Basque Cake (Gateau Basque)

The Gateau Basque is the most famous dessert served in the Basque region bordering France and Spain. It's a buttery, slightly salty with a crisp crust that is filled with a custardy layer of vanilla pastry cream.  Sometimes it's filled with cherry preserve instead. But I guarantee you will lose your mind with this plain-looking cake.  It's insanely delicious!


This recipe calls for 2 vanilla beans and vanilla extract. A couple of problems I ran into were; I had 2 vanilla beans but they were completely dried out. I went to the store to buy more but they were $16 for one bean! So, forget that!  I happened to have powdered vanilla bean that I brought back from Madagascar, so I used a pinch of the powdered vanilla and the extract.  You can just double the vanilla extract if you can't find affordable or moist vanilla beans.

​This makes one 9-inch round cake
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Basque Cake Custard

3 egg yokes
1 vanilla bean, scrape out the seeds and 1 tsp vanilla extract or paste
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp cornstarch

1 1/4 cup whole milk
1 1/2 Tbsp brown sugar
zest from 1 lemon
1.2 Tbsp (3.5 tsp) semolina flour or fine ground cornmeal

1 Tbsp dark rum
1/3 cup heavy cream, boiled

Basque Cake Crust

2 sticks (16 Tbsp) unsalted butter, very soft but not melted
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp sea salt
1 vanilla bean, scrape out the seeds and 1 tsp vanilla extract or paste
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp almond meal/flour
3 eggs at room temperature
2 cups plus 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour or cake flour
1 tsp baking powder

an additional egg for egg wash

Basque Cake Custard Method

In a medium bowl. whish together egg yolks, vanilla, 1/4 cup brown sugar and cornstarch.

Meanwhile in a small saucepan, combine milk, sugar, lemon zest and semolina.  Cook over medium heat until mixture comes to a simmer.  Whisking constantly.  Slowly pour the hot milk mixture into the egg-yoke mixture until it has been incorporated by whisking together.   Pour mixture back into the saucepan and cook over medium-high heat whisking constantly and vigorously until it thickens and then boil for 1 minute. 

Turn off the heat and whisk in the hot heavy cream and add the dark rum. Transfer the pastry cream onto a baking tray lined with plastic wrap and cover the top with additional plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming.  Let cool to room temperature before using.  You may need to beat the custard again before pipping it.

Basque Cake Crust Method

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the softened butter with the brown sugar, salt, vanilla and almond meal on high speed until fluffy in texture, about 3 minutes.  Add eggs one at a time. mix egg until fully incorporated and then add the next egg.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the sifted flour and baking powder a little at a time and blend until evenly combined on low speed.


Build the Basque Cake

Grease a 9-inch round cake pan generously with softened butter and place a disc of parchment paper on the bottom and grease it again.  

Using a pastry piping bag (or a ziplock bag with the corner cut off) filled with the cake crust,  pipe 1/2 inch-thick disc of batter at the bottom of your cake pan. Staring in the centre of the pan, swirl the batter like a snail shell outwards towards the rim until the bottom of the pan is covered. Add an additional ring of batter ontop the outside rim of the pan. Save cake crust to cover the custard. The custard will be filled on top of the cake crust.
Using the same technique, fill another bag with the pastry custard. Starting in the centre of the cake, Swirl the custard out toward the rim of the pan.
Pipe another disk of crust batter on top of the whole thing, sealing the pastry cream into the cake.

Cover the top of the cake with plastic wrap and smooth out the surface with your hand. Refrigerate until firm.

Remove plastic wrap.  Brush cake twice with egg was and lightly score the top of the cake in a diamond pattern with a fork.

Baking

Preheat oven to 350.  
Set the oven rack in the middle of the oven.  Cook cake for 45 minutes.  Remove the cake from the oven and let cool for 20 minutes before unmolding.  Transfer the cake to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

We decided this is paired extremely well with a piece of sharp salty cheese.  Seriously. The sweet creamy cake is delicious on its own but the combination of a tiny bite of cheese in-between bites sends it to another level.  You'll see.

If you want to bypass the piping portion of this recipe for whatever reason, just place half of the cake crust mixture on the bottom of the pan making sure to smooth it up the wall of the pan so that the custard doesn't squeeze of the middle of the cake when cooking.