Napoleon Cake

Napoleon Cake is a classic Russian cakes, made of very thin and flaky puff pastry cake layers and a smooth, rich and luscious pastry cream in between the layers. 

Napoleon Cake is one of my favorite classic Russian cakes. It has a multitude of very thin cake layers that are made from puff pastry dough and are so flaky, puffy and delicate. The smooth, rich and luscious pastry cream is such a magical combination with the cake layers. I make my frosting even better with a combination of pastry cream, buttercream and lighten it up with some whipped cream, which makes it so fluffy, luxurious and velvety in texture.  It becomes so billowy and soft, almost cloud like.

The pastry cream frosting softens the thin, puffy cake layers and they become so tender and the whole cake simply melts in your mouth. The cake needs to stand in the refrigerator for a few hours to soften, as the frosting seeps into the cake. I like to let the cake stand at room temperature for just a bit before serving, and it becomes even softer and gentle in texture.

You can most certainly use store bought puff pastry instead of making it from scratch. In that case, roll out the dough to make it thinner before baking.

Even though this cake is time consuming, none of the steps are difficult. I break it up into several days, which makes it very doable and not as tedious. If you make the puff pastry dough and the pastry cream in advance, neither take too long to make and it will speed up the process considerably when you are baking the cake layers and assembling the cake. It’s definitely worthy of a special occasion. 

Instructions:

Cake Layer Dough:

When making the cake layer dough, I usually do it on the counter, using a plastic pastry mat on top of my counters as a work surface so I don’t damage the counters. Since it’s a large portion of dough (10-12 cake layers), I find it easier to mix it on the counter by hand, using a knife to work the butter into the flour and then adding the liquid ingredients and mixing it by hand very quickly.

You can also divide the ingredients in half and use a food processor to pulse the butter into the flour, then pour in the liquid ingredients and pulse just enough times for the dough to come together.

Both methods are very quick, it usually takes about 5 minutes total. You don’t want to overwork the dough or it won’t be as tender.

Combine the flour and salt on the counter or food processor. Add the cold butter, cut into chunks, into the flour and use a knife to work it into the flour, until there are pea sized bits of butter throughout the dough.

In a medium bowl or large mixing cup, whisk the water, vinegar, vodka, and beaten eggs until evenly mixed. The vinegar and the vodka help to make the cake layers really tender and flaky. The vodka gives the dough more liquid and makes it easier to work with and roll out, but when the cake layers bake, the vodka will cook out, which makes the cake layers more crisