Cake sale' as in savoury?

[Jill<br><br>Jill (99)]

Recently, a French friend served a savoury cake as an entree to a meal we had with her. We hadn't come across this before and I wondered if anyone else had.

Is it an old French idea, or is it a modern invention? Also, what is it's main purpose. I mean, is it normally eaten as an entree or aperitif, or what?

Also, a friend of hers had invited us for an aperitif repas, but had messed us all around so much that we didn't go as we preferred to cook a proper meal. Michele wasn't even sure what the aperitif repas was. I'd guess it was just a buffet, the implication was that we wouldn't leave hungry. Michele seemed to think this was some new thing in France, or possibly something more upper class than her own origins.

She's now sent me recipes for these cakes, anyway:

au jambon et aux olives (which is the one we had)
au poulet et a l'estragon
aux poivrons, a la feta et aux olives noires
au cheddar, au jambon, a la biere et a la moutarde
a la raclette et au bacon

and more besides.

The only thing was that it seemed a bit dry on it's own to me and I thought it might be better with something like cream cheese at a buffet. Have you any experience of these or any other ideas?

Jill (99)

[Mysfloss]

I dont have an answer for any of your questions,but I found this book on the wifes cookery shelf les Cakes de Sophie by Sophie Dudemaine published by minerva.cakes for all seasons.website in book www.lamartiniere.fr

[GRT17]

Jill,
the savoury cake sounds interesting but I can't say that I have ever come across this idea.

>
>Also, a friend of hers had
>invited us for an aperitif
>repas,

Some young (30 something!) friends invited us for one of these once. They live in a flat and did not have room to seat all of us around their dining table. Anne made savoury and sweet tarts plus salad type nibbles. We all sat on the comfy chairs and the food and drinks were on a low coffee table.

We had a great evening and certainly did not need to eat dinner as well.

Gill

[Val_2]

Savoury cakes here have been around for donkeys. If you look on supermarket shelves where they keep the pizza mix,flour etc you will Maizena do a savoury gateau mix to which you add the veggies. We have often been served savoury cake at buffets here.

[Jill<br><br>Jill (99)]

[quote]I dont have an answer for any of your questions,but I found this book on the wifes cookery shelf les Cakes de Sophie by Sophie Dudemaine published by minerva.cakes for all seasons.website in book www....[/quote]

It sounds as though the book you mentioned could be the one Michele has, because each of the photocopied pages that she sent to me does have a season mentioned.

[Jill<br><br>Jill (99)]

[quote]Savoury cakes here have been around for donkeys. If you look on supermarket shelves where they keep the pizza mix,flour etc you will Maizena do a savoury gateau mix to which you add the veggies. We ha...[/quote]

So, was the cake just served in slices? I liked it but found it rather dry on it's own. I thought cream cheese or something would improve it.

[Diana]

I tried this for the first time this summer, we had been invited for drinks and this was one the snacks on offer.  I really enjoyed it and asked our host what it was.  She said she made it like a sponge cake but omitted the sugar and in place of dried fruit used chopped ham.  I felt something was lost in the translation here so would aprreciate a recepie.

Diana

[Teamedup]

The only ones I have ever had have been aux olives and usually warm and quite moist and always served with an appero.

[SaligoBay]

Likewise, TU.   One neighbour also has salmon ones from Thiriet, the frozen-food-to-your-door bunch.  

All are moist enough, maybe the dry ones were just bad luck?   Anyway, wash them down with copious amounts of Muscat/Grenache/Pastis, it won't matter!

Next door has a book full of them too, must have a look to see what it is....

[Lindsey2]

Last time I was in Nice I bought one of those ubiquitous recipe postcards, (Recettes Provencales), which featured "Cake d"Olives" - as well as green olives, it contained ham and chopped hazelnuts, and very delicious it was too! I just served it in slices with a green salad.

[Jill<br><br>Jill (99)]

[quote]I tried this for the first time this summer, we had been invited for drinks and this was one the snacks on offer. I really enjoyed it and asked our host what it was. She said she made it like a spon...[/quote]

Sorry it took me a while to reply. My office was a mess and I didn't know where I'd put the envelope I'd received from my friend. She had photocopied several pages, but when I looked, the basic recipe was the same for them all!

Savoury Cake

Mix these together:

3 eggs

150g flour

1 sachet of levure – or baking powder – not sure how much

10 cl sunflower oil

12.5 cl milk

1 pinch salt

2 pinches pepper

Add this and one of the variations below.

100g grated gruyere

Bake at 180C/gas 6 for 45 minutes

(I’ve left out details about how to prepare the ingredients as it should be fairly obvious about cutting, dicing or whatever.

200g ham (jambon de Paris)

75 g green olives

200g ham

50 g Edam

50 g pistachio nuts

200g chicken or turkey or rabbit

50g tarragon

1 shallot sauted with a knob of butter and dessert spoon of oil

If you send me a private message with your e.mail address I'll send you the rest of the variations as I just typed them out as a table which won't copy to here.

[Jill<br><br>Jill (99)]

Actually, this only just reminded me of something someone I knew did a few years ago. She was hosting one of the French students I was in charge of and she was making some sort of banana bread or some othe sweet bread, and the recipe called for cream cheese. It was only after she had mixed it together that she realised she had picked up garlic and herb cream cheese in error. She asked what she should do. Well, she was South African, so I suggested she served it with a savoury dish and say it was a South African speciality! She sent a piece to me the next day, and it was quite nice. If only we had realised she was only doing a variation on a French recipe. The girl was from Drome so should surely have been familiar with Provencal recipes!

[Iceni]

Hi Jill, I tried the cake and it was great - lardons and olives - went down a treat.  I suddenly remembered why it was ringing bells, leave out everything savory, add sugar and mix in whole nuts and crystalised or glace fruits.  Put the batter into a cake ring and cook on 180 till done.  Turn out and drizzle thin white icing over it in fine lines and you have the perfect Christmas cake for those who do not like the normal cake.

I did this one year and put it onto the table with holly and a candle in the middle as a table decoration and we ate the cake later.  Expensive but well worth it.

Will work my way through the other recipes when I get out of the caravan and back to the living area in the barn - wall filling, termite treatment for all wood, sanding etc means I have left home for a few weeks