Your gateau looks delicious, Julie.  It’s hard to believe it’s not encased in a pastry shell.  Must try it!

Julie,

I’m glad that your second try with Gateau Breton turned out better.  Did you get a new thermometer or did you check for the springiness of the center after 35 minutes?

I also noticed that the fork marks from the book can barely be seen on the top of the cake.  I made the fork marks on my cake more prominent because I like that look and my search for Gateau Breton pictures showed that type of mark on most of the ones I found.  Rose says it’s to prevent uneven puffing and it would leave a bare trace after baking.  But I like making the tracks deeper so it creates the pattern when baked.

I also agree that the cake is good by itself, and good with tea or coffee.  But I’ve also tried it with creme fraiche and raspberries; that was also good but I would prefer to use whip cream next time instead of creme fraiche.

Jess

Hi Julie,
Very nice cake, glad you worked it out the second time around. I agree, the cake doesn’t need anything, just a cup of coffee / tea and it’s good to go!

Jess, my thermometer seems to be working fine, the first thing I did after tasting the first (crumbly) cake was to test it in boiling water.  I have to be honest, I’m a bit stumped as to what exactly happened.  All I can think of is that my oven was running cool, and the longer cooking time dried out the center, despite the internal temp being correct.  Or maybe there was some mistake in ingredients that I was never able to catch?  I was very careful and weighed everything, but you never know…

For the second try, I took the cake out at 35” after testing to see if the middle sprang back and using the thermometer, which measured 204F in the center, higher moving away from the center.

Just wanted to add that Silke came up with a good description of texture of this cake, it’s like marzipan on the inside.  Only flavored with toasted almond, butter, vanilla and rum (instead of bitter almond).

Here’s my attempt at the Gateau Breton.  Husband has been enjoying it.  It was very good fresh out of the oven… if it’s just a “home” cake, I can never wait to cut into it to check the texture.

On another note, I must HIGHLY recommend the Indian Pure Ground Vanilla from Arizona Vanilla.  Smell the stuff in the jar, it’s fabulously fragrant.

For this gateau, I used 1/2 tsp of their Madagascar 3-fold vanilla paste and 1/2 tsp of the Indian Pure Ground Vanilla.  What an amazing aroma it imparts!  I reduced the sugar in the gateau by 20% as usual, to suit everyone’s unsweet tooth, but with the sweet aroma of the added ground vanilla layered on top of the vanilla paste, you’d never notice any lack of sweetness.

Little Island it looks fabulous.

I am buying up vanilla today in preparation for Christmas baking.  Stores often sell out. We only have beans here so it won’t be anything exotic like Arizona or Inidian!

Looks great! Upping the vanilla sounds yummy!

The Gateau Breton is absolutely fantastic!  Quick and easy to make, and oh so delicious - I didn’t have Kirsh or Rum, so I substituted 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract.  I also used plain old regular unsalted butter, and I didn’t even bother toasting the almonds before grinding them because I was short on time - it still turned out amazingly good.  I highly recommend it to everyone!

Looks awesome Patricia!

That looks so perfect Patricia! I made it once and I loved them. Perhaps that should be the first little baking project for this weekend?