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Sunday, June 20, 2010

HCB: Gateau Breton



I was going to make the Coconut Cheesecake, but I couldn't find the sweetened flaked coconut and cream of coconut. So I decided to catch up on my baking and made Gateau Breton instead.

This is the easiest cake I've made so far from Rose's recipes. It is amazing how fast and easy it is to put together. It took the same amount of time to prepare this cake and to find a small bottle of dark rum, the latter is more frustrating. I went to one liquor store and all it has is the giant bottle (750 ml) of Myers rum. The next one has the same bottle. Finally, the 3rd store has the 375 ml of Myers rum.

During the whole rum searching adventure, I was tempted to forgo the whole dark rum and just use the regular Bacardi rum that I have in my pantry. But I thought it's about time I invested in some dark rum, ARRR!

As I've said, the cake is super easy to prepare. First you toast the almonds. Then grind in food processor with 1/4 of sugar and salt. Then cream the butter and sugar. Add the egg yolks. Then add the almond sugar mixture. Finally, add the flour in 4 parts. Pour onto the pan. I refrigerated the batter for a few minutes as it was getting soft. This baked in 40 minutes and it made my kitchen smells HEAVENLY! I know this is considered a cake but it makes me think of pastry and I love love love the smell of baked pastry.

Tasting impression:
This is really really good. I loved Gateau Basque and was curious about the taste in comparison. The pastry side is similar, but Gateau Basque has pastry cream/cherry filling, whereas Gateau Breton is plain. I think I got a little too rum happy and put too much rum ^_^ (1 1/2 Tbps instead of 1 Tbps). It affected the flavor a bit, I can taste the rum. I suppose unlike with Grand Marnier - where I usually find it's good to add a little more than required, it's not good to put too much rum. It is still excellent though and hubby said that he'll enjoy every bite of it!

8 comments:

  1. Ahhh I remember this cake.. very easy, very buttery and yummylicious!

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  2. Ai..i didn't make this cake..now you make me want to bake this too!...lol! And lovely photo..look just like from the book!

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  3. Your gateau looks fabulous! I also had to skip over this and do intend to make it if I ever catch up. Everyone seems to have enjoyed it a lot.

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  4. Picture perfect! This cake was amazing.

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  5. Glad it was a big hit in the Taste department. It sure looks gorgeous!! I'll have to remember this one when we get to pick our own HCB recipes (sans rum though).

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  6. ב''ה

    Mmm. I'll have to try this again with the dark rum.

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  7. Hi there - just found your blog. I've tried Gateau Breton before but I wasn't successful in making the criss cross pattern on the top! This is the 2nd time I've seen a fabulous looking blog breton cake, and it makes me jealous and motivated to create a good one too :)

    Do you have any tips? Mine tastes fine, but the criss cross pattern makes it more authentic, non?
    Happy baking, and beautiful blog by the way
    Brittany.

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  8. Hi Jenn, I just got your reply on my blog. I chilled the cake and then made the criss-cross pattern, but then I brushed it over with egg before baking. I think the egg "healed" the criss-cross pattern back up, if that makes sense?

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