Cream Puff Cake

5 from 2 votes

Layered with homemade choux pastry, pastry cream, whipped cream frosting, and a drizzle of rich chocolate ganache, this delightful French-style dessert is designed to impress!

Prep Time20

Cook Time40

Waiting time30

Total Time1 30

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings:

Calories: 443kcal

Author: Katalin Nagy

Equipment

Ingredients

Choux pastry base for the cake

120 g Unsalted butter 82% European style butter at room temperature, in chunks.
120 g Water
120 g Whole milk
½ teaspoon Salt
2 teaspoon Granulated sugar
140 g All purpose flour
220 g Egg Approximately 4 eggs at room temperature. Might need slightly more or less; see the tips below.

Pastry cream

480 g Whole milk 3% fat
100 g Granulated sugar
80 g Egg yolk approximate yolk of 4 eggs
25 g Corn starch
25 g All purpose flour
2 teaspoons Vanilla extract
55 g Unsalted butter 82% fat, at room temperature

Whipped cream topping

460 g Heavy cream 36% fat, use it very cold
60 g Powdered sugar sifted

Decoration - chocolate ganache or substitute with store-bought chocolate syrup

40 g Semi-sweet chocolate
60 g Heavy cream

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Choux pastry base for the cake

Preheat your oven to 180℃ / 355℉ (no fan) and prepare a 9x13-inch / 22x33 cm pan. No need to grease the pan.
Sift the flour and set aside. In a saucepan, combine butter, water, milk, salt, and sugar. Heat over medium until simmering, but don’t allow it to boil.
Remove the saucepan from heat, then add the flour all at once. Stir vigorously with a rubber spatula until a smooth dough forms, with no visible flour. Return to the heat and cook for 3-5 minutes, stirring constantly, until a thin skin forms on the bottom of the pan and some of the liquid evaporates.
Transfer the dough to the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment, mix on low for about a minute to cool slightly. Gradually add the lightly whisked eggs, a little at a time, allowing each addition to fully incorporate before adding more. The dough should become glossy and pipeable in about 2-3 minutes.
When ready, the dough should fall off the paddle in a V shape. It shouldn’t be runny. The exact egg amount may vary based on moisture loss during cooking and flour type, so adjust as needed.
Transfer the dough into your 9x13-inch / 22x33 cm pan and smooth the top with an offset spatula.
Place the tray in the oven and bake for 30 minutes at 180℃ / 355℉ (no fan). It should be golden and puffed up. As soon as it's out of the oven, I like to gently press down on the puffed areas using a clean kitchen towel. This helps even out the surface, ensuring the choux layer of your cream puff cake is perfectly flat.
Let the choux pastry base cool at room temperature before applying the pastry cream.

Pastry cream layer

Whisk the sugar and egg yolks in a bowl for 1-2 minutes until fluffy. Then, add the cornstarch, flour, and vanilla, and mix until smooth.
In a saucepan, heat the milk over medium heat until it begins to simmer (but not boil). Gradually pour the hot milk into the egg yolk mixture while whisking constantly to temper the yolks.
Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring continuously, until it thickens (about one minute after boiling). If the mixture is lumpy, continue whisking until smooth. Remove from heat and strain if needed.
Gradually add the softened butter in chunks, mixing until fully incorporated.
Allow the pastry cream to cool somewhat before spreading it over the choux pastry bottom. No need to completely cool it, but it should not be hot. Refrigerate for 10-15 minutes.

Whipped cream layer

Place very cold heavy cream with the sifted powdered sugar into a mixing bowl. Use an electric hand mixer to whip the mixture for about 2-3 minutes until fluffy. Spread this whipped cream layer on top of the pastry cream layer evenly. Refrigerate for 10-15 minutes.

Decoration - chocolate ganache

For the glaze, either use store-bought chocolate syrup or make my easy chocolate ganache:
Semi-melt the chocolate in the microwave. Meanwhile, heat the cream in a saucepan until it just begins to simmer. Pour the simmering cream over the melted chocolate and stir until smooth.
Set aside and allow the glaze to cool to about 30°C (86°F). It should have a smooth consistency—not too runny or thick—before spreading it all over the Cream puff cake.
Cream puff cake is best enjoyed freshly made, as it somewhat loses its structure over time. Any leftovers can be stored in the fridge for up to 2 days.

Notes

INGREDIENT NOTES:

Measure your ingredients with a digital scale for accuracy.
To make any choux pastry, use proper European-style butter and whole milk, and make sure that your eggs are lightly whisked at room temperature.
Good quality butter and pure vanilla extract are the heart of making pastry cream. Use high-quality 82% fat-content European butter and the best quality vanilla you can access.
For the whipped cream, high-fat (36%) heavy cream is recommended, and it should be used very cold. Cream with a lower fat content might not whip up properly.

TECHNIQUE NOTES:

While heating the milk, water, butter, salt, and sugar mixture, ensure the sugar and salt fully dissolve. It is best to start with room-temperature butter so the mixture will melt together at the same time.
Do not skip sifting flour, as you don't want to deal with flour lumps while making this recipe.
Please note that you might need slightly more or less egg - and that is normal - depending on the flour you use and how much you dried the mixture while cooking it. Pay very close attention to consistency while mixing the egg and applying the V-shape test.
I strongly advise using a digital oven thermometer to measure your exact oven temperature, as most home ovens overheat or underheat.
Use a small/medium-sized saucepan with good heat distribution to avoid burning the milk when making pastry cream.
Let the pastry cream cool a bit before using it, but don´t wait until it is entirely cooled, as it will be more difficult to spread once it sets. It will further set as it cools in the fridge and become perfectly silky yet nicely sliceable.
Whipped cream frosting is very easy to overwhip. When whipping, stop as soon as the mixture has reached a fluffy consistency and stiff peaks. It won't get stiffer after this point. In fact, if you overbeat it, it will only get runnier, and then it will break.

Nutrition