a French poundcake for a Royal Wedding … Lemon and Elderflower Quatre-Quarts

A few weeks ago, my dear friend Kate Hill (of the Kitchen at Camont) posted a cake recipe. It was a simple French version of pound cake, quatre-quarts, and she served it with the most magnificent looking strawberries. In fact, she made it specifically to go with those strawberries. The recipe is easy to remember: equal parts eggs, sugar, melted butter and flour. Weigh the eggs first, in the shell, and this determines the quantities of the other ingredients. It looked phenomenal though to be fair, everything Kate makes is pretty phenomenal.

I’m not sure if you’ve heard but there’s a little royal wedding happening this weekend; a thoroughly modern marriage of a British prince and an American actress. While there are many titillating news bits surrounding this union, I was particularly interested in the cake. Of course I was. It seemed fitting that an American pastry chef with an East London shop was baking the lemon and elderflower flavored creation. Good for you Claire Ptak!

So, in honor of these royal nuptials, I decided to make a cake too. Kate’s French cake actually, and in the spirit of all things festive, I infused and glazed it with lemon juice and elderflower liquor (i.e. St. Germain), just like the royal cake. It is lovely – light and moist, bright and pretty. I baked it in a long narrow loaf pan I picked up at a French flea market for 1€ that I absolutely adore. It seemed appropriate. And because it was a celebration cake, I topped the thick, white glaze with some pretty little flowers – white and purple violas – in a little nod to Claire’s shop, Violet. It is a damn delight.

STRESS THERAPY BAKING FACTOR: CHEERS! Make this cake, drag your butt out of bed at 4am, brew a big pot of tea and watch it all unfold. You know you will (in fact, I think we should all watch Molly Shannon and Will Ferrel report live in character on HBO). There’s something about the pomp and circumstance of a big British to-do wedding that is simply fascinating to watch. I’ve watched them all – from Charles and Diana in my grandparents’ living room to Kate and William in the hotel of some food festival I was working at the time. Actually, now that I think about it, there haven’t been that many royal weddings that have been televised like that, have there? Only two? So yeah, maybe you should get up and watch as there won’t be another one until the next batch marries in 25 or so years. Now there’s a thought. And don’t be annoyed overly much with me or this recipe because you need a scale. You just do. If fact, if you bake a lot, you should have one anyway (I like this one.) You can still make this cake without a scale, it just won’t be as precise. We bakers like precision. Assume 4 large eggs weigh 250g (though mine didn’t) and covert the butter, sugar and flour accordingly – 2 cups flour, 18 Tablespoons butter, 1 ¼ cups sugar + all the extra ingredients as stated. But still, get a scale.

nine years ago: Roasted Tomato & Asparagus Quiche
eight years ago: Almond Tea Cake
seven years ago: Smoky Ginger Bacon Cookies
six years ago: Coconut Layer Cake, Banana Fudge Layer Cake
five years ago: Rendering Lard
four years ago: Guinness Crème Anglaise
three years ago: Parmesan Pea Dip
two years ago: Mashed Peas with Chile and Mint
last year: Cold Cucumber Buttermilk Soup

LEMON ELDERFLOWER QUATRE-QUARTS  (a French pound cake for a royal wedding) – adapted from Kate’s recipe here
The cake is very simple equal parts eggs, butter, flour, sugar but you must start with weighing the eggs in the shell – this determines the quantities for the other three core ingredients. To really make the flavor shine, the lemon/elderflower combination is in the cake, in the soaking syrup and in the glaze. It’s subtle but it’s lovely.

for the cake:
4 large eggs weighed in their shells (mine weighed 232g)
232g sugar (or whatever your eggs weigh)
232g unbleached all-purpose flour (or whatever your eggs weigh)
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
232g unsalted butter, melted and cooled (or whatever your eggs weigh)
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon zest
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 Tablespoon elderflower liquor (St. Germain)

for the soaking syrup:
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
¼ cup elderflower liquor (St. Germain)
½ cup sugar

for the icing:
1 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 Tablespoon elderflower liquor (St. Germain)
1 ¼ cups powdered sugar
pinch of kosher salt
edible flowers to decorate, if desired

1. For the cake: preheat the oven to 350°F with a rack in the middle of the oven.
2. Spray a standard loaf pan with cooking spray and line with a piece of parchment paper sling (covering the bottom and long sides of the pan with an overhang.)
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside until needed.
4. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the eggs with the sugar on high until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Check the mixture between two fingers – the sugar should have melted and leave no grittiness.
5. With a rubber spatula, fold in the flour mixture until well blended. Take care not to overmix and deflate the batter.
6. Gently fold in the melted butter, lemon zest, lemon juice and elderflower liquor and mix well.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and place bake for approximately 45 minutes. The top should be nicely browned and spring back when pressed gently with your fingertips and a toothpick inserted just off center should come out clean.
8. For the soaking syrup: 5 minutes before the cake is done baking, combine the lemon juice and sugar in a small saucepan.
9. Bring to a boil to dissolve the sugar.
10. Off heat, add the elderflower liquor and stir to combine.
11. Remove the cake from the oven, place on a wire rack and pierce all over with a toothpick or skewer.
12. With a pastry brush, brush the hot syrup over the hot cake and let cool completely. Take your time, if the syrup puddles around the edges, let it cool and thicken a little then use the pastry brush to redistribute.
13. Let cool completely in the pan set on a wire rack.
14. Once cooled, gently tug at the parchment paper to release the cake from the pan; you may have to run knife along the short sides of the pan to help loosen the edges.
15. Set the cake back on the wire rack to cool completely.
16. For the icing: in a medium bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, elderflower liquor, powdered sugar and salt to form a thick pourable glaze. If needed, add more powdered sugar or more liquid to achieve that thick pouring consistency.
17. Remove the parchment paper and place the cake on the wire rack with a piece of parchment underneath to catch any drips.
18. Pour the glaze over the cooled cake, smoothing it into place with an offset spatula, allowing the glaze to drip down the cake sides.
19. Let sit, uncovered at room temperature, until the glaze sets and hardens – at least 1 hour or overnight.
20. If desired, decorate with edible flowers just before serving.
21. The cake will keep at room temperature, tightly covered, for several days.

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