Welcome to St. Tropez: la Tarte Tropezienne
I had been longing for months to go to St. Tropez, about two hours of congested traffic away from Cannes. While the village itself was a bit different from what I had imagined (read: disappointing), another thing made my trip worth a blog post: the Tarte Tropezienne.
It is a famous cake created in the 50’s by Alexandre Micka, a Polish pastry chef who had moved to St Tropez. He was chosen to provide pastries for the whole of cast and staff of a movie production that was taking place right in St. Tropez.
One of the actors was Brigitte Bardot herself, who tasted (and loved) the cake, and she suggested the name “Tarte de St. Tropez”: Micka changed it later in “Tarte Tropezienne” and registered the recipe.
The recipe has stayed the same through the years (I’m afraid I can’t say the same of Brigitte Bardot), and the “original” cake can be found in St. Tropez at any of the bakeries which are very imaginatively called “La Tarte Tropezienne”.
The cake is made of a brioche filled with a sort of pastry cream and buttercream (you know, the kind of lightness you need when it’s 45° outside), with a delicate flavour of orange blossom. I can’t really tell you more, because when I asked what the filling was made of, the only answer I got was: “Oh no, sorry, the recipe is a secret!” :-O
