Bake

Tarte Tropézienne

by:
October 17, 2014
4
9 Ratings
Tarte Tropézienne
Photo by Dorie Greenspan
  • Prep time 6 hours
  • Cook time 20 minutes
  • Makes 12 servings
Author Notes

The Tarte Tropézienne is easy to describe; the cult surrounding it, less so. Pierre Hermé introduced me to it more than twenty years ago, and he told me it was "mythique." I’m sure I nodded, but I know that I hadn’t a clue what he meant or really how mythic the cake truly was. I didn’t get an inkling until I went to Saint-Tropez, where the streets are lined with pastry shops, and each one has a Trop.

The story goes that a bread baker, Alexandre Mika, had a shop in Saint-Tropez and that he made this cake using a recipe that he brought with him from his native Poland. But it wasn’t until 1955, when a film crew set up across from the shop, that the dessert became the “it” cake. The crew included a bunch of then-unknowns: the actors Jean-Louis Trintignant and Curd Jürgens; first-time director Roger Vadim; and starlet Brigitte Bardot. When Mika started making meals for them, the cake became the most requested item on the menu. It was so beloved that Bardot is said to have advised Mika that he should have a special name for it and that’s when it was christened “La Tarte Tropézienne.”

The cake itself is an egg and butter-rich brioche dough, rolled into a freeform round, washed with egg and speckled with pearl sugar—the original was probably made with crushed sugar cubes (still an option)—and baked. Once cooled, it’s split like a layer cake and filled with a combination of creams: in some cases, buttercream, pastry cream and heavy cream. Here, I opt for thick vanilla pastry cream lightened with a little whipped cream. I’ve seen Tropéziennes flavored with rum (my favorite), kirsch (regionally incorrect, but delicious) and, most commonly and most authentically, orange-flower water. These days, the Trop can be found studded with berries or filled with chocolate, and every shop in the beautiful Riviera town has a picture of Bardot.

A word on size: This recipe makes a big cake, just right for parties. If you’d like, you can divide the dough and make two smaller cakes; freeze one to cut and fill at a later time.

A word on pearl sugar: Sometimes called Swedish Sugar, pearl sugar is nugget-like, crunchy and as white as a perfect pearl. You can find it in specialty stores, Ikea or online from King Arthur Flour.

And a word on mixing: You need a stand mixer to make this dough— I’ve never found a hand mixer strong enough for the prolonged beating that the heavy, sticky dough demands.
—Dorie Greenspan

