Spit cake, a culinary specialty of the mountains

Depending on our wishes, it can be enjoyed as is, warm just finished, fresh barely cooled, cold and dry after a few days, topped with custard and accompanied by a mandarin sorbet or even paired with a fondant or a soft cheese. chocolate. Fruit of a great Pyrenees tradition , each family had "its" recipe for the famous spit cake , passed down from mother to daughter for generations with the same passion. If you have ever stayed in the Pyrenees, you certainly know this iconic cake. For others, it is essential to taste this mountain specialty during your next stay.

An unmissable specialty and a living folklore!

Tasting and discovery of the flavors of the cake

In the middle of the Laruns Cheese Fair, a stand particularly attracts gourmets and the curious! Member of the Confrérie du Gâteau à la Broche d'Arreau , we find Paul-Joseph in charge of tasting this local curiosity: a gigantic golden cake with a conical shape and equipped with " spikes ", like a fir tree. In terms of taste, spit cake is unlike any other cake. It delights the palate with its taste of fresh butter with scents of vanilla and rum. A true delight !

Ancient and contested origins

An ancestral recipe

For the record, the Broche cake is an ancestral pastry which appeared in the Pyrenees more than two centuries ago. Its origins are still hotly debated because it is present in the Pyrenees and Aveyron, with great disparities in terms of paste structure and taste depending on the region. According to legend, Napoleon's soldiers brought it back to France after returning from the Russian campaign, borrowing the recipe from King Prussia's pastry chef who created it in 1790. Similar cakes are still made in Hungary, Germany and in Poland today. So, Pyrenees or Aveyron recipe ? No matter, the tradition is well anchored and the recipe of the elders has some variations, as well kept as family secrets !

Teamwork between Joseph and Régine

A traditional family cake

The President of the Confrérie du Gâteau à la Broche d’Arreau could talk for hours about this illustrious cake. However, he doesn't just talk about it: he also excels in its preparation! For him, this pastry has a very special resonance. It takes him back to his childhood and those moments spent with family, by the fire , turning the spit for hours on end, with a slow, regular and precise gesture. “Like a ritual, this gesture built the cake layer by layer while my grandmother poured a stream of batter over the entire mold with a ladle near a good wood fire,” he confides to us.

Faced with the gentle and beneficial heat of these flames, these crackles, this delicious and exhilarating smell, each child experiences a real moment of pleasure and wonder with their ancestors. When I talk with the 12 members of the Brotherhood present, these memories come back with the same poignant nostalgia. No wonder this joyful team of bon vivants is so keen to perpetuate this beautiful tradition according to the rules of the art to introduce people to an authentic cake with natural products.

Synonymous with major family celebrations in the Pyrenees, it is consumed at weddings, baptisms, communions and festive events like today at the Laruns Cheese Fair.

Experience, attention to detail and patience required!

You understand, you can't improvise as a spit cake maker! I'm invited to take over from Georges behind the rotisserie! To obtain this conical shape and these very particular “peaks of the Pyrenees”, Régine pours the flowing dough at the most regular rhythm possible onto the mold while I energetically turn the spit under the scrupulous eye of Georges. The paste solidifies and thus forms a ring made up of “ stalactite ”-shaped growths around the pin.

At the age of 80 and with surprising dynamism, Georges pays attention to everything: taste, color, texture, thickness, degree of cooking and rhythm of the turn of the crank! A true expert with undeniable know-how with whom I enjoy discussing throughout the manufacturing process.

And this process requires a good dose of passion…and patience. This is the secret of success. For this spit cake, you need about 5 hours, including 3 and a half hours of cooking ! This cult which has endured through time takes on its full meaning here. Much more than a treat, the spit cake, prepared during the long winter evenings, symbolically embodies the atmosphere of a family reunion around a friendly and joyful moment.

Once cooked, it is cut horizontally from top to bottom, revealing successive layers of its golden rings.

The spit cake recipe

If the preparation time has not discouraged you, Paul-Joseph and Malou, two other members of the Brotherhood, give us the original recipe for the dough. Eggs, sugar, rum, butter, flour… and even a little Ricard! A sort of pancake batter to which the Brotherhood remains faithful and which it even defends with ardor.

Now you know everything about this emblematic and unusual cake from the Pyrenees which delights the taste buds of young and old!

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Photos and Article written by Lesley Williamson for the Béarn-Pyrénées Guide