Napoleon Cake at Home: Recipe on All About Desserts

Content

1 The first stage is the cakes

There's one essential element to any celebration: a cake to crown the occasion. As a rule, a homemade one is preferable—it's unique. But only a few dare to take the plunge and create a Napoleon cake at home. And in vain: this tempting dessert simply has no equal!

Of course, preparing a true Napoleon cake requires a fair amount of work, but the effort will quickly be forgotten when delighted guests begin praising the hostess. Because of its labor-intensive nature, Napoleon cakes are rarely served. This dessert recipe is reserved for the most special occasions.

The first stage is the cakes

Properly preparing the cake dough is a guarantee of almost 70 percent success. This step takes up the majority of the time required to create this famous cake. The ingredients for the dough are quite simple, but the same cannot be said for the preparation technique. But once we've decided to create a Napoleon cake ourselves, there's no turning back—especially since fantastic success awaits us!

So, before you start, make sure you have all the ingredients on hand. So, let's stock up:

premium flour – 350 g;
butter – 400 g;
eggs – 2 pcs.;
water – ¾ cup;
salt – 1/3 tsp;
vinegar (you will need 5-6 drops).

The recipe is divided into several successive stages:

First, form a "volcano" with a "crater" in the center using 3 cups of flour. Fill the hollow at the top with eggs mixed with water, vinegar, and salt. Knead the dough by hand (no mixer required) until it becomes soft and let it rest covered with a towel for 15 minutes.
During this time, you can prepare the second component—the butter-flour mixture. To do this, take the remaining half cup of flour and the butter and chop them with a knife, creating a single mass.
Now roll out the rested dough to a thickness of 1.5 cm, place the butter and flour in the center, and "pack" it by folding it into an envelope. Then, carefully, being careful not to tear it (as the recipe warns), fold the "envelope" back into a sheet (1 cm thick), fold it in quarters, dust with flour, wrap in cling film, and refrigerate for half an hour.
After this, remove the dough, roll it out again, fold it, and chill it again for half an hour. The recipe recommends repeating these steps twice more.
So, finally, the puff pastry is ready to bake. Now it needs to be divided into four pieces, three of which should be temporarily returned to the refrigerator, and one rolled out to fit the baking sheet. It's easiest to do this directly on a sheet of baking paper dusted with flour – this will make it easier to "transport" the sheet.
By this time, the oven should be preheated to 200–230 degrees Celsius. Before baking, the recipe recommends piercing the dough evenly with a fork to prevent it from puffing up. Bake the crust until golden brown, about 15–20 minutes.
While the first layer is baking, you can prepare the second layer for baking—this will save time. The finished layer should be set aside to cool, and the next layer should be placed in its place.

The second stage is cream.

The classic Napoleon recipe calls for custard alone. Before preparing it, make sure the table is set with the necessary ingredients:

milk – 2 glasses;
yolks – 4 pcs.;
granulated sugar – 2 – 2.5 cups (to taste);
flour – 2 tbsp;
starch – 1.5 tbsp;
butter – 100 g;
a packet of vanilla sugar.

The recipe for making custard is not that complicated:

First, pour the milk into a saucepan, add vanilla sugar, and bring to a boil. Meanwhile, (the recipe says) beat the yolks with sugar, starch, and flour.
Pour hot milk into this mixture, stir thoroughly, and return the future cream to the saucepan. Heat it over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture begins to bubble.
Immediately remove the cream from the heat and let it cool to room temperature. Then, add the softened butter and beat with a mixer. The delicious cream is ready!

The third stage is assembly

This stage is probably the most pleasant and fastest:

Decide on what kind of serving dish the cake will be on and trim the layers to fit. The trimmings will be used for decorating.
Spread the frosting on each layer of the cake, stacking them one on top of the other. Spread the top layer and sides of the cake with frosting and sprinkle with the crumbs left over from leveling the layers.

The final stage is impregnation

Baking a cake means reaching the finish line. Now comes the most difficult test: waiting for the dessert to be completely ready. This requires an entire night (10-12 hours), as the recipe mercilessly states. But in the end, you'll receive an exceptional miracle: light and tender, beckoning you to savor it again and again!