Cakes that no one under the age of 20 could possibly know...

Coated in marzipan, rich in candied fruit and flavored with kirsch, often filled with buttercream and covered with a thick, sweet icing, these ancient cakes are the foundation of today's patisserie. Fundamentals not to be forgotten. With no refrigeration or preservatives, the craftsmen of the time were able to delight generations and build the patisserie of tomorrow. Fig, acorn, moka, conversation, but also jalousie, mussipontain or pastis, each one awakens a childhood memory. Here's a selection. Will you find yours?

• L'ambassadeur, Élisabeth Hot and Angelo Musa at the Plaza Athénée, Paris

The Plaza's pastry chefs are reviving a forgotten cake: the Ambassadeur. Wrapped in a veil of marzipan and decorated with an old-fashioned rose, this little cake brings back the fragrance of candied fruit and kirsch on a fluffy sponge cake. "It's a dessert that echoes the history of pastry-making in days gone by, when there were no refrigeration techniques. So we set out to reproduce it exactly: gêne bread soaked in vanilla syrup, candied fruit macerated in kirsch and homemade almond paste. We just transformed the buttercream into a light mousseline cream."An insanely tasty little vintage cake!

25, avenue Montaigne, 75008 Paris

www.dorchestercollection.com/fr/paris/hotel-plaza-athenee/

• The potato, Jean-Paul Hévin, Paris

Who still remembers the famous potato, which bakeries proudly displayed in their windows in the 1980s? Far from today's pastry codes, this delicacy was round, powdered with cocoa and topped with three little pine nuts. For many years now, Jean-Paul Hévin has been reviving it in an exquisite, responsible version. "I've always loved this combination of marzipan and chocolate. We make it with cookie scraps, then prepare a ganache enriched with rum-macerated blond raisins, candied orange peel and chocolate.We then prepare a ganache enriched with rum-macerated blond raisins,candied orange peel and fresh walnut slivers, all coated in a marzipan made on site."Emblematic of the Parisian house, it's impossible not to fall in love with this moist, melt-in-your-mouth, deliciously powdery interpretation.

23 bis, avenue de la Motte-Picquet, 75007 Paris

www.jean paulhevin.com

• La tarte à la crème, Benoît Castel, Paris

It's made a name for itself with its use in funfairs and cult scenes in countless films. Introducing the aptly named tarte à la crème! Everyone knows it, but has never really tried it. Benoît Castel gives it its letters of nobility by drawing inspiration from the codes of the saint-honoré. "I wanted to bring back the taste of Isigny crème fraîche épaisse and its slightly acidic notes. I mix it with liquid cream to make the chantilly, then top the sweet pastry base with a smooth Madagascar vanilla custard, which I cover with chantilly."A signature cake to discover without delay.

150, rue de Ménilmontant, 75020 Paris

www.beno itcastel.com

• Fig, Philippe Bernachon, Lyon

The fig is a Bernachon staple. An old-fashioned pastry rich in flavor, coated in melting marzipan. "We make it every day with spoonfuls of cookie, topped with crème pâtissière and candied fruit macerated in kirsch. The homemade marzipan then covers the filled cookie, and we place the fig on the side. For those with a sweet tooth, there's an individual version, as well as fresh petit fours."A return to childhood guaranteed.

42, cours Franklin-Roosevelt, 69006 Lyon

www.bern achon.com

• Bourdaloue tart, Pierre Hermé, Paris

This fall, Pierre Hermé reinterprets a classic French pastry: the Bourdaloue tart. "This entremets is part of a collection in which I've sought to evoke our most intimate gourmet memories. I added raw, semi-dried pear pieces to the pear compote, and enriched the almond cream with an almond praline and touron to amplify the notes of dried fruit."A voluptuous interpretation of the emblematic tart from the Parisian house of Bourdaloue, now closed, that leaves no one indifferent and takes us back to childhood.

72, rue Bonaparte, 75006 Paris

www.pier reherme.com

• Le moka, Christine Ferber, Niedermorschwihr

The moka, which has disappeared from most patisseries, still holds pride of place at Relais des Trois Épis. Now made to order, it's still part of every wedding and communion in Alsace. "It's a cookie that was present in every family for the holidays, with a sponge cake soaked in rum or kirsch and a butter cream. I particularly like the coffee biscuit, which recalls the taste of coffee served in Alsace with a small glass of kirsch. The sponge cake is soaked in kirsch, the buttercream flavored with coffee essence, which I make according to the recipe I learned at Pelletier. The decoration is made with the same cream."We fall in love with this forgotten cake, as moist as you'd like it to be, where the flavors harmonize to perfection.

18, rue des Trois-Épis, 68230 Niedermorschwihr

www.chri stineferber.com

• Le sphinx, Stéphane Bonnat, Voiron

Félix Bonnat created the "Sphinx" in 1906, at a time of great discoveries in Egypt. It was the first real chocolate cake, as pastries with this flavor previously contained less than 5% cocoa. "Now emblematic of the company, the Sphinx has not changed, and we make it every day from the same recipe. For its time, it was very rich in chocolate. The base is a joconde cookie - which in those days was shaped with a piping bag to prevent the cookie from drying out - onto which we place a 60% cocoa ganache. The whole is coated with a semi-liquid chocolate fondant."A cake that generations of Voironnais love for its incomparable softness and fondant.

8, cours Senozan, 38500 Voiron

www.bonn at-chocolatier.com

• La conversation, Sébastien Gaudard, Paris

Conceived at the end of the 18th century for the release of Madame d'Épinay's book Les Conservations d'Émilie, conversation is a cake that has been forgotten by almost everyone. Sébastien Gaudard is reviving it in 2021, in response to one of Bernard Pivot's wishes for his novel Mais la vie continue. "When François Busnel contacted me to create a conversation for Bernard Pivot, I set out to find this forgotten recipe. A puff pastry filled with frangipane, covered with strips of pastry laid in a lattice pattern, with meringue in the interstices, which becomes crunchy when baked. Unlike galettes des rois, this dessert is more akin to a pie, since it is baked in a mold."It's a creation that's been making waves ever since, and one that's definitely worth sharing... for a chat!

3, rue des Pyramides, 75001 Paris

www.seba stiengaudard.com

• Le puits d'amour, Maison Stohrer, Paris

Attributed to 18th-century chef Vincent La Chapelle, the recipe for puits d'amour is said to have been invented as a tribute to the Marquise de Pompadour. The little receptacle, then made of choux pastry or puff pastry, was filled with redcurrant jelly or marmalade. Over the years, crème pâtissière and crème chiboust replaced the jelly, giving the cake a less sweet flavor. Nicolas Stohrer reworked the recipe, topping the puff pastry with vanilla custard and covering it with a thick layer of red-hot caramel, an ancestral technique still used on rue Montorgueil.

51, rue Montorgueil, 75002 Paris

www.stoh rer.fr

• Le salammbô, Pâtisserie Gavet, Pornic

A must-have cream puff topped with crunchy baked sugar for the salammbô, or green-colored fondant and chocolate vermicelli for the acorn, this cream puff made generations of gourmands salivate in the 1980s. Depending on the source, its history differs. Darenne et Duval's Traité de pâtisserie describes salammbô as an oblong cabbage filled with vanilla custard, glazed with cooked sugar and decorated with chopped pistachios. The Grand Larousse gastronomique gives a definition closer to that of the acorn, with a kirsch-flavored custard, green fondant and chocolate vermicelli. Salammbô or gland, it doesn't matter, we regret it. Bertrand Gavet keeps this tradition alive at weekends, making it with kirsch-flavored crème pâtissière and crunchy baked sugar. Let's go to Pornic for a snack!

64, quai Leray, 44210 Pornic

www.pati sserie-gavet.fr