One French word: épice, a French recipe: gâteau aux épices

Epice, feminine noun (une épice, des épices, l’épice) = spice (pronounced ay-peace, no particular stress).
Remember what I said in previous posts about an accented é transformed into an s in English? This is another one.

Epicé = spicy; pain d’épices = literally spice bread, but nearer to ginger bread; Route des Epices = the Spice Road; cinq épices = Chinese 5 spice; quatre épices = allspice.

My recipe for today is a gâteau aux épices, with a good mixture of spices and some seeds thrown in for good measure.

Gâteau aux épices

You will need for a cake serving 8 people:

• 200gr butter
• 200gr sugar
• 4 eggs
• 200gr flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder (not necessary if you use self raising flour)
• 1 tbs turmeric
• 3 tbs caraway seeds (carvi in French, or you can use cumin)
• 1tsp allspice
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger

Mixing the batter

Preparation:

1. Pre heat the oven to 180°C
2. In a mixer, cream the butter and the sugar until fluffy and white
3. Add the eggs and mix
4. Add the flour, baking powder, turmeric, allspice and ginger and mix well to a smooth batter
5. Add the seeds and incorporate gently, spreading them well throughout the mixture
6. Pour into a cake mold (buttered if you are not using silicone)
7. Bake for about 40 minutes (but keep an eye on it, and test with a skewer if you think it is ready)

Gâteau aux épices just out of the oven

The turmeric gives a beautiful saffron yellow colour to the cake; the seeds get in your teeth but are interesting and delicious! Any leftovers that go a bit dry can be used to make a dessert in individual glasses. Put a half slice of cake in the bottom of a large glass and pour on a tablespoonful of alcohol (grand marnier, brandy…). Add fresh fruit (raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, banana, mango etc or a mixture of several fruits), and top with whipped cream and a few toasted almonds.

Mmmm, lovely crumbly slices

Bon appétit.