Or is the Basque cake on the Planet Sweet.
GB positioning in French pastry
The Basque cake occupies a special place in the panorama of French pastry, distinguished by its strong regional character while having acquired national and international recognition.
Origin and regional identity The Basque cake is emblematic of the French Basque Country, more precisely in the province of Labourd. Its traditional recipe consists of a golden shortbread wrapped either a vanilla pastry cream, or a garnish of black cherries (Guignes). Place in the French pastry heritage in the hierarchy of French pastries, the Basque cake is positioned as: - a major representative of regional pastries, alongside Kouign -Amann Breton, Tropézienne pie, Canelé de Bordeaux, Tatin Tatin etc etc - a rustic cake originally, which has become more refined with its democratization - its national distribution.
Evolution and modernization The Basque cake has experienced a notable evolution: - of a family cake produced for the holidays to a pastry marketed nationally - an institutional recognition with the museum of the Basque cake in Sare and the Eguzkia association promoting its authentic recipe - contemporary re -interpretations by renowned pastry chefs playing on the textures and perfumes current in the pastry market today, Basque cake is distinguished by its double presence: - in the traditional offer of artisanal pastries from all over France - in a more industrialized version for large distribution - as an emblematic product proposed by specialized brands in regional pastries This duality between strong regional tradition and national recognition perfectly illustrates how the French pastry integrates and values its local specialties while making them evolve to respond to contemporary tastes.
It's up to you to replace our treasures on their country of origin
The Basque Fusion cake
The Basque Fusion cake is a contemporary adaptation of the Basque cake, which mixes the classic techniques and flavors of this emblematic pastry in the Basque Country with culinary influences from other cultures. The traditional Basque cake is a round pastry made up of a golden shortbread paste and a garnish which can be either with pastry cream, or with black cherry jam. In its fusion version, we can find various re -interpretations such as: a different shape, textures with a meringue in the dough for pocket dressage, additions of spices such as cardamom, ginger or tahiti vanilla - the incorporation of exotic fruits such as mango or passion fruit - the use of matcha tea or cream - versions with yuzu or Asian citrus fruits, see soft pepper jams
- garnishes inspired by other pastry traditions such as the Dulce de Leche. Nuts or a salty variant, these creations generally respect the technique and the structure of the original Basque cake while enriching it with new flavors, which makes it possible to create a bridge between the Basque culinary heritage and other gastronomic traditions.
Almonds in the Basque cake: the gourmet secret that you did not know
Have you ever wondered why your Basque cake has this little taste of almond or rum and vanilla that makes you crack? It's no coincidence!
The real story is much cooler than you might think! The craftsmen on the Basque coast were already almond masters long before the Basque cake became inst-fame. These chefs were already working on troops to die for, macaroons of phews and almond pasta that would make any forest cry with joy.
It was these same pros who had the idea of genius to incorporate the almond directly into the dough (and not in the garnish as some might think). And we're talking about real almonds here, no artificial aromas or essential oils!
Over time, this cake has become a star of pastry windows, but like all celebrities, it has known some "remixes" not always authentic. The rum and vanilla that have slipped into the cream? Let's say it is the commercial version that moves away from the OG recipe! So the next time you bite in a Basque cake, appreciates this touch of almond in the dough - this is where all the know -how of Basque craftsmen resides!
Mild chili
hazelnut
Gluten Free
When two countries compete in the Basque Country and Brittany
Sweet treasures of our regions - the top 40 French pastries
Criteria: taste ★ | Texture ★ | Originality ★ | Local story ★ | Popularity ★
Tarte Tatin (Center-Val de Loire)
stunning, caramelized, legendary.
★★★ | ★★★ | ★★ | ★★★ | ★★★Paris-Brest (Île-de-France)
A ring of praline cabbage dough that has become a myth.
★★★ | ★★ | ★★ | ★★ | ★★Basque cake (Basque Country)
acclaimed, generous, authentic.
