Succès

Discs of almond meringue sandwich a toasty nut cream. Succès is a French cake that layers a light, airy base with a rich cream. Cakes finished with powdered sugar and almonds on the sides include versions with two or three layers of base, and versions that combine crushed nougatine or custard with the cream. The name, meaning “success,” refers not only to the finished cake but also to a baked base used as the foundation for other cakes.

Folding ground nuts into meringue

The base is made by folding almond flour or similar ingredients into a foam of egg whites and sugar, piping it into rounds and baking it. Two layers are made the same size, and cream is sandwiched between them to set the height. Rather than slicing a sponge made mainly of wheat flour, the base is made as thin discs from the outset, so both the baked surface and the interior texture can be put to use.

Pastry chef Jeanne Lecourt uses Swiss meringue for the base: egg whites and sugar are whipped while being warmed over a water bath, and whipped further until cool. Almond flour and starch are then gently folded in, and the mixture is piped into discs and baked. Even the stage of making the foam can involve heating.

The ground nuts add aroma and body to the dry lightness of the meringue. The surfaces in contact with the cream take on its moisture and fat, so the crispness of a freshly baked disc eaten on its own does not last unchanged to the end. It is a pastry in which the baking of the base and the amount of cream are considered with the softness after assembly in mind.

The account of Festal’s creation and its popularization by Lenôtre

The French word succès means “success.” An origin story passed down in the pastry trade attributes the cake to Évariste Festal, who worked in Valence-d’Agen in southwestern France in the early 20th century, and says it was later popularized by Lenôtre. There is also a story that it was bought after Sunday Mass in 1911, but the exact year it originated is not known.

What Gaston Lenôtre refined into his shop’s specialty was a meringue and buttercream pastry he had known in Pont-Audemer, in his native Normandy. Drawing on memories of the region, he reworked the light base and the cream and developed the cake into a signature creation of Maison Lenôtre. Separately from the account crediting Festal with its creation, an account has come down of how Lenôtre popularized it as his own shop’s flavor.

Lenôtre’s cream with nougatine and seasonal variations

The shop’s succès combines almond meringue with a cream containing crushed pieces of nougatine. The toasty flavor of nuts cooked with sugar goes into the cream, and the pieces create small bits of crunch within the smooth fat. The powdered sugar on top adds sweetness, and the almonds around the sides add a nut flavor that is also used in the cream inside.

What Guy Krenzer inherited is the Lenôtre flavor that has been enjoyed since around 1957. While preserving the balance of nuts and cream remembered by longtime customers, he improves the sourcing of ingredients and the precision of the work. Through this continuity and improvement, succès is offered both to regulars who expect the familiar taste and to people trying it for the first time.

Gaston himself also created a seasonal succès with raspberries in the 1980s. It is a variation that adds the bright acidity of fruit to the richness of nuts and butter.

Succès with mousseline between three layers of base

Pastry chef Philippe’s published recette (formula and method) uses mousseline made by combining buttercream with custard, flavored with almond and hazelnut praliné. Two layers of cream are sandwiched between three layers of base, and toasted sliced almonds are applied to the outside. Both the content of the cream and the number of layers differ from Lenôtre’s succès, which has two layers of base and nougatine cream.

Dacquoise, which uses nut meringue, and the russe of Béarn also include versions that layer a base and cream in the same way. Comparing combinations of nut bases and creams from various regions shows that succès, too, has variations: two or three layers of base, and cream with crunchy pieces or smooth mousseline.

“Succès” base that also serves as the foundation for other cakes

In pastry making, the word succès can refer not only to a single cake but also to the almond baked base that serves as its foundation. Rémy Cointreau’s professional recette “Ribeaupierre” uses a succès base made by folding almond flour, a small amount of wheat flour and other ingredients into egg-white foam, and layers it with a liqueur-flavored bavarois and génoise.

Here the almond base is used not as a cake that sandwiches nut cream, but as the foundation for soft layers containing liqueur. The same word succès thus has two uses: the name of a finished cake and the name of a base used in assembly.

Some pastry chefs explain why they add cake flour. Shin Yagi of Okashi Yume Kobo Le Clair combines almond flour and hazelnut flour with a small amount of cake flour in his own creation “Citrus Cappuccino.” This keeps the base from deflating when it comes out of the oven, and the baked succès is layered with coffee mousse and other components.

How it melts in the mouth after coming out of the refrigerator

For its current product, Lenôtre recommends taking it out of the refrigerator and leaving it at room temperature for about two hours before eating. This guidance is for the shop’s own product, but it shows that the temperature for keeping it chilled is treated separately from the temperature for enjoying how the cream melts in the mouth. In addition to its light appearance, the softness of the fat in the cream when served also affects the impression of how it melts in the mouth.

Glossary