Crème Brûlée Cake

a slice of creme brulee cake on a plate.

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Made with a light and spongy vanilla cake base, a creamy homemade vanilla pastry cream, and a caramelized layer of crunchy burnt sugar, this moist crème brûlée cake will quickly become one of your favorites!

Prep Time30

Cook Time1 10

Total Time1 40

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: French

Servings:

Calories: 631kcal

Author: Katalin Nagy

Equipment

Ingredients

Vanilla sponge cake

220 g Vegetable oil
400 g Granulated sugar
4 Eggs at room temperature
240 g Yogurt thick Greek or Turkish style yogurt at room temperature
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
375 g All purpose flour
2 teaspoons Baking powder
2 teaspoon Baking soda
1 teaspoon Salt

Pastry cream

500 g Whole milk 3% fat
100 g Granulated sugar
80 g Egg yolk approx. yolk of 4-5 eggs
25 g Corn starch
25 g All purpose flour
2 teaspoon Vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
50 g Unsalted butter 82% fat, room temperature soft butter

Brûlée topping

50 g Demerara sugar granulated sugar can work as well

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Make the vanilla sponge

Heat oven to 165°C / 330°F and line a 23cm / 9-inch round pan with parchment paper.
Whisk together the room temperature yogurt, eggs, sugar, and oil. Then, add the vanilla extract.
Sift the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda together in a separate bowl.
Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients using a rubber Spatula. Mix just until combined.
Pour the cake batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with an offset spatula.
Bake the cake for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. If the cake was browning too much, cover the top with aluminum foil.
Let the cake completely cool before frosting.

Make the pastry cream

In a large enough bowl, with the help of a hand whisk, whisk together sugar and egg yolk until slightly fluffy for about 1-2 minutes.
Whisk in the corn starch, flour, and vanilla with until thoroughly incorporated and have a smooth paste.
Bring milk to boil in a saucepan on medium heat then remove it as soon as it starts simmering. Make sure it is simmering but not crazy boiling.
Pour the warm milk over the egg yolk mixture slowly while whisking vigorously with a hand whisk. This stage is effectively tempering the egg yolks and the mixture should already start to slightly thicken.
Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and cook on medium heat for a few minutes until it thickens. Concretely it is approximately 1 min after the first boil. It might get lumpy first, don't worry just keep whisking and the cream will get smooth and glossy. It's worth to keep a good quality (so that the milk won't burn in it) small/medium sized saucepan for making pastry cream only.
If in doubt, strain the pastry cream for a lump free, creamy end result.
Add in room temperature soft butter and mix with a Rubber spatula until completely incorporated. It is worth to add the butter in 3 stages and mix well after each addition.
Pastry cream needs to completely cool before using it. Place the cream into a shallow tin and cover the entire surface with plastic wrap to avoid skin forming on top. Refrigerate until using it.

Assemble

When the cake cooled to room temperature, spread the pastry cream evenly on top.
To make the brûlée top; sprinkle the top with a thick layer of demerara sugar, then caramelize it in a few seconds with a blow torch.
Please note that the caramelized sugar after a few hours will start to melt on top of the cake so only make the brûlée top right before serving the cake.
Store any leftover cake refrigerated in air-tight container for 2-3 days. Sprinkle with some more sugar and apply the blow torch again before serving.

Notes

INGREDIENT NOTES:

Measure your ingredients with a digital scale for accuracy
Good quality butter and pure vanilla 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 sponge, make sure that all the ingredients are at room temperature.
For the brûlée topping demerara sugar works the best but granulated sugar can be a good substitute too.

TECHNIQUE NOTES:

Make sure you read my Expert tips section above to maximize your success. A short recipe alone is not able to cover all the necessary details, and science behind baking.
Bake the cake until the toothpick check; the toothpick should come out dry. However, do not overbake the cake after this, as overbaked cake can become dry.
Before assembling, make sure that the cake is at room temperature and the pastry cream is cold.

Nutrition