★★★ | ★★ | ★★ | ★★★ | ★★★Chocolate Éclair (Paris)
timeless, precise, chocolate.
★★ | ★★ | ★ | ★★ | ★★★Kouign-Amann (Brittany)
the crisp king, in butter.
★★★ | ★★★ | ★★ | ★★ | ★★Cannelé (Bordeaux)
caramelized outside, tender in it.
★★ | ★★★ | ★★ | ★★ | ★★Macaron (Paris, Nancy)
sweet, crunchy-founding jewel.
★★ | ★★ | ★★★ | ★★ | ★★★Tropézienne (PACA)
Briochée, creamy, sweet.
★★ | ★★ | ★ | ★★ | ★★KOUGLOF (Alsace)
majestic winter brioche.
★ | ★★ | ★ | ★★ | ★Breton pancakes (Brittany)
versatile, family, festive.
★★ | ★★ | ★ | ★★ | ★★★Savoie cake 12 Far Breton 13 Galette des Rois (frangipane) 14 sugar pie (north) 15 crushed from Poitou
16 Bourdaloue pear pie 17 Charentaise galette 18 Nougat de Montélimar 19 blueberry pie (Vosges)
20 MIRLITON DE NORMANDIE 21Gâteau beaten (Picardy) 22 Calissons d'Aix 23navettes Provençales
24 Catalan Rousquilles 25 Oil pump 26 Creusois cake 27 Cherry clafoutis (Auvergne)
28 novel glasses 29 pears caught from rivarennes 30 flognarde 31 Grenoble nuts
32 Mens puffs 33 Alsace gingerbread 34 pancakes and Côtes d'Armor 35 Fiadone Corsican corse pancakes
36 Reims or Dijon nonnets 37 MILLAS GASCON 38 Vendée Fion 39 Down's leaflet (NICE)
40 Tourment d'amour (Guadeloupe) 41 The Nantes cake 42 Les Bugnes Lyonnaises 43 The Baulois cake.
Our dear New York Times , which has written so much on the Basques , offers us a new rare pearl. Eating" section , the chief, journalist and author Dorie Greenspan published an article on the Basque cake that really makes you want to taste one or four.
But the article also makes you want to visit our country, because it lists some of the gastronomic and non-gastronomic delights found in the North Basque Country: Ossau-Iraty cheese, Irouléguy , sneakers , traditional telas Espelette pepper . And this is only the emerged part of the iceberg.
Our country captivates those who appreciate it, sometimes even by means which, for the most part, would be chance. This is what happened to Dorie Greenspan when she made a "bad" detour that finally led her to Sare, a Basque city of breathtaking beauty that houses what fascinated our journalist: the Cake .
It is there that she discovers this jewel of our kitchen and meets its founder, the pastry chef Bixente Marichular , president of Bizi Ona Slow Food Basque . This is how the author's love was born for this Basque dessert.
And it is a lasting love, as evidenced by this article, written in May 2021, which recalls a trip she made with her husband over ten years ago.
We hope that she will come back when she can and that she will discover our whole country, from Bayonne to Tudela, because it is not for nothing that we are The Culinary Nation .
New York Times - 05/05/2021 - United States
The pastry filled with the jam of my dreams
Fourteen months approximately after the start of the pandemic and more than 450 days after our departure from Paris, thinking of being back a few weeks later, I always dream of travel. One morning, I woke up thinking about being on a beach, a landscape like no other, but pleasant. One day, I dreamed that I had bought so much lily of the valley on May 1 that I could not bring them home.
( Follow ) ( automatic translation )
Heami Lee photo for the New York Times . Culinary stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Stylist Accessories: Amy Wilson.
Last update: May 8, 2021 by About Basque Country
JT Basque bar in Gardnerville Nevada
A Basque cake in Manhattan
One day, in New York, in my little store nestled on Park Avenue, I decided, a little to have fun, to offer a Basque cake in "day cake". I wanted to see how New Yorkers would react to this sweetness of the Basque Country.
As usual, I went from table to table, curious to collect impressions. A customer, enthusiastic, launched me with the greatest seriousness: "It looks just like a boston cream pie!" »»
Intrigued - and a little bitten in my regional pride - I hastened to go to see what this famous Boston pie looked like. And there, surprise! The Boston Cream Pie is not a pie, or even a cousin far from my Basque cake: it is a cake made from sponge cake, stuffed with pastry cream and topped with chocolate. In short, a world apart.
Like what, even 5,800 kilometers from the house, the Basque cake knows how to awaken curiosity ... and cause some pretty culinary misunderstandings!
Morality? There is still work. The Basque cake has not finished awakening the taste buds ... nor the culinary knowledge.
The Basque cake has designed America
Friday Review - New York Times, 1990
"The Basque Cake of Park Avenue - a lesson in sweet modesty"
By Bryan Miller
Park avenue Gourmandise , the cozy and puff pastry of the Midtown Chic, has just added to its card a dessert which does not attract the eye, but which captivates the palace: the Basque cake , interpreted by null other than Bixente Marichular , child of the Basque Country and pastry chef of the kitchens of Maxim's and Peninsula.
At first glance, this cake has the charm of a cassock monk: discreet, mat, almost rigid. No coating, no ornament. Only a slightly golden crust, striated with a fork, like a signature that could only be read with the fingers. But that we are not mistaken: this modest disc contains a world.
The dough, shortbread and firm, melts under the tooth with the precision of a well -high millefeuille. It encircles a pastry cream flavored with Tahiti vanilla and chin lemon zest. In its heart: a thin layer of black cherry jam from Itxassou , imported for the occasion. All, barely lukewarm, releases an aroma halfway between the memory of a childhood snack and the elegance of a Parisian tea room.
Marichular, with its accent from the Southwest and its retaining as a master-artisan, claims "the exact simplicity". There is neither gold powder nor spherified citrus frosty. Only butter, time, and a deep meaning of the terroir.
"I don't invent anything," he said, "I pay tribute. The Basque cake is a bit like a hymn that we do not change-we interpret it just with respect."
This dessert could have gone unnoticed among the soufflés in the goguette and the hibiscus burnt creams. And yet, he steals the show from everything around him , with the quiet strength of the classics that do not need an effect.
My recommendation? Go a Friday. Order a glass of soft Jurançon. Leave Manhattan's tumult outside. And savor, with each bite, the certainty that sometimes France wins without making noise.
The Japanese in the land of the Basque cake
To these Americans !!!!!
Chocolate and exoticism
Hazelnut chocolate
Chestnuts
Even ten thousand kilometers, an odor is enough to return to the country.
German recipe
The Grand Tour of
Basque cake
A sweet journey on the five continents
Starting point:
Cambo-les-Bains, France
Basque cake is held every year . Here, do we debate with fervor: cream or cherry? And we transmit recipes as family treasures.
Bilbao - South Basque Country
In the southern Basque Country, the local version is called "Pastel Vasco" , often lighter, sometimes scented with rum. Bilbao or Saint-Sébastien pastries revisit it in sweet tapas .
New York-United States
The Basque cake invites itself on French restaurant cards, from Brooklyn to Manhattan. Special mention to the Basque cake of vanilla cream with pecan nuts , seen in a luxury hotel brunch. And let's not forget its mythical appearance on the Basque coast , once a temple of French gastronomy.
San Francisco-Pop-up “Basque & Bold” in a trendy warehouse.
A young Basque chef installs an ephemeral counter with a district mission, and offers a Basque street food menu: axoa, pintxos ... and for dessert, an individual Basque cake with cream and hazelnut .
"The Basque cake? This is our new cheesecake. And it's better."
Eater SF magazine , April 2023.
Abu Dhabi Emirates Arabic United States at the French Embassy.
During an official reception at the embassy, the starred chief Alain Passard is invited to prepare a meal for regional accents. In the blink of an eye to the diversity of France, it closes the meal with a miniaturized Basque cake, garnished with grilled pistachios and candied orange bark .
"A rustic jewel, transformed by oriental refinement."
- Emirati diplomat, conquered.
Santiago - Chile
In the districts of ñuñoa or Providencia, where Basque families settled in the 19th century, there are still pastries bearing the names in Toutilibel, Etcheverry or Zabala. slightly lemony dough Basque cake there , appreciated with a mate.
Kyoto Japan - Basque Matcha tea cake in a tea house.
In the Arashiyama district, a Franco-Japanese chief offers a Basque cake infused with matcha and garnished with sweet red beans. The contrast between the buttered dough and the vegetable softness of tea surprises Japanese customers, accustomed to the subtlety of the wagashi.
"It is as if a Breton shortbread had meditated under a cherry tree in flowers."
- Extract from a Tokyo blog, 2019
Melbourne - Australia
In the producer markets or in Fitzroy's coffee shops, a young Basque chief offers Basque cakes to take away , blueberry or local lime. Australia discovers the richness of French regional cuisine beyond the croissants.
Montreal - Quebec Basque diaspora competition.
Organized by the Basque Maison du Québec, a friendly competition sees the best Basque cakes in the region compete. One of the competitors, born in Bayonne, creates a double garnish cake: cream on one side, icing on the other- "to get angry," she said, smiling.
"Here, even purists' quarrels melt in maple syrup."
The restaurant Les Pyrénées The only restaurant in Quebec or you will find Basque cake in La Cerise !!!!
Singapore -
French Taste Fair
In a gastronomic lounge in Marina Bay Sands, the Basque Country stand attracts crowds with live demonstrations for manufacturing the Basque cake. The tropical heat requires adjust the cooking times, but the recipe appeals to a curious audience.
"Crunchy outside, Creamy Inside - It's the French Mochi!"
- A Singaporean culinary influencer.
CAP - South Africa
On the occasion of a French gastronomy festival, a French pastry chef of Basque origin installs a stand and offers a Basque cake with rooibos and candied apricots . Unexpected success, the cake enters the menus of bohemian cafes.
Buenos Aires Argentine - "Día Vasco" festival at the Boca
Each year, the Basques of Argentina celebrate their origins. During the Día Vasco , hundreds of Basque cakes are sold at the Cup, in a dances atmosphere, ball, and brass bands. The black cherry version is queen there, but some exiles have adapted the recipe by replacing the jam with the dulce of Leche .
"The sweetness of the Basque Country meets that of the Argentinian plains - a happy exile." A living legend, a nomadic recipe
The Basque cake, born between sea and mountains, now travels with suitcases, memories and taste buds. Each step is a translation, each version a tribute. From Cambo to Kyoto, he retains what makes his strength: the generosity of the heart and the rigor of the hand.
In one of the most popular restaurants in New York, 1986 "La Côte Basque" -
A Basque wink in New York Haute Gastronomy
It is 8:15 p.m. on the 5th avenue. The taxis rumble, the fur coats cross the currency sidewalks, and at the corner of the 55th street, the heavy gold doors of the restaurant La Côte Basque open onto a cozy world of French elegance.
In this prized setting for the New York elite-artists, diplomats, celebrities, and experienced gourmets-the menu that evening displays an unusual guest for dessert: "Basque cake with light cream, black cherries of Itxassou candied."
The restaurant La Côte Basque , opened in 1958 by Henri Soulé, was one of the high places in French cuisine in New York until its closure in 2004. Although its menu is mainly inspired by the southwest of France, few regional desserts were there. The introduction of the Basque cake , even punctual, would have marked a symbolic recognition of the Basque pastry in the very closed circle of international high gastronomy .-- Menu of the Basque Coast- Autumn evening 1986
Entrance
- Lobster medallion with Tahiti vanilla
- Porcini mushrooms and foie gras chips
Main dish
- sole rolled sole fillet, white wine sauce
- duck breast with green pepper, gratin dauphinois
Cheese
-refined selection (Brillat-Savarin, Ossau-Iraty, Roquefort)
Dessert
- Traditional Basque Cake
- Flambée Tarte in Calvados
- Soufflé au Grand Marnier
Bryan Miller's review - The New York Times
"That evening, the Basque Coast offered a rare moment of culinary simplicity in a symphony of opulence. The Basque cake, humble ambassador of the Southwest French, won at the end of the meal as an essential recall: that the real grandeur lies in the memory of taste."
"The crust, shortbread but dense, golden like a sunset over the rhune, revealed a subtly infused vanilla cream of lemon. The black cherry, confitted with elegance, punctuated each bite of a rustic, almost pastoral accent. It was a dessert of emotion, more than performance."
"At the Basque coast, this cake was not just a dessert: it was a Basque Madeleine, deposited in the heart of Manhattan."
Even before he gets out of the oven, the Basque cake already tells something. A house, a season, a hand that knows.
He is at the same time recipe, memory, offering.
What if we hit the road, to follow her trace?
From one village to another, from an oven to a party, from the Euskadi mountains to the streets of Buenos Aires,
this modest cake becomes a great trip.
Ours.
Impact of the manufacture of the Basque cake on our planet.
Life cycle of the Basque cake: simplified analysis.
1. Main ingredients and their impact (for a 500 g cake)
Ingredientity Average ethics (CO₂E/KG) Estimated emissions (G CO₂E) wheat flour150 G0.5 kg CO₂E75 GBERRE150 G11.5 kg CO₂E1 725 GEXEFS (3 eggs) 150 G4.8 kg CO₂E720 GSUCRE100 G1 KG CO₂E100 GLAIT (Pastry Cream) 100 G1.3 kg Co₂e130 gamands or jam 50 g2–3 kg co₂e125 g
➡️ Total estimated by cake: approximately 2,875 g of co₂e , or 2.9 kg co₂e .
2. Local transport and supply
If the ingredients are local (eg eggs, milk, butter, flour products in the Basque Country), the carbon footprint can be reduced by 10 to 20 % .
Transport is marginal at the local level, especially if sold in short circuits (markets, local bakeries).
3. Craft manufacturing vs industrial
Craft (local electric oven, manual production):
Moderate electricity consumption (~ 0.5 kWh per cake, ~ 50 g Co₂e if the electricity is decarbonized).
Industrial (mass production, plastic packaging, logistics transport):
Impact multiplied by 1.5 to 2x depending on the practices.
4. Packaging
Cardboard/Paper: ~ 20 to 50 g Co₂e
Plastic packaging (case of industrial versions): ~ 100 to 150 g co₂e
5. End of life / waste
Very low waste rate for a pastry product (often consumed entirely).
Packaging waste to recycle according to local sectors.
📊 Average carbon assessment of local artisanal cake
Posto₂e estimated by cake (G) Ingredients2 875 GCUSE50 GEMBALLAGE PAPER30 GTRANSPORT LOCAL50 G Total ~ 3,000 g Co₂E (3 kg)
🌍 Agglomeration scale (French Basque Country)
If it is estimated that around 500,000 Basque cakes are produced each year in the Basque Country:
Estimated annual total:
→ 500,000 × 3 kg co₂e = 1,500 tonnes of co₂e/year📌 Comparison
1,500 tonnes of co₂e = annual emissions of around 150 average French people over one year .
A Basque cake = ~ 15 km in petrol car (to give an idea).
✅ Impact reduction lever
Use local and organic products
Reduce the amount of butter (or choose low-carbon butter)
Favor green electricity for cooking
Avoid plastic packaging
Value short circuits
