Le Quatre Quarts - the Four Quarters cake

Des amies américaines m'ont demandé une recette de gâteau français. Quoi de plus typique que le fameux

(tiré de Secrets de Pâtisserie, ed. Tomawak)

English version:

for the cake:

• 250g flour (wheat)
• 250g sugar (white works better)
• 250g sweet butter
• 5 eggs (their total weight must be around 250g)
• 3 soup spoons of crème fraîche (sour cream or better crema)
• 2 pinches of salt

for the icing:

• 75g of icing sugar
• 1 lemon (or lime, really)

Instructions

this comes in 4, but it should be before any preparation: Preheat your oven at 180°C (350°F)

1. Melt the butter in a small pan. Separate white and yellow of the eggs in two different bowls.
2. Mix yellows with half of the sugar until it whitens. Add the melted butter, cream and flour. Mix until nice batter
3. In a second bowl, pour the whites and the salt. Whip the whites and add the second half of the sugar while whipping. The whites must be very hard and shiny. Take 1/3 and add them vigourously to the batter. Add the remaining 2/3 and mix delicately.
4. Butter and flour the cake mold you're using, pour your batter. Bake for 40 minutes, the tip of a knife should come back clean. The cake is ready, you can take it out of the oven
5. Make the icing: mix the juice of a lemon with the icing sugar and pour immediatly on the cake and spread with a brush. Let cool down and take the cake out of the mold

Enjoy!