A financier is a small French cake, often mistaken for a pastry. The financier is a light, moist teacake

Teacake

This article is about a type of bread or cake. Tea cake can also be used to describe Compressed tea. For the chocolate-covered teacake, see Chocolate-coated marshmallow treats....

, similar to sponge cake

Sponge cake

Sponge cake is a cake based on flour , sugar, and eggs, sometimes leavened with baking powder which has a firm, yet well aerated structure, similar to a sea sponge. A sponge cake may be produced by either the batter method, or the foam method. Typicially the batter method in the U.S. is known as a...

, and usually contains almond

Almond

The almond , is a species of tree native to the Middle East and South Asia. Almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of this tree...

 flour, crushed or ground almonds, or almond flavoring. The basis of the cake itself is beurre noisette

Beurre noisette

Beurre noisette is frequently used in French pastry production. It can also be used as a warm sauce to accompany many foods, such as winter vegetables, pasta, fish, omelettes, and chicken.Unsalted butter is melted over low heat and allowed to separate into butterfat and milk solids...

 (brown butter), egg whites, powdered sugar and flour. Financiers are often baked in shaped molds. The name "financier" is said to derive from the traditional rectangular mold, which resembles a bar of gold. Another theory says that the cake became popular in the financial district of Paris surrounding La Bourse du Commerce

Paris Bourse

The Paris Bourse is the historical Paris stock exchange, known as Euronext Paris from 2000 onwards.-History and functioning:...

 (the former name of the Paris stock exchange).

Financiers are often served topped with whipped cream, berries, or other fruit, and served accompanied by ice cream

Ice cream

Ice cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners...

 or other frozen confections. Financier pans are traditionally rectangular; however, other shapes are not uncommon.

Variants

The friand pastry, which has become popular in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 and New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 appears to have been based on the French financier; however, Australian and New Zealand friands typically have additional flavorings such as coconut

Coconut

The coconut palm, Cocos nucifera, is a member of the family Arecaceae . It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which is not a botanical nut. The spelling cocoanut is an old-fashioned form of the word...

, chocolate

Chocolate

Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...

, fruit

Fruit

In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

, and nuts

Nut (fruit)

A nut is a hard-shelled fruit of some plants having an indehiscent seed. While a wide variety of dried seeds and fruits are called nuts in English, only a certain number of them are considered by biologists to be true nuts...

. Australian / New Zealand friands are also baked in oval shapes.

The French friand, puff pastry

Puff pastry

In baking, a puff pastry is a light, flaky, leavened pastry containing several layers of fat which is in solid state at 20 °C . In raw form, puff pastry is a dough which is spread with solid fat and repeatedly folded and rolled out and used to produce the aforementioned pastries...

 wrapped around a sausage

Sausage

A sausage is a food usually made from ground meat , mixed with salt, herbs, and other spices, although vegetarian sausages are available. The word sausage is derived from Old French saussiche, from the Latin word salsus, meaning salted.Typically, a sausage is formed in a casing traditionally made...

, known as a "pig in a blanket

Pigs in a blanket

Pigs in blankets Pigs in blankets Pigs in blankets (also known as worstenbroodjes or saucijzenbroodjes (dutch), kilted sausages (UK), pølse i svøb (danish) refers to different sausage-based foods in the United States, United Kingdom, Denmark, Australia, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia,...

", is not related to either the financier or the Australian/New Zealand friand.