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • For the cake
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
  • 1/3 cup (80 milliliters) warm whole milk (see yeast package for exact temperature)
  • 2 cups (272 grams) all-purpose flour
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 2 large eggs, at room temperature, lightly beaten
  • 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 2 teaspoons dark rum or kirsch (optional)
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 7 tablespoons (3 1/2 ounces; 99 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • For the filling
  • 1 1/2 cups (360 milliliters) whole milk
  • 4 large egg yolks
  • 1/3 cup (67 grams) sugar
  • 1/4 cup (32 grams) cornstarch
  • 1 pinch fine sea salt
  • 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract or 1 tablespoon orange-flower water, plus 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 3/4 stick (6 tablespoons; 3 ounces; 85 grams) unsalted butter, cut into bits, at room temperature
  • 1/4 cup (60 milliliters) very cold heavy cream
  • 1 large egg, for glazing
  • 1 dash pearl sugar or crushed sugar cubes, for finishing
Directions
  1. To make the cake: Put the yeast in a small bowl and pour over the warm milk. Allow the yeast to stand for a couple of minutes, until it’s fully dissolved; it might or might not bubble.
  2. Put the flour and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix at low speed to blend the dry ingredients, then scrape in the yeast mixture and beat just to distribute it; you’ll have a shaggy mix. Keep the mixer spinning on low and add the eggs in a slow stream, then beat in the salt, rum or kirsch, if you’re using it, and vanilla. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat, scraping down the bowl occasionally, for 5 to 8 minutes. The dough will start off rough and pockmarked, then it will pull into strands as the mixer spins and, finally, it will be smooth and form a ball.
  3. Check the butter—you want it to be soft but not oily. If it’s not soft, smear it across a work surface with the heel of your hand. Up the mixer speed to medium-high and toss in the pieces of butter a couple at a time. Keep mixing after the last bit of butter goes in until you’ve got a dough that forms a ball around the paddle, another 8 to 10 minutes.
  4. Turn the dough out into a large bowl, then cup your fingers under the dough, lifting it and letting it slap down into the bowl again as you work your way around the bowl; when you’ve come full circle, you should have a nice, smooth, somewhat flattened ball of dough. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic film and put it in a warm place (70° to 75° F) until it rises to approximately double its original volume, 2 to 3 hours.
  5. When the dough has risen, deflate it, using that same lift-and-drop method, cover the bowl tightly again and put it in the freezer for 30 minutes to arrest the dough’s development. Then transfer it to the refrigerator and chill for another 2 hours. (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 2 days.)
  6. About an hour before you’re ready to bake, line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Remove the bowl from the refrigerator and turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Gently pat the dough down, lightly flour the top and roll it into a 10-inch circle. Don’t worry about it being exactly 10 inches; concentrate on getting it round and almost that diameter, or smaller. Slide the dough onto the baking sheet, cover with a piece of plastic film -- don’t press down on it -- and let the dough rest in a warm place for 1 hour.
  7. Meanwhile, make the filling: Bring the milk to a boil in a medium saucepan.
  8. Whisk the yolks, sugar, cornstarch and salt together in a medium bowl. Whisking constantly, drizzle in one quarter of the hot milk. When the yolks are warm, add the rest of the milk in a steadier stream. Pour the mixture into the pan, return the pan to medium heat and, whisking vigorously, bring back to a boil. Keep at a boil, still whisking, for 1 to 2 minutes, making sure to get your whisk into the corners of the pan. Scrape the pastry cream into a bowl, add the vanilla and allow it to sit for 10 minutes at room temperature.
  9. Add the bits of butter to the pastry cream a couple pieces at a time, whisking to incorporate. Press a piece of plastic film against the surface of the cream and chill for at least 2 hours, or, to speed up the chilling, put the bowl in a larger bowl filled with ice cubes and cold water and whisk until cold, then refrigerate until ready to fill the cake. (You can make the pastry cream up to 3 days ahead and keep it well covered in the refrigerator.)
  10. To bake the cake: About 20 minutes before you’re ready to bake, center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly beat the egg and add a splash of cold water to it. Brush the top of the dough with the egg wash and sprinkle over the pearl or crushed sugar, patting it down lightly so that it sticks. Be generous with the sugar -- you want to pretty much cover the top.
  11. Slide the baking sheet into the oven and immediately turn the oven temperature down to 350° F. Bake the cake for 20 to 25 minutes, rotating the sheet after 10 minutes, or until it is golden brown on both the top and bottom. Transfer the cake to a cooling rack and let it come to room temperature.
  12. When you’re ready to fill the cake, whip the heavy cream until it holds firm peaks.
  13. Remove the pastry cream from the refrigerator and whisk to loosen it. Stir a little of the whipped cream into the pastry cream, then fold in the rest of the whipped cream with a flexible spatula.
  14. To finish the cake: Using a long serrated knife and a very gentle sawing motion, cut the cake horizontally in half(ish) -- it’s good to have the bottom layer a little thicker than the top. Put the bottom layer on a cake plate. Spread the filling over it, leaving a slim border bare, and replace the top of the cake, jiggling it slightly to settle it into the cream. Chill the cake for at least 1 hour, or for up to 8 hours. The filling needs to set in the refrigerator and the cake should be served cold.
  15. Serving: In Saint-Tropez, the cake is sometimes a dessert, sometimes a pick-me-up and, if it’s bought as a miniature from a pâtisserie in town, sometimes a snack. Since it comes from a town once known for its wild and crazy ways, it’s not surprising that there are no real rules.
  16. Storing: You can make the pastry cream up to 3 days ahead and refrigerate it, and you can keep the brioche dough in the refrigerator for 1 day before you bake it. Once cut and filled, the cake can be kept in the refrigerator, away from foods with strong odors, for about 8 hours, or you can wrap it airtight and freeze it for up to 2 months. Defrost, still wrapped, in the refrigerator overnight.
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Dorie Greenspan
With the publication her 14th book, Baking with Dorie, New York Times bestselling author Dorie Greenspan marks her thirtieth anniversary as a cookbook author. She has won five James Beard Awards for her cookbooks and journalism and was inducted into the Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America. A columnist for the New York Times Magazine and the author of the xoxoDorie newsletter on Bulletin, Dorie was recently awarded an Order of Agricultural Merit from the French government for her outstanding writing on the foods of that country. She lives in New York City, Westbrook, Connecticut, and Paris. You can find Dorie on Instagram, Facebook, Bulletin and her website,

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14 Reviews

GTTG
GTTG February 17, 2025
I made this over the weekend and it felt like I needed the weekend to get it done. The result was lovely in the end but next time I’d start ahead by a few days and bring it together on the day I want the cake. All of the waiting between steps is time consuming. It’s not a cake you’d whip up for dinner one evening.

