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Saint-Lô cake

Name: Saint-Lô cake
Prep time: 2 h 26 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 3 h 1 min
Yield: 1 cake
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 100 g butter; 50 g cream; 2 tablespoons Calvados (apple liqueur); 125 g flour; 125 g caster sugar; 2 g salt; 4 eggs; 15 g yeast

The cake from Saint-Lô, a town in the French department of La Manche, is a beaten cake, i.e. very moist, with a light, delicious pastry that looks a little like brioche.

2,847 5/5 (1 reviews)

3 hours 1 min. difficulté

Easy

2.20 €

1 cake

8 Ingredients

Last modified on: October 29^th 2025

For 1 cake, you will need:

1 100 g butter
2 50 g cream
3 2 tablespoons Calvados (apple liqueur) (optional)
4 125 g flour
5 125 g caster sugar
6 2 g salt
7 4 eggs
8 15 g yeast
Total weight: 620 grams

Times for this recipe

Preparation: 30 min.

Resting: 2 hours

Cooking: 35 min.

All in all: 3 hours 1 min.

When should you start or finish this recipe?

If you start now, at , you will finish around : ?.Change start time

To finish around 7pm, you'll need to have started before: .Change end time

Step by step recipe

Stage 1 - ⌛ 5 min.

In a small saucepan over low heat, melt 100 g butter, then remove from heat and add 50 g cream and 2 tablespoons Calvados (apple liqueur), stir and set aside.

Stage 2 - ⌛ 5 min.

In the bowl of a mixer, sift 125 g flour, add 125 g caster sugar, 2 g salt, 4 eggs and 15 g yeast.

Stage 3 - ⌛ 3 min.

Start the mixer on low speed to blend well.

Stage 4 - ⌛ 3 min.

Drizzle in the butter, cream and calvados mixture without stopping the mixer.

Stage 5 - ⌛ 3 min.

Mix well.

Stage 6 - ⌛ 10 min.

Increase the mixer speed, and let the dough beat for 10 minutes.

Note: This is an essential step if you then want a light, airy cake.

Stage 7 - ⌛ 2 min.

Pour the dough into a buttered high-sided tin, cover with cling film or plastic sheeting, and leave to stand in a warm place for around 2 hours.

Stage 8 - ⌛ 2 hours

At the end of this time, you'll see that the dough has pushed through.

Stage 9 - ⌛ 30 min.

Preheat your oven to 180°C (360°F) and bake for 25-30 minutes.

Stage 10

Unmould as soon as you remove from the oven, otherwise the cake will stick to the tin, and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Remarks

If using semi-salted butter, do not add salt at rstp=2.

The Saint-Lô cake recipe is said to have been invented by a local restaurateur called "Le père Féret", chef of the Marignan restaurant.

The 10 minutes when the dough is beaten in step 6 are very important. If you don't do this (as in many recipes on the web), you'll end up with a dense cake that won't taste as good.

Keeping: 3 or 4 days in the fridge, protected by cling film.

Source: Home made.

Nutritional information

	Proteins (gr)	Carbohydrates (gr)	Fats (gr)	Energy value (in k-calories)	Energy value (in k-joules)
Whole recipe	40 RDI=20 %	230 RDI=20 %	120 RDI=20 %	2,250 RDI=110 %	9,430 RDI: 110 %
Per 100 g	7 RDI=3 %	40 RDI=3 %	20 RDI=3 %	360 RDI=20 %	1,530 RDI: 20 %