No. 3236

Compiegne Cake

Gateau Compiegne

Dilute three-quarters of an ounce of compressed yeast in a vessel with one gill of warm milk; strain, return it to the vessel and incorporate five ounces of flour to make a soft leaven; put this on a floured table, mold and replace it in the vessel after cleaning it out well; cover over with a cloth and leave in a mild temperature to rise to double its size. In another vessel place three-quarters of a pound of flour, form a hole in the center and in it lay an ounce of sugar and a heavy pinch of salt (according to the saltiness of the butter), two eggs, eight yolks and six ounces of butter. Mix all well together to form into a paste, working it forcibly for a few moments in order to give it body, then add slowly one gill of rich cream; continue to work the paste until it has plenty of body, them mix in the leaven very lightly, also one pint of well-drained whipped cream. Butter a large plain cylindrical mold (Fig. 150) seven inches in diameter by seven inches high; fill it up three-quarters with the above paste and leave it in a mild temperature until quite full; stand it on a pie plate and push it carefully into a very slack oven. It should take an hour and a half to an hour and three-quarters to bake; take it out as soon as done, invert it on a grate and let cool off. Dress on a folded napking to serve.

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For the Modern Kitchen

An enriched yeast dough closer to a brioche than to a butter cake, lightened at the last moment with whipped cream and baked slowly in a tall cylindrical mold. Ranhofer assumes a professional pastry hand, but nothing here is beyond a home cook with a stand mixer and patience.

A gillHalf a cup, four fluid ounces. The recipe uses one gill of warm milk for the sponge and another of cream in the dough.
Compressed yeastThree-quarters of an ounce of fresh cake yeast, roughly 21 grams. Substitute about 7 grams of instant or active dry yeast, roughly 2 1/4 teaspoons, which is one standard packet.
Weigh the flourFive ounces for the sponge and three-quarters of a pound for the dough, so about 17 ounces (480 g) in total. Measuring by cup will throw the hydration off badly in a dough this rich.
A very slack ovenProbably in the region of 275-300F; period 'slack' ovens were well below normal baking heat, and the book gives no figure. The long, low bake is deliberate: a dough carrying ten eggs' worth of yolk and six ounces of butter will scorch on the outside before the center sets at any higher heat. Expect the full hour and a half to an hour and three-quarters, and check for 190-195F at the center.
The hinge: fold, don't beatThe leaven and the pint of whipped cream go in "very lightly" at the end. All the gluten development happens before that point, while the dough is being worked "forcibly" for body. Once the cream is in, work it no more than needed to combine or it will deflate and the crumb will turn heavy.
Well-drained whipped creamWhip a pint of heavy cream to soft peaks, unsweetened, and let it sit in a sieve for a few minutes so no free liquid goes into the dough. Have the dough at cool room temperature, not warm, when you fold it in.
The moldA plain cylinder seven inches across and seven inches deep holds roughly four and a half to five quarts. A tall charlotte mold or a deep panettone tin will do; butter it heavily. Filling three-quarters and proofing to the rim takes an hour or more in a warm kitchen.
Salt'A heavy pinch of salt (according to the saltiness of the butter)' means season to the butter you have. With unsalted butter, a generous pinch, up to a teaspoon of fine salt, for this quantity of flour.
Yield and servingA cake of this size serves twelve to sixteen. Ranhofer files it under 'Large Cakes for Entremets', and directs only that it be dressed on a folded napkin to serve.

A Little History

Compiègne, north of Paris, was an imperial residence under Napoleon III, and the gâteau that carries its name belongs to the family of rich yeast-raised French cakes dominated by the brioche and the savarin. Recipes for gâteau de Compiègne circulated through nineteenth-century French pastry manuals, some versions steeping candied fruit in kirsch or maraschino, others, like this one, left plain and lifted with whipped cream. Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete record of the French repertoire as it was cooked in an American grand restaurant, and his "Large Cakes for Entremets" chapter is full of these place-named gateaux, Chamounix and Fleury standing on either side of this one. They are essentially breads for the dessert course, made possible by reliable compressed yeast, which had become a commercial staple in American cities by the 1870s and 1880s and freed pastry cooks from maintaining their own leaven.