A few things:
My dough came together very quickly in the mixer, not the 5-8 minutes the recipe says. I think this may have attributed to my cake being more firm (albeit lovely still) than I would have expected. Next time I’ll either dial back the flour or finish the dough with hand kneading to be sure even distribution of the ingredients.

It smelled devine during the baking process.

The filling is worth making on its own and using on berries. I didn’t stray from the 1/4 cup of whipping cream and the filling was firm enough to hold the top and wasn’t runny.

The flavour profile is light and not too sweet despite the sugar topping. And it’s definitely best served cold, which is no surprise given its St Tropez origins. I imagine it would be nice to serve on a warm summer evening with white wine or Sauternes.
 
gia L.
gia L. March 17, 2020
this was a really good recipe! a lot of commenters said their cake was too dense so as a test i let it rise on the pan for a few hours before baking rather than the 1 hour suggested and the cake turned out light, aerated, and fluffly, for the pastry cream i did 1 cup of butter rather than the 3/4 cup as per the recipe and a little bit more whipped cream and it was *just* stiff enough to hold the cake but not too stiff. overall great recipe! thank you!!
 
paperino
paperino December 4, 2019
I made it for my daughter's bday and it tastes amazing but the cream is a bit too soft (runny) and doesn't 'support' the top layer as well as in the picture. Any suggestions as to why? To much whipped cream maybe?
 
Nancy L.
Nancy L. May 13, 2018
I made this and it came out a bit flat, too. It tasted good but I wonder if I should have made it smaller. I used rum but did not taste it at all in the cake. Next time I might add some rum extract. I also added more whipped cream since I used my KitchenAid mixer and the beaters had a hard time whipping such a small amount of cream. This recipe took a lot of time but was a fun challenge.
 
Maggie Q.
Maggie Q. July 13, 2017
Today is my sencond attempt to make this tarte the first time it came out flater but delicious. Today I'm making in a smaller baking sheet to see what could possible gone wrong.
 
Ursula J.
Ursula J. February 6, 2016
It sounds very similar to the German Bee Sting Cake, with the exception of the topping. Can't wait to try this version.
 
Elizabeth H.
Elizabeth H. January 18, 2016
I'm late to the party, but I found this while looking for a Bienenstich Cake recipe...I'm going to try this brioche with the honey-almond topping of the Bienenstich. Hoping for that authentic, not too sweet taste!
 
tia
tia March 8, 2016
How did it turn out? (and where can I find a recipe for that topping? It sounds great!)
 
Sue B.
Sue B. March 22, 2015
I was so intrigued by the story behind the cake, I just had to make it. I heated the milk almost hot before adding it to the yeast. It did come together as recipe noted. I decided to make it into small portions. I rolled the dough into 12 balls & put them in a muffin tin. They came out looking similar to a popover. I cut the tops off & added filling. I will serve them with fresh raspberries. They turned out great. I used the rum, I didn't have kirsch. I will try it with kirsch next time I make it. What a fun, great pastry with a mythique story to go with it. Thank You Dorie!
 
Mike S.
Mike S. December 30, 2014
I spent all Friday making this tarte, and it was spectacular, to say the least! I had one minor problem in the result that I'm hoping someone can help me solve. My dough, though delicious, was flatter and denser than I had hoped, and I'm not sure why. I will say that my dough came together in the mixer almost immediately (not the 8-10 minutes the recipe said it would take), which was my first hint that something was slightly off on my end. Nevertheless, it was a huge success (if you'd like, you can see the end result on Instagram under "Zeez711"), but I'm a perfectionist and would love to know how to make sure my dough is light, fluffy, and caky! Thanks to all in advance.
 
brigid
brigid October 22, 2014
For the flavored versions, would you add the rum/orange flower water/etc to the dough or to the filling, or both?
 
brigid
brigid October 22, 2014
Should have read the instructions! Answer to my question is in step 2.
 
JudyP
JudyP October 20, 2014
What is being served in the stemware with the cake, sherry?
 
Alexandra H.
Alexandra H. October 17, 2014
Merci, Dorie! I had a Tarte Tropezienne years ago, and LOVED it! But, I missed its name at the time, and never saw it again to figure out what is was. Happy to see it here!