Chocolate Marbled Quatre Quart or Chocolate French Pound Cake

I have always been very “gourmande”. Growing up my mom always had to hide candy or chocolate because they would be gone in a flash if they were at finger length. It was the same with desserts;-) the bigger the slice, the bigger the cake, the better. Sometimes though my eyes were bigger than my stomach and i could not finish that extra big piece of cake that she would allow me to get. Mom always baked. She baked clafoutis, pies, pound cakes,pudding, rice puddings, tarts, really anything. The reason why she baked so much was because we always finished our meal with dessert, and we always had tea or coffee and cake on Sunday afternoon. Ahh those were the good old days…

Well, I am glad those days are no more, ( or do I). I wish I were back in times at times. It was fun! But since I am no longer living in France, I am watching my weigh, and things are no longer like this in France either, it is a blessing that we are no longer cooking the way we used to.

I am glad I don’t have to prepare desserts every night, or every other night on top of dinner. How did she do it all??? Do you eat desserts after your dinner? we don’t unless there is some cake left over from the week-end splurge:-)

Today I thought I would share you the recipe of Quatre Quart ( or French Pound CAke) since many of you have asked for me to send Pound cake recipes. Le quatre quart was the “gateau par excellence ” of our Sunday “gouter” or tea time.

The French Pound cake is very similar to the American one, in that the proportions are very similar. One difference though is that in France all is weighed, and all ingredients should weight the same. It is easy to remember. The weight of the eggs ( in their shell) should equal the weigh of the sugar, and the butter, and the flour.

While American make Pound cakes in many flavors, French people often keep it simple. It is often flavored simply with vanilla, chocolate or lemon. That’s it.

Ingredients for 1 pound cake ( that fits into a loaf mold)

Because I weighed my eggs, and all eggs really weigh differently, it will always be different. For this recipe, this is what came up:

3 medium eggs ( that weigh 150 gr.)
150 gr. of butter
150 gr. of flour
150 gr. of sugar
1 tsp. of baking powder
1 pinch of salt
2 tbsp of vanilla extract
1/4 cup of powdered cocoa

In a mixer, beat the eggs and the sugar until the mixture doubles in volume and become a whiter yellow. Meanwhile, place the butter in a bowl, place the octogonal silpat on top ( so the butter will not splatter), and microwavable for 40 seconds. Add the “soft” butter in the eggs mixture and stir. Then mix all the dry ingredients besides the chocolate and add them slowly to the egg mixture. Add 2 tbsp of vanilla extract and mix well. Divide the batter in half. And mix 1/4 cup of cocoa in one half of the batter.

Fill a cake mold with half of the vanilla batter, then add the chocolate, and finish with the vanilla again. I used the tall rectangular mold, but the fluted rectangular mold would work also;-)