Black cherry Basque cake, and proliferate turtle doves invade the wisteria

Once upon a time, in a charming corner of rural South West France, lived a pair of turtle doves, Jean-Pierre and Emilie, nestled above a sun-kissed terrace. Their home, a disheveled and rather tangled nest made from branches, hay and horsehair, was woven into the wisteria that covered the terrace in summer, protecting from the sun’s powerful rays.

Jean-Pierre, a romantic in true French tradition, wooed Emilie day and night with sweet coos and gifts of twigs and worms. Emilie, charmed, and then seduced by his devotion, soon laid a clutch of eggs, and then another, and another! Very soon, the wisteria above the terrace was bustling with the flutter of tiny wings and the chorus of hungry, impatient chirps.

The human owners of the terrace, Fiona and Luc, were delighted by the growing turtle dove family, or to be precise Fiona was delighted, while Luc was rather concerned with the mess they made on his pristine terrace. Nonetheless, they both watched in amusement as Jean-Pierre and Emilie worked tirelessly, feeding their ever-expanding brood. It was quite an undertaking: As soon as they’d fed one little beak, another tweeted hungrily to claim his ration. Jean-Pierre and Emilie sometimes rested on the terrace furniture to regain their strength before flying off again to get more food supplies.

One morning, as Luc sipped his coffee, he counted no fewer than twelve fluffy chicks happily perched along the wisteria. ‘We may need a bigger terrace’, he chuckled to Fiona. Emilie cooed in agreement, while Jean-Pierre puffed up his chest with pride; the terrace had become a lively bird sanctuary, branches bursting with the joy of new life.

Basque cake, Gâteau Basque in French, or Etxeko bixkotxa in Basque, is a traditional dessert from the Basque region of France.  It is usually filled with black cherry jam or pastry cream (crème pâtissière). Legend has it that a Basque woman named Marianne Hirigoyen is to thank for the modern version of this cake. Originally from a thermal village called Cambo-les-Bains, Marianne began to make and sell her cake in the market of Bayonne around the 1830s.

Recipe for black cherry Basque cake (serves 8)

• 1 egg + 1 egg yolk
• 100g sugar
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 125g butter, softened
• 200g flour
• 1 jar black cherry jam
• 1 egg yolk

Beat the egg, egg yolk, sugar and salt until the mixture lightens in color. Then incorporate the softened butter, little by little. Gradually add the flour and finish mixing the pastry dough by hand. Chill in the fridge for at least an hour.

Preheat the oven to 210°C. Prepare and butter a cake tin. Divide the dough into two balls, one ball should be slightly larger than the other. Roll them into rounds, to fit your cake tin. One of the rounds should be slightly larger than the cake tin. Line the tin with the larger of the rounds, then cover with a generous layer of black cherry jam. Cover with the smaller of the dough disks and seal the edges of the bottom and top layers with damp fingers. Striate the top of the with a knife and brush with the remaining egg yolk. Bake for 40 minutes.