Displays of pain au levain and wild yeast sourdoughs, outsized buns and slices of far Breton prune cake, provide plenty of eye candy in this otherwise plain space.
We wander the grounds, salt marshes, woodlands and rose gardens, and picnic on bread, cheese and Breton prune cake in the cherry orchard.
There are more home-cook-friendly recipes, like salt- and sugar-roasted pork belly from a New York chef or prune cake with buttermilk icing from a ranch wife in Oklahoma.
Apple (and prune) pudding cake At tea time, the most popular person in the chalet is the one who has made a cake.
Françoise also does an exceptional far breton, a custard-based sponge cake with prunes.
Arrange the apples on top of one half of the cake, the prunes on the other half, then trickle over any juices from the pan.
RECOMMENDED DISHES -- Borscht, mushroom dumpling soup (pelmeni), potato pancakes, pork schnitzel, beef stroganoff, stuffed cabbage, chicken paprikas, sauerbraten, apple strudel, prune and caraway ice cream, gingerbread cake, marzipan pound cake, Jersey blueberry pie.
The fill-your-own-tin-plate seasonal buffet (average price about $23) explains it: salads of all shades, vegetable-studded couscous, scrambled eggs, prune-stuffed pork rolls and chocolate cake sauced in more chocolate.
My favorite is the couscous cake, the grains compressed with prunes and dried apricots, luscious with strawberries and sour cream.
In the Caribbean, making black cake is expensive: raisins and prunes cost more there than mangoes and pineapples, and convey a special sense of luxury.
Ms. Sullivan will teach, and Ms. Schneider is arranging for chefs, including Bradford Thompson of Miss Lily's Favourite Cakes and Gabrielle Hamilton of Prune, to lead classes as well.
