Turning Crêpe Batter into a Cake

All French pastries are made by manipulating four basic ingredients—butter, sugar, flour, and eggs—and sometimes milk or nuts, and occasionally yeast or baking powder, in different ways. Most of these methods are designed to incorporate air or, when yeast or baking powder is used, carbon dioxide, into the batter or dough so that once baked, the mixture rises instead of hardening into a leaden chunk. Two of France’s lightest cakes are made by beating sugar and whole eggs (to make a sponge cake called génoise) or separated eggs (to make biscuit—a cake—or ladyfingers) and then folding the airy mixture with flour and sometimes melted butter.