Birley Bakery banks on Brigitte Bardot favouriteley

The London-based baker has presented the first in its line of celebration cakes.

The recipe for La Tarte de Saint-Tropez - purportedly beloved by Brigitte Bardot - was developed by Birley’s maître pâtissier and executive chef Vincent Zanardi remains faithful to the original conceived by Polish confectioner and patisserie-owner Alexandre Micka in the mid-1950s.

The Tarte Tropézienne comprises a light brioche soaked with orange blossom and is filled with Crème Madame -vanilla pastry cream (crème patissière) mixed with light whipped cream (Chantilly) - and topped with pearled sugar.

The creation stays true to the bakery’s ethos, which takes inspiration from the traditional boulangerie-pâtisseries that have now all but disappeared from French life. Birley, however, isn’t just an exercise in nostalgia. Some of the recipes have taken as long as five years to be brought to perfection and are a contemporary twist on the classics. Ingredients are sourced from around the globe, such as wheat flour from Burgundy, sea salt from Brittany, almonds from Valencia and a special reserve of bitter chocolate, created specifically for Birley from cacao beans from the Philippines.

Available online and in the bakery as a single slice, a small or large cake - and with the option of raspberry sauce and fresh raspberries - this five-tier creation marks the start of Birley Bakery's celebration cake offering, available to order for events of all kinds.