round cake pan (I use a 9" silicone pan) with the pat of butter. Sprinkle with the heaping tablespoon of sugar, then shake and tilt and swoosh the pan around to coat.

Cream together the softened butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time and mix until thoroughly combined. Grate all the zest from the orange over the bowl. Juice the orange and add 1/2 cup of the juice to the batter, mix until smooth. (At this point it looks a bit odd, like it's curdled but it's fine).

In a small bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk the flour mixture into the batter and mix until just combined. Pour into prepared pan and bake 20 mins. until cake is golden and starts to pull away from sides of pan. Let cool on rack for 10 mins. (no more or the caramel on the crust will harden and stick to pan), then flip onto a serving plate. Let cool completely before serving.

Below - my cake which I sprinkled with a touch of vanilla sugar for more sparkle.

...................and then a dollop of freshly whipped cream, delicious! Now off to make that cup of tea.