Helen Goh shares Breton butter cake recipe with marmalade

Helen Goh presents a recipe for a Breton butter cake rooted in Brittany’s butter-rich baking tradition. Her version uses salted butter, a pinch of flaky salt, marmalade for a fragrant bitterness and ground almonds to soften the richness and lend a tender crumb.

The cake is described as dense, golden and indulgent. The recipe calls for 180g room-temperature salted butter, 150g caster sugar, finely grated zest of 1 orange, seeds from ½ vanilla bean pod, 4 large egg yolks, 200g plain flour, 60g ground almonds, ½ tsp flaky sea salt and 160g marmalade. For the glaze: 1 egg yolk, 1 tsp milk or cream and a pinch of salt. Prep is given as 5 minutes, cook 1 hour 15 minutes, freeze 30 minutes and it serves 10–12.

The method uses brief freezes to firm the dough between layers so the marmalade can be spread without disturbing the base: spread half the dough in a greased 20cm tin and freeze, add the marmalade leaving a 1cm border and freeze again, top with the remaining batter, chill, then glaze, score a cross-hatch and bake at 180C (160C fan)/350F/gas 4 for 45 minutes until golden and shiny. The cake is cooled in its tin, released, cut into small slices and suggested to be served with strong coffee.

Key Topics

Culture, Helen Goh, Breton Butter Cake, Brittany, Marmalade, Salted Butter