The first baking recipe I ever made was a chocolate layer cake with 7-minute icing from the “Joy of Cooking.” The cake turned out fine but the frosting, made in a double boiler and beaten for seven minutes, looked like snot. My parents were complimentary in a household where compliments were as rare as buffalo nickels, so this was the moment that I decided to pursue food as a career.

The other recipe I was fond of making was Pudding Cake. It’s a magic trick disguised as a recipe. A batter is poured into a baking dish and, when done, separated into two layers­­—cake on top and pudding underneath. As the mixture heats, the liquids drop to the bottom (they are denser and heavier) and the flour and eggs set to form a cakey top layer.

Gâteau Magique is a variation on this theme but adds a layer. The bottom is firm and flan-like, there is a creamy pudding-like center, and the top is a puffy, souffléed crown. Looking at both recipes, however, there are major differences. American pudding cake is based on creaming butter (or shortening) and sugar whereas the French version whips egg yolks and sugar and then beats egg whites and folds them in. So the cake layer in Pudding Cake is cakey whereas the Gâteau Magique has a top layer more like a fallen soufflé.

Leave it to the French to complicate something simple although this approach transforms a kid’s dessert into something suitable for an adult table. I admit that serving Gâteau Magique sounds a whole lot better than Pudding Cake.

One small aside. Do not fold in the whites completely, not just to avoid deflating them, but to add a bit of extra texture in the final cake.

Chris Kimball

Christopher Kimball is founder of Milk Street, which produces Milk Street Magazine, Milk Street Television on PBS, and the weekly public radio show Milk Street Radio. He founded Cook’s Magazine in 1980 and was host and executive producer of America’s Test Kitchen until 2016. Kimball is the author of several books, including "The Yellow Farmhouse" and "Fannie’s Last Supper."