The simplicity of this cake makes it elegant and very French. This week’s sweet baking adventure with the Tuesdays with Dorie gang is a cake Dorie Greenspan says just about every home cook in France makes.
It was simple to make, delicious, and versatile. Dorie’s version suggests baking it in a loaf pan making it more like a pound cake, but I wanted to serve this at a party and thought little bite-sized squares would be easier to eat and more festive. To get a thinner cake making the pieces easy to pop in the mouth, I chose to bake it in a 9×13 pan and reduced the baking time to 30 minutes. If I bake this again in a non-loaf pan I will cut back on the levener just a bit. The crumb was a bit more open than it needed to be and I bet if I had baked it in a deep loaf pan this wouldn’t have been the case.
The speckled appearance of my cake is from the almond flour I purchased that was made from almonds with their skins rather than blanched almonds. The cake is glazed with melted marmalade after it’s baked and I was thrilled to put my freshly made mandarinquat marmalade to use. The cake is moist and tender with a rich buttery flavor that is completely satisfying without any additional garnish, but would also take nicely to being frosted like a traditional layer cake.
Thank you to Liliana of My Cookbook Addiction for picking the recipe this week. Liliana has posted the recipe on her blog and Dorie recently posted a beautiful photo of this cake on her blog. Dorie baked it in a loaf pan and used skinned almonds so her cake has a smooth creamy pale yellow appearance.
I, along with over 350 other baking bloggers are baking our way thorough Dorie Greenspan’s book, Baking: From My Home to Yours
Facebook
Twitter
Your bite sized version looks so cute and pretty! That’s so interesting, I never knew that baking in a shallower pan would result in a coarser crumb.. I thought the crumb was a little coarse too..
What cute cakes!
Love your bite size presentation. I was very curious about those mandrinquats (right next to the mini kiwis) at TJs — that marmalade sounds really delicious!
I love the bite-sized squares! So cute and delightful . . . please feed me.
OOHLALA! Your cake looks fabulous!
Yeah sure… can you believe I didn’t even put 2 and 2 together!? LOL LOL LOL
I made that recipe over 2 weeks ago, and without the marmelade bit… I was simply and truly in the mood for marmelade these days! LOL I to think I thought … great minds thought alike! LOL
Okay, well… nevertheless… those bites are beautiful, and I’ll say like you… very versatile!
I love the cake bites! I’m sure they were delicious with your homemade marmalade.
Thanks for explaining about the little specks throughout the cake. I should have guessed! almonds with their skins on. I thought it was hazelnuts at first. haha. Well, the bites do look so beautiful.
You are such a food artist. You always have such a breathtaking presentation!
that looks wonderful! the cake squares look so moist, and i’m jealous of that marmalade!
The squares looks so perfect! The texture looks amazing. Great job!!
I’ve never seen mandarinquat in my life, very interesting. Your bitesize cake look really good!
P.S. Check out my giveaway!
Love the little bites of goodness. Great idea. Wish I had been at the party. Mandarinquat??? What a great name. I like the texture.
Mandarinquat marmalade? Be still my heart, that sounds fantastic! Beautiful little cakelets.
Those little squares are so cute! Way to go with the marmalade, I’m trying to make a blood orange marmalade right now, hope it works out.