Travel cakes

Where does the name come from?

Historically, these cakes were made to accompany long journeys, often by boat, train or stagecoach. The aim was to create a cake that was not fragile, that could withstand a little shaking, and that kept well, at least for several days, and didn't need to be put in the fridge.

Madame de Sévigné

A pretty legend attributes the invention of the term "travel cake" to Mme De Sévigné in the ^17th century in a letter to her daughter, but it's more a modern invention, stemming from contemporary patisserie, popularized notably by chefs like Pierre Hermé and Christophe Michalak.

Characteristics of a travel cake :

To meet all these requirements, travel cakes have certain compositional imperatives:

They contain no cream (in the sense of crème pâtissière or chantilly, for example), nor fresh fruit, which would not last the desired several days.
They often have a dense or fluffy texture that enables them to remain pleasant without drying out quickly.
They generally contain a low water content to limit the risk of mold and extend their shelf life.
They are often simple in shape, typically cake-shaped, rectangular and elongated.

Classic ingredients:

Travel cake recipes are generally quite simple, using classic ingredients:

butter, sugar, eggs, flour
Sometimes enriched with dried fruit (almonds, hazelnuts, pistachios), candied fruit or spices.
Some recipes include alcohol, such as rum or Grand Marnier, for added flavor and preservation.

Some examples of travel cakes:

All cakes: chestnut, clementine, chocolate, hazelnut and orange, ...
Roasted almond cake
Oatmeal walnut cake
Leopard cake
Gingerbread
And many more...

In a nutshell: "Gâteau de voyage" is a lovely French gastronomic term, referring to long-lasting, easy-to-carry cakes that you can take with you on a trip.

Lasts posts

Butter vs. grease

We often read in a recipe where a pastry is put into a mould that, just before pouring, the mould should be buttered or greased. But what's the difference between these 2 terms?
December 1^st 20251,2075

Getting out of the fridge early

Very often when you're cooking, you need to take food or preparations out of the fridge, to use them in the recipe in progress. There's nothing tricky about this: you just take them out of the fridge and use them, usually immediately, in the recipe. But is this really a good method?
November 24^th 20251,2105

Who's making the croissants?

When you look at a bakery from the outside, you naturally think that in the bakery, the bakers make the bread, and in the laboratory, the pastry chefs make the cakes. It's very often like that, with each of these professions having quite different ways of working, but sometimes there's also one...
November 23^th 20251,104

Oven height

When we put a dish or cake in the oven, we naturally tend to put it on the middle shelf, and that's what we usually do. But in some cases, this position and height can be a little tricky, so let's find out why.
October 8^th 20253,0005

The importance of sieving

In recipes that use a fine powder (flour, powdered sugar, etc.), you'll often see the advice to sift before using it. To sift is to pass the powder in question through a sieve (a very fine strainer) before incorporating it into your recipe. It's often advice, but is it really useful?
September 3^rd 20257,7053

See all posts Random post RSS feeds

Other pages you may also like

What is the difference between bakery and patisserie?

This is a question that you may well have asked yourself and which I will attempt to answer. In France the two trades of "boulangerie" (bakery) and "pâtisserie" (patisserie and confectionery) have always been quite distinct, but where exactly do the boundaries lie? .
February 7^th 2017134 K 14.1

The golden-brown finish on puff pastry

Let's take a look at the tricky matter of producing puff pastry with an attractive, golden-brown finish. French pastry chefs call this "dorure" (literally, "gilding"). Behind this quirky term there lurks a real problem (and the solution): when using puff pastry (pâte feuilletée) for a pie, or...
February 8^th 201847 K 24.6

The super powers of cornstarch

I start this new year by evoking an old product, that you most probably have in your cupboards, a white powder, often in a small cardboard package with a slightly outdated look, only the "gluten free" is relatively recent, it is simply cornstarch, hence its name of maïzena. It's used for a lot...
January 14^th 202215 K

Unmoulding cakes while hot

When you make a cake, pound cake or whatever (what bakers call a "travel cake" because it's easy to carry around) you've most likely made a batter, either by hand or in a food processor, which you then pour into a buttered pan. It's a classic, and I've already talked to you about 2 or 3 tips on...
February 6^th 202139 K4.6

Candied fruits: don't get ripped off

Do you like candied fruit? You might like to nibble a handful or add it to a recipe, like a classic fruit cake or delicious Italian specialities like panettone or sicilian epiphany pie.
June 21^th 201767 K 24.2