Cake Salé (French Savory Cake)

Cake salé is a French savory cake served at traditional French apéro or simply as an appetizer. It's pretty amazing how ham or bacon, grated cheese, and green or black olives come together to create a tasty quick bread.

BONUS: This can be made with any savory ingredients, from tuna, smoked salmon, vegetables, and candied tomatoes to goat cheese and chorizo. The recipe is limited only by your imagination.

What is cake salé?

Cake salé is a French savory cake made with unsweetened soft batter and a generous savory filling served at French apéro dînatoire, a traditional boozy pre-dinner with snacks. In other words, cake salé is a French salty cake, with the French word salé meaning "salty."

Jump to:

• What is cake salé?
• Main ingredients
• How to make cake salé step-by-step
• Expert Tips
• Recipe variations
• Storing and freezing
• Love quick breads? Try these next!
• Recipe card
• Comments

Easy and quick to prepare, I love making different variations of savory loaves and serving them as a starter with a few salad leaves or on a picnic.

When it comes to ingredients, I don't sweat at choosing them. Whether it is goat cheese, leftover ham, zucchini, or walnuts, I toss them into the recipe.

"I say, open your fridge. Now that you have the base, add whatever you like," says Sophie Dudemaine, the author of the cookbook "Les Cakes de Sophie."

You can make French cake salé in advance and keep it in a cool place for up to 24 hours. Here is my favorite savory cake recipe.

Main ingredients

For ingredients and detailed instructions, refer to the recipe card below.

• Flour - plain or all purpose flour, but you can replace some AP flour with whole wheat flour.
• Baking powder - I always use aluminum-free baking powder.
• Large eggs at room temperature.
• Clarified butter (ghee), store-bought or homemade, brings a slightly nutty, toasted flavor to the cake. To substitute ghee with butter, use 20% more butter than ghee.
• Grape seed oil is flavorless and best to use while baking, but you can replace it with extra-virgin olive oil.
• Whole or low-fat milk milk
• Green onions
• Cheese - choose two types of cheese, for example, Emmental and Gruyère cheese.
• Salmon - you will need fresh and smoked salmon.
• Green olives or black olives work well but opt for pitted olives.
• Flaxseed

How to make cake salé step-by-step

Step 1. Heat oven to 320°F (160°C). Butter and flour 9 x 5-inch bread loaf pan, and tap the flour excess.

Step 2. In a large bowl, sift flour and baking powder. Add eggs to the flour mixture and mix with a hand whisk (photo 1).

Step 3. Add clarified butter warmed to 120°F (50°C), grape seed oil, and combine with a rubber spatula.

Step 4. Pour the milk, add salt and black pepper (to taste), and mix everything well. Add flaxseed and grated Emmental cheese (photo 2) and combine.

Step 5. Finally, add fresh and smoked salmon cut into pieces, chopped green onions, and chopped green olives (photo 3), and mix just to combine (photo 4).

Step 6. Pour the cake batter into the prepared loaf pan and smooth it with a spatula (photo 5). Sprinkle with grated Gruyère cheese and bake at 320°F (160°C) for 10 minutes.

Then, lower oven temperature to 285°C (140°C) and bake for 30 minutes longer. Watch for the gold color of the cheese on top of the cake. Once the cake is ready, remove it from the bread pan and let it cool on a wire rack (photo 6).

To serve, decorate the cake using slices of smoked salmon, lemon slices, black sesame, and leek or clover shoots.

Bon appétit!

Expert Tips

• Use this simple cake pan calculator to recalculate the recipe ingredients for your baking pan.
• Make mini loaf cakes by dividing the cake batter between loaf tins, but adjust the baking time.
• Serve it cold or warm, accompanied by a glass of wine and a nice green salad to add a touch of freshness.

Recipe variations

Here are some mix-in ideas, vegetarian, original, or classic, to create your own version of cake sale. Use this basic recipe, but try to keep up with the filling quantities indicated in the recipe.

• Black olives and feta 
• Ham and cheese: grated Gruyere cheese, Emmental, Cantal, Comté cheese, etc.
• Zucchini and goat cheese
• Sun-dried tomatoes and fresh basil (perfectly goes with Parmesan)
• Bacon lardons and caramelized onion
• Chorizo and bell pepper (perfectly pair with fresh coriander)
• Goat cheese, figs, walnuts (great with fresh rosemary)
• Carrots and cumin
• Spinach and feta cheese
• Cheddar cheese and fresh herbs in equal proportions, such as fresh parsley, cilantro, tarragon, plus garlic

Note: To balance your savory cake with different flavors, choose one or two types of cheese, one protein (meat, poultry, fish, or why not try tofu), and one or two mix-ins.

Storing and freezing

Store your savory loaf in an airtight container or covered in plastic wrap in the fridge for up to a week. The goal is to avoid humidity in the refrigerator. For the best results, try to enjoy the cake within the first three to five days.

To freeze, wrap the French salty cake in plastic film, then aluminum foil, and freeze for up to 3 months.

To thaw, bring the cake to the fridge overnight or kitchen counter for a few hours.

Love quick breads? Try these next!

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Recipe card

The nutritional information has been calculated using an online recipe nutrition calculator such as Verywellfit.com and is intended for informational purposes only. These figures should be used as a general guideline and not be construed as a guarantee.

The recipe was adapted from C'est ma fournée. It was originally published on March 17, 2019. The recipe has been revised to include improved content and photos.