A traditional recipe for soft pound cake. In France we call this a quatre quart, it comes from a region in France called Bretagne / Britany, this recipe is garnished with apples which makes for a cake that is less rich, lighter, softer and just as tasty.
There are many recipes in the French home cooking repertoire with apples. From apple tart or the iconic tarte tatin of course, to apples baked in the oven or crumbles. This recipe is an adaptation from a regional recipe.
In this article
The principle of a pound cake
Weigh your eggs, then use the same weight for your sugar, flour and butter. Each ingredient therefore represents a quarter of the total, or four quarters in total, this is why in French we call a pound cake quarte-quart (four quarters).
With a small necessary detail to take into account for this recipe when weighing: as in the recipe we must beat the egg whites, make sure to weigh the whites and the yolks separately and then add these 2 measurements together to use them as your base.
A medium-sized egg generally weighs about 55 to 65 grams (weight without the shell), we will say an egg weighs on average 60 grams, hence my basis for preparing the other ingredients at 220 grams each, a little bit below 4 times 60 gr = 240 gr.
For this apple pound cake recipe, as the fruit will add some sweetness to the cake, I reduced the quantity of sugar needed, from 220 gr to 160 gr. If you want to treat yourself and have a sweet tooth, you can increase to 180 gr / 350°F.
How are the apples used in this cake
Unlike most apple cakes or pies where the apples are cut into quarters or slices, here the apples are peeled, cored and grated with the same grater you use for your carrots or cheese.
Personally I have an Artisan Kitchen aid robot with two grid sizes for grating, I used the largest here to still have a little chew and not to reduce the apples into too fine pieces.
Similar to what would be done for a carrot cake or a chocolate zucchini cake in which the carrots and zucchini are peeled and grated.
Apples are used raw and grated in this pound cake.
The steps for making an apple pound cake
The recipe is very quick so make sure to read the instructions first to fully understand the order in which the ingredients are added before starting.
The first step is to as explained above to separate the egg whites and yolks. If you are not using medium-sized eggs, weigh your egg whites and yolks separately, add the weights together and check that you have more or less 240 g.
The ideal is to first prepare the base of the cake, using firstly the sugar and the egg yolks whipped together until the mixture whitens, then add together the flour, the pinch of salt and the butter that you have melted in the preheated oven (or in the microwave or saucepan).
This is when you get to add the flavor(s) of your choice, vanilla, cinnamon, lemon, rum, calvados…
Once everything is well mixed, the dough is a little dense and adding the egg whites at this time could risk breaking them and therefore making the pound cake rise less when baking. You will therefore add the grated apples to the egg yolk, sugar, flour and butter mixture before the egg whites.
Then beat the egg whites and delicately incorporate the egg whites into the cake and apple batter.
As we are using egg whites, no yeast is needed.
Finally, pour the preparation of your pound cake into a mould that has been buttered and floured, cook for 45 minutes at 180°C.
Flavor your pound cake according to your taste with
- fine zest of organic lemon
- a glass of amber rum or Calvados,
- some cinnamon,
- a little vanilla…
If you make other adaptations, let me know in the comments.
I also have a recipe you can follow to make the real traditional Breton pound cake.
Apple pound cake
Ingredients
- 3 apples (they must be grated)
- 4 eggs
- 220 gr flour
- 220 gr butter
- 160 gr sugar
- 1 pinch salt
Optionnal
- 1 tblsp vanilla
- 1 tblsp cinanmon
- 1 tblsp rhum
- 1 lemon (for its zest)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 140°C / 285°F.
Preliminary preparations
- Separate the whites and yolks into two different bowls. Weigh the egg white and yolk and check that you have 220g in total. If necessary, adjust the quantities of the other ingredients a little.
- Weigh the butter, cut it into cubes and put it to melt in a bowl in the oven. You can also melt the butter in the microwave or in a saucepan, the oven should then be at 140°C.
Start preparing the dough
- Add the sugar to the egg yolks and whisk them until the mixture turns white. Add the flour, a pinch of salt and the flavor of your choice (a little vanilla or cinnamon, the finely grated zest of an organic lemon, a little amber rum or calvados). Mix.
- When the butter is melted, add it and mix again. Increase the oven temperature to 180°C / 350°F.
Add the apples
- Peel and core the apples. Cut them into quarters and grate them. Add the apples
- Add the grated apples to the dough and mix them.
Add the egg whites
- Beat the egg whites and gently incorporate them into the mixture.
- Grease a loaf pan with butter, add a tablespoon of flour, and tap to coat on all sides. Pour in the cake batter.
Bake
- Bake in the oven for about 40 to 45 minutes. Insert a knife to check if the cake is well-cooked; it should come out dry.