Gâteau Basque

Gâteau basque is a round filled cake long cherished in Labourd, in the French Basque Country. Cutting into the golden pastry reveals either a cream of milk and eggs or a rich, dark layer of black cherry. Its Basque name, etxeko biskotxa, means “cake of the house.” Made as a cake for families to eat on Sundays, it spread to markets and to shops in spa towns. Today the cream-filled and black-cherry-filled versions are the classic forms, and they continue to be handed down among artisans as well.

Chilling the pastry and the cream before enclosing

The base and lid are made from a dough combining butter, sugar, eggs and wheat flour. The recipe (the proportions of ingredients and the method) of the artisans’ association Eguzkia uses whole eggs and baking powder, is flavored with rum or vanilla, and contains no almonds. Sugar is worked into softened butter, and then the flour, eggs and flavoring are combined to bring the dough together.

The chilled, firmed dough is loosened slightly and rolled out to a thickness of about 4–5 mm. A little more than half is used to line the base and sides, the filling goes in, and the rest becomes the lid. The surface is brushed with egg, marked with a fork pattern, and baked. Unlike methods that enclose a filling in thin layers of laminated puff pastry, this cake encloses its filling in a substantial dough of flour and butter.

The cream, too, is finished before the cake is assembled. Milk, eggs, sugar and flour are mixed in a pan and brought to a boil until well thickened; the starch in the flour turns pasty, giving the cream a consistency that can be enclosed and baked. Rum is added at the end, and the cream is cooled before filling. Chilling the dough and the cream separately makes these soft ingredients easier to handle. After baking, too, the cake is cooled thoroughly before slicing, and one way of eating it is to leave it until the next day so that the flavors meld.

Cream or cherry: differences in filling that cross the border

In the black cherry jam version, pale pastry sandwiches a dark layer of fruit. The cream version layers the aroma of rum or vanilla over the richness of milk and eggs. Both the fruit-filled and the milk-cream-filled cakes are handed down by households and artisans as representative sweets of the region.

Other fillings are also used. Historical research records a version filled with prune marmalade, and a recipe from the Spanish Basque Country mixes dried apricots and raisins into the cream. The latter adds lemon zest and Cointreau to an egg-yolk dough and wraps the fruit-studded cream in the chilled pastry. In this way, some methods fill the cake with fruit and cream together.

A fork pattern on the surface and the Basque cross, with its four curved arms, are also distinguishing marks. There is no nationwide rule linking pattern to filling; even with the same pattern, whether a cake contains cream or cherries differs from shop to shop. It resembles the gâteau breton, which is marked with a crosshatch pattern, but the filling and the region where it is made are different.

From a home in Cambo to the market in Bayonne

In Cambo-les-Bains, Marianne Hirigoyen carried the cake she had inherited from her mother to the market in Bayonne. Her granddaughters, the sisters Élisabeth and Anne Dibar, took over the shop and the method, and the “cake of Cambo” became known beyond the town as the “Basque cake.” Local historical research traces this succession from mother to daughter to granddaughter sisters, and how visitors taking the waters at the spa became its customers.

It was a sweet made in homes even before it began to be sold in the 19th century. It is also said that the same recipe has existed since the 17th century, but it is not clear whether the same method has continued from then to the present. The name “cake of the house” preserves its connection to everyday life before it came to be displayed in shops.

Ingredients and methods set by an artisans’ association

Formed in 1994, Eguzkia established its own trademark and specifications for its members’ ingredients and methods. The pastry is based on wheat flour, butter, sugar and fresh eggs, and the filling is either a custard cream of cooked milk and eggs or black cherry jam. There are also rules excluding bitter almond, powdered cream and dried eggs. These are a quality commitment shared by the artisans who use the same trademark.

Commercial frozen cakes served in restaurants

Meanwhile, gâteau basque has also spread into commercial frozen desserts. A product that Boncolac manufactures in Bonloc, in the Basque Country, encloses custard flavored with bitter almond in sablé pastry, with one round cake divided into 12 slices. Because it can be thawed and plated one slice at a time, a cake enjoyed cut into slices at home can also be offered as a dessert in restaurants. Products with flavorings not used under Eguzkia’s member specifications also circulate under the same name.

Festivals and a museum that pass on artisans’ skills

At a festival begun in Cambo in 2003, competitions and demonstrations convey the work of artisans. The Gâteau Basque Museum in Sare collects furniture and kitchen tools from Basque houses and links them with demonstrations by artisans. These venues, where people learn about both the cream and the cherry versions, have become opportunities for the region to share techniques that once differed from household to household.

Glossary