Gateau Breton

I was thinking of skipping this one, but people at work had been wondering when I was going to bring another cake in, since the last one I actually brought to work was Sybil’s Pecan Torte, which was over a month ago. I had already done some serious baking the week I made this, but it was the no-bake whipped cream cheesecake, which I’ll blog about later (probably for free choice week for the 31st), and my husband won’t let me take cheesecake out of the house. Seriously! He asked if I was planning on taking it to work and I said, “Probably not, it’s kind of messy. Why?” “Because it’s cheesecake. I’m putting my foot down.” *stomps foot* “You can’t take this to work.” So, I decided to put together the Gateau Breton, because it’s supposed to be really quick and easy, and I had all the ingredients. Plus, it was the next on the Heavenly Cake Bakers list, and I’m nothing if not lazy when it comes to decision making.

You begin by toasting some almonds, which I don’t have pictured, but I’m sure you can imagine it. Then you beat together your butter and sugar, then add in the egg yolks one at a time, to get a good emulsion going. The recipe calls for European style cultured butter, but I looked at the only thing labelled “cultured” butter in my grocery store and decided I didn’t want to pay $9.49 for a pound of it. Call me cheap, but I just can’t justify that for butter, organic or not. I used kirsch in my flavouring, but I think maybe next time I’ll go for the Screech we picked up in Newfoundland last fall.

I love my beater blade.

Grind the almonds with some of the sugar in the food processor, then mix that into your butter, sugar and egg yolk emulsion. Add the flour in several additions, then spread into a pan. Brush with an egg wash, and score it.

For a cake with no frosting, it sure came out of the oven looking pretty.

People at work seemed to enjoy it. When I sent out the email letting people know there was cake outside my cubicle, I recommended small pieces due to the density/richness of it. One guy who frequently misses my cakes due to meetings or being otherwise preoccupied came over quite shortly after receiving the email this time. He poked his head in my cube and said “is it normally like this?” “Like what?” “There’s a line!” I poked my head outside my cube, and sure enough, my colleagues had formed an orderly line to get to the cake. I’m not quite sure what to think of that! A couple of people did come back for seconds, and it all disappeared fairly quickly. I got one comment about how pretty it was, and a few “it’s really good”s, but nothing more specific than that. It’s definitely on my “make again” list, if only because I think Jay would really like it, and he didn’t get to try any of this one — I took it into work whole.