Puff pastry is fantastic. It’s light, crispy, and has just the right amount of buttery goodness, making it an ideal base for both sweet and savory baked goods alike. Likewise, vanilla custard is also great. Its gentle sweetness and creamy texture make for pure and simple enjoyment. When you combine these two delicious ingredients, you create something truly heavenly. And that’s exactly what happens when you bake our puff pastry with a vanilla custard filling.t.
Crispy on the Outside, Creamy on the Inside: Our Puff Pastry Cake with Vanilla custard
Puff pastry cake with vanilla custard is a popular Polish pastry, where it is known as Karpatka. The name of the cake actually has idyllic origins. Before serving, the cake is sprinkled with some powdered sugar. The puffed surface of the puff pastry with the white sugar is supposed to resemble snow-capped mountain peaks. Hence the name Karpatka, Polish for “Carpathian (mountains).”
While Poland is known for many sweet pastries, this simple cake stands out and is very well loved. Karpatka can be found in many bakeries and pastry shops across the country. Today, we’re taking the Old World treat into your kitchen with our modified recipe! Tradtionally, the cake is baked with choux pastry, which is also used for cream puffs. However, we prefer to keep it simple with puff pastry, which should have a similar effect.
The preparation of the puff pastry cake with vanilla custard is temptingly simple: All you need to do is make a quick custar and then spread it onto one sheet of puff pastry. Then, just place the second sheet on top and let your cake bake. Within half an hour, you’ll have a creamy cake that is sure to delight everyone.
Our puff pastry cake with vanilla custard is perfect for any coffee date or even sophisticated dessert ight. If you are looking for more ideas for delicious sweeties, check out our other cake recipes. There you will find many more simple cakes like our hot milk cake. If you’re feeling more high energy try our tiramisu pancake cake or no-bake Lotus Biscoff cheesecake for more of a challenge.
Puff Pastry Cake with Vanilla Custard
Ingredients
- 3 sheets frozen puff pastry (about 1½ packages or 3 sheets)
- ⅓ cup cornstarch
- 4 cups whole milk
- 1½ tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup sugar
- ⅔ cup butter
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tbsp powdered sugar
Instructions
- Thaw the puff pastry. Then roll it out into two equal-sized sheets, about ⅛ inch thick.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (conventional).
- Whisk the cornstarch with a few tablespoons of milk until smooth. In a separate bowl, mix the sugar, remaining milk, and vanilla extract together.
- Bring the mixture to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat and stir in the cornstarch mixture. Let the custard thicken for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Afterwards, let it cool.
- Beat the butter with the egg yolk until light and fluffy. Gradually incorporate it into the custard.
- Spread the custard mixture onto one sheet of puff pastry. Place the other sheet on top.
- Bake the cake for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown.
- Let the cake cool completely and then dust with powdered sugar.