One of the centres of flourishing desserts, innovation and invention, France has quite a few desserts and dessert cakes that were made for royalty, or just to show off the patissier’s skills to the world. Expect contesting theories of origin, layered chocolate and non-chocolate cakes to simple cakes that French kids know how to bake, that are as easy as a simple maths problem. Here are some of the most famous French cakes that are known all over the world, in some form or the other.
This intricate cake was born at the hands of French pastry chef Cyriaque Gavillon, in 1955 who at the time worked at the legendary Dalloyau’s cake shop and bakery in Paris. The latter was also the supplier to the Court of Versailles and combined with Gavillon’s talent, the Opera cake was made. The idea behind the cake was that with one bite into it, you could taste all of the flavours. The name was christened by his wife who thought the sophisticated cake resembled the Palais Garnier, the Opera House in Paris. It uses the famous almond-flavoured Joconde sponges that are soaked in coffee syrup, with coffee buttercream between the layers and a Ganache layer on its crest. The word “Opera” or a musical note adorns its surface making it one of the most recognisable cakes in the world. You will find them being sold as rectangular slices in bakeries and restaurants.
Every country has a simple cake that pairs well with coffee and for France that is Gâteau au yaourt or yoghurt cake. The recipe is as simple as a pound cake; for French kids, it's like a simple math problem. Pound cakes earned the name because it used to use a pound of everything to make it and the yoghurt cake employs a similar tactic. It’s a ratio thing with the ingredients: one part yoghurt to one part oil, two parts sugar and three parts flour; plus three eggs and leavening. It is springy and more delicate and moist than the pound cake and visit a French home for coffee, this is what will greet you at the table.
An absolutely aesthetically pleasing cake, the Charlotte Russe looks like a bouquet of fruits, for lack of a better word. It might seem like a Russian cake but it’s of French origin that dates back at least to the 1800s. It’s a unique cake with ladyfingers or cake sponges as the walls of a cake mould filled with thick custard or crème Bavaroise flavoured with cooked fruit, spices, or brandy. The famous patissier Marie-Antoine Carême invented it, who is considered the father of French cooking and was also behind croquembouche and the mille-feuille. He might have named the cake to honour Czar Alexander I, who was his employer.
Tracing its roots to the Celtic tradition of celebrating the winter solstice, the Celts would burn a log for the sun to return to earth. As stoves took over, the huge logs were replaced by a small branch that would be at the centre of the dining table amid delicacies that were eaten among family and friends. With time, this log or branch symbolically turned unto the Yule log cake or the Bûche de Noël cake, which looks like a log. The oldest reference to the cake can be found in The English Huswife from 1615 and Parisian bakers have helped popularise this cake too. It's a a Christmas specialty that is made in most parts of the world during the festive season.
This is a strawberry cake that bears resemblance to the modern strawberry shortcake but of course, it's different. Fraise in French means strawberry and the cake is made with Genoise sponge, vanilla-flavoured creme mousseline, marzipan and sliced strawberries. The cake was invented at the same time as the Opera cake was made, and to make the best use of the local wild strawberries back when France did not have a supply of the bigger and juicier strawberries. The strawberries from back then were pea-sized. The modern version wasn't made until the 1930s when newer varieties of strawberries flooded the European market.
Crepes are quintessentially French and it's not surprising they have been turned into a cake too. This cake is made with crepes stacked one on top of the other and as the name suggests, it means a thousand crepes referring to the multiple layers of the cake kept in place by icing sugar or pastry creme. Of course, it changed with time and the modern version is said to be the creation of Emy Wada, a Japanese pastry chef. This was done by her to preserve the freshness of the crepes and keep them soft. She was the one who called it Mille Crêpes (a cross between Mille-feuille and crepes) and sold it in Tokyo, at her pastry shop called Paper Moon Cake Boutique, back in the 1980s.