Quatre Quarts: French Pound Cake

Posted on Jul 9th, 2024

by Diana Oana

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Quatre quarts, the French pound cake, gets its name from the four essential ingredients that are used in equal quantities: eggs, sugar, butter and flour. This makes it very simple to remember – 250g (9 ounces) of each ingredient and 4 eggs.

A cake containing this amount of (preferably) French butter can only be excellent. But what if the butter were caramelized! The French beurre noisette is simply butter melted over a low heat until it has a pleasant nutty smell. And my goodness, the smell in my kitchen!

While baking, the whole house became filled with the beautiful aroma – caramelized butter with a hint of vanilla. Easy to make and simply delicious!

Quatre Quarts: French Pound Cake

Diana Oana

A simple recipe for quatre quarts, the famous French pound cake. It only requires a handful of ingredients and it's very easy to make.

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 15

Cook Time 1

Resting time 30

Total Time 1 45

Course Dessert

Cuisine French

Servings servings

Ingredients

4 eggs
250 g sugar I reduced the quantity to 150g (3/4 cup)
250 g full fat butter
250 g flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla essence

Instructions

Place the butter in a saucepan and melt over medium heat until it has a nice golden color and a subtle nutty smell. The butter will melt and bubble initially, but keep stirring with a wooden spoon until it reaches the desired color.
There's a fine line between noisette butter and burnt butter, so keep a constant eye on it and stir constantly. For me it all took 5-6 minutes.
After caramelizing the butter, let it cool to room temperature.
Preheat the oven to 180°C/356° F, no fan.
Grease a cake/bundt pan with butter and dust it with flour!
Put the eggs and sugar in a bowl and beat until light and airy.
Add the vanilla essence and lemon zest (optional), then the flour mixed with baking powder, and mix.
Finally, add the caramelized butter and whisk until smooth.
Pour the mixture into the baking pan and bake 60 minutes. When the cake is ready, a toothpick inserted in the middle will come out clean.
Let the cake cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then flip it over onto a rack and let it cool completely.
Dust the cake with sugar and serve with coffee or tea. It’s something else!

Notes

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Diana Oana

As an award winning food blogger, I started my culinary journey in 2010, driven by a fervent commitment to crafting flavorful, tasty meals that defy the stereotype of bland health cuisine. I love to cook anything from appetizers to main courses and desserts from a wide range of cuisines as well as traditional Romanian dishes.