Household cake (Gâteau de ménage)

A recipe from cooking-ez.com

For 2 cakes, you will need:

• 1 250 g flour
• 2 10 g yeast
• 3 5 g fine (or table) salt
• 4 30 g caster sugar
• 5 50 ml milk
• 6 50 ml liquid cream
• 7 2 eggs
• 8 130 g butter
• 9 50 g caster sugar
• 10 10 g Vanilla sugar
• 11 3 egg yolks
• 12 200 ml cream
• Total weight: 945 grams

Times:

Preparation	Resting	Cooking	Start to finish
34 min.	3 hours	25 min.	3 hours 59 min.

Step by step recipe

1	Warm 50 ml milk, then pour into the bowl of a mixer with 50 ml liquid cream and 30 g caster sugar. Add 250 g flour, 10 g yeast and 2 eggs.
2	Start the mixer at low speed until mixture is homogeneous. Turn the speed up a little, then add 130 g butter a little at a time. Continue mixing for a few minutes until the mixture is homogeneous.
3	Gather up the dough, and put under a damp tea-towel in a warm place for about 2 hours.
4	Meanwhile, prepare the cream: In a bowl mix 50 g caster sugar, 10 g Vanilla sugar, 3 egg yolks and 200 ml cream.
5	Check that the dough has about doubled in size.
6	Tip onto floured working surface, and divide in two.
7	Put each half into a pie dish, mould or tin.
8	And with your hand (dusted with flour to avoid sticking), spread dough evenly over the dish. Cover with a plastic sheet and leave to rise for one hour.
9	At the end of this time, preheat oven to 200°C or 392°F.
10	With a tablespoon (dusted with flour to avoid sticking), create a kind of hollow in the centre of the pie to receive the cream filling.
11	Pour half of the cream in the centre of each cake, and put in the oven without delay.
12	Remove from the oven when the cake is golden brown, after about 25 minutes.

Remarks

The domestic cake or "goumeau cake" goes dry rapidly, so best eaten on the day it's made.
Unfortunately it's getting difficult to find a good household cake, even in its region of origin,the Haut-Doubs. By "good", I mean: fresh-baked that day, light, not just sweetened in a hurry, but with a true cream. It's a great pity that bakers from Franche-comté are allowing this traditional recipe to be forgotten.

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