Napoleon Cake

Ingredients

FLAKY PASTRY

• 400g plain flour
• 250g unsalted butter, frozen
• 110ml water, cold
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp white vinegar
• Pinch salt flakes

VANILLA PASTRY CREAM

• 675ml milk
• 2 vanilla pods
• 150g caster sugar
• 45g cornflour
• 45g plain flour
• 2 eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 50g unsalted butter
• 50ml rum or cognac (optional)
• 250g That's Amore Squacquerone, cubed
• 250g That's Amore Mascarpone

Instructions

Prepare 1 x 20cm x 6cm springform cake ring and baking paper. Preheat oven to 180°C.

To make pastry, whisk vinegar into the egg and add water. Reserve in freezer until needed.

Place flour into a large mixing bowl and using the fine edge of cheese grater, grate in frozen butter. Ensure butter is completely covered in flour. Using your fingertips, rub butter with flour to achieve a fine sandy texture. 

Add egg-vinegar mixture to the bowl and mix well with your hands to form a dough. Do not overmix, just bring dough together. Turn dough out onto a clean bench and knead lightly before flattening into a square shape. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15-30 minutes.

To make cream, place egg, yolks, sugar, cornflour, flour and vanilla into a bowl and whisk into a smooth paste. Add milk into a large heavy-bottomed saucepan and start to heat. One it starts to boil, pour a third of milk into egg mixture and mix well. Return that mixture back into remaining milk and place onto low-medium heat. Cook while using a hand whisk to mix constantly, until mixture boils and then continue cooking for a minute until it has completely thickened. Be careful at this stage the custard does not catch onto base of saucepan. Keep whisking.

Remove from heat and transfer into a mixing bowl and add butter. Use hand whisk or beater to mix well and incorporate butter. Add cognac or rum if using and mix well again. Add mascarpone to bowl and mix well before adding in squacquerone. Continue to mix until you have smooth and delicious cream. Cover with cling wrap and set aside.

To roll pastry, remove dough from fridge and cut into six equal-sized pieces. Use flour to roll each piece out into a square or circle shape with a thickness of 2mm. Place rolled pastry onto floured piece of baking paper on a plate or tray. Repeat with the remaining five pieces and put all six pieces of rolled pastry into fridge for 20 minutes.

To cook pastry, remove rolled pastry from fridge. Place your cake tin on top of each piece of pastry as a guide and use a small knife to cut around the shape. Remove excess pastry trim and place onto a baking tray to be used later. Repeat with all the discs and cook them at 180°C on baking trays for 15-20 minutes until they are puffed and golden. You will need to cook in batches. Once discs are cooked, bake the excess pastry trim pieces as well and leave everything to cool.

To assemble cake, take cake tin and lightly spray inside with canola oil. Line sides of tin with baking paper cut to size. Place a pastry disc into base of tin. Spoon 250g or around 1/6 of cream in small blobs on top of the pastry and use a small offset spatula to evenly spread cream to cover pastry. Add a second disc and gently press down before again spooning 250g of cream on top. Use spatula to level flat and repeat until all discs have been pressed in. Spoon remaining cream on top of final disc and level smooth before covering with cling wrap and refrigerating for a minimum of 5 hours or overnight preferably.

To finish, crush all excess cooked pastry with your fingers until it is a crumb, set aside. Remove cake from fridge. Gently release the spring and lift off tin. Slowly remove paper from sides of cake and lift cake using tin base. Take pastry crumbs and cover surface of cake completely. Use a wide slice or palette knife to transfer cafe from tin base to a serving plate.