I have one rule for baking and that is to decrease the liquid in the recipe. I always have trouble with baked goods that are too wet if I don’t. Unfortunately, I broke rule number one but I just added additional flour and the dough came together.

I also had some issues with the pearl sugar. I went to my go-to bakery supply shop and asked if they had pearl sugar, the proprietor said no but that she had sugared pearls. Huh? I wasn’t sure the difference but I bought them anyway. I was glad they came out and didn’t melt.

The results: this was a show stopping cake, impressive and delicious. We really enjoyed the pastry cream. The down side to this cake is the time involved. It really is an all day project due to the yeast dough rising and cooling times. As for me I prepared it over two days. I think the next I eat tarte tropezienne will be in Saint-Tropez. The recipe is available from Food52.