The name translates roughly as "no sooner said than done," and the recipe earns it. This is a plain French loaf cake built in a single bowl: eggs and sugar whisked frothy, cream, flour, then a whole block of Bordier butter beaten in at the end. Maison Bordier makes it with the Yuzu block, which puts a thread of sharp citrus through an otherwise straightforward tea cake. Fifty minutes in the oven and it is done.
At a glance
- Difficulty: Easy
- Serves: 6
- Active time: Not specified by Maison Bordier. The batter comes together in one bowl with no resting or chilling.
- Cook: 50 minutes at 170°C (340°F)
- Key ingredient: 125 g Bordier Yuzu Butter
Why this works
A cake this bare has nowhere to hide. There is no chocolate, no fruit, no frosting: the flavour is eggs, sugar, cream and butter, so the butter has to be worth tasting. Bordier's Yuzu block was added to the range in 2006 after a trip to Japan, and it is yuzu worked into a lightly salted butter. Yuzu sits somewhere between a mandarin and a grapefruit, more floral and more bitter than lemon, and in a sweet batter it reads as brightness rather than as citrus flavouring. The light salting in the butter does the rest, keeping 100 g of sugar from tasting flat.
Structurally the cake leans on the eggs. Whisking them with the sugar until frothy builds the only aeration in the recipe, which is why the cream, flour and butter all go in afterwards without any further beating for volume. The butter is added softened and cut into eight pieces so it disperses fast: the instruction to mix briskly is about getting it evenly through the batter before the foam you just built has a chance to collapse.
Ingredients
Enough for one 20 cm (8 inch) cake, serving six.
| Ingredient | Metric | US |
|---|---|---|
| Eggs | 3 | 3 |
| Caster sugar | 100 g | 3.5 oz superfine sugar, about ½ cup |
| Whipping cream | 1 water glass | 1 water glass, about ¾ cup |
| Fine flour | 150 g | 5.3 oz, about 1¼ cups |
| Baking powder | ½ sachet | ½ packet, about 1½ teaspoons |
| Bordier Yuzu Butter | 125 g | 4.4 oz, exactly 1 block |
| Vanilla sugar | 2 sachets | 2 packets |
Method
Step 1: Build the batter in one bowl
Whisk the eggs and sugar together in a mixing bowl until frothy. Add the whipping cream and mix. Add the flour and baking powder and mix again. Finally add the softened butter, cut into eight pieces, and mix briskly until it disappears into the batter.
Step 2: Bake and turn out warm
Pour the batter into a 20 cm (8 inch) cake tin, either buttered or lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle the vanilla sugar over the top. Bake in an oven preheated to 170°C (340°F) for 50 minutes. Turn the cake out of the tin while it is still warm.
Tips from our kitchen
- A French water glass is about 200 ml. That is the old kitchen measure this recipe is written in, and it comes to roughly ¾ cup of cream. If you would rather weigh it, 200 ml of heavy cream is close to 200 g.
- Soften the butter, do not melt it. Take the block out of the refrigerator an hour ahead so it yields to a finger but still holds its shape. Melted butter will deflate the egg foam and give you a denser, wetter crumb.
- The French sachet is baking powder, not yeast. Levure chimique is chemical leavening. A full French sachet is 11 g, so half a sachet is close to 1½ teaspoons of US baking powder.
- Do not overwork the flour. Mix only until the streaks disappear. This batter has no long resting stage to relax the gluten, so extra mixing shows up directly as a tough, rubbery crumb.
- Test before you trust the clock. Fifty minutes at 170°C suits a 20 cm tin. A wider tin bakes faster and a narrower loaf tin slower, so check with a skewer in the center: it should come out clean, with no wet batter clinging to it.
- Turn it out warm, as instructed. Cake left to cool in its tin steams itself, and the sides go damp. Loosen the edge, invert it onto a rack, and let air get all the way around it.
How to serve it
This is an afternoon cake. Cut it in thick slices and serve it plain with tea or coffee, or with a spoonful of jam and a little creme fraiche if you want to make more of it. It keeps well for two or three days wrapped at room temperature, and day-old slices are very good toasted in a dry pan with a scrape of more Bordier butter on top. For another Bordier butter bake in the same register, see our Madagascar Vanilla Butter Brioche.
Where to buy Bordier Yuzu Butter in the US
The French Pantry ships Bordier butter across the United States in insulated overnight packaging, straight from the workshop in Brittany.
- Churned Yuzu Butter by Bordier (4.4 oz): lightly salted hand-churned butter carrying the floral, faintly bitter citrus of Japanese yuzu.
You can also browse the full Maison Bordier collection, which covers the plain salted and unsalted blocks alongside the flavoured range.
Frequently asked questions
How much Bordier Yuzu Butter does this cake need?
One block. Bordier butter comes in 125 g blocks, which is 4.4 oz, and the recipe calls for exactly 125 g. Nothing is left over.
Can I make it with a different Bordier butter?
Yes, and this is a good cake for it, because the plain batter shows off whichever block you choose. The salted block gives you the classic Breton version, and Madagascar Vanilla doubles down on the vanilla sugar already in the recipe. Keep the quantity at 125 g.
What is vanilla sugar and can I substitute it?
It is sugar infused with vanilla, sold in France in small paper sachets and used here as a topping rather than as sweetening in the batter. Most well-stocked US groceries and any French or German import shelf will have it.
How should I store Bordier butter?
Refrigerate it in its wrapper and use it by the date on the pack. For longer storage, wrap the block tightly and freeze it, then thaw it overnight in the refrigerator before baking.
Does the butter need to stay refrigerated in transit?
Bordier butter is a fresh, hand-churned product and ships cold. It travels in an insulated box with coolant, and it should go straight into the refrigerator when you unpack it.
Can I bake this in a loaf tin instead?
You can. The recipe specifies a 20 cm round tin, and a deeper loaf shape will need longer in the oven, so rely on a skewer test rather than the 50 minute timing.
Related reading
- Bordier Butter: What It Is, Why Chefs Love It, and How to Use It
- How to Choose Your French Butter: A Buyer's Guide
- Alain Milliat Jams
Recipe and photograph adapted from Maison Bordier, with thanks. The French Pantry is an authorized US retailer of Bordier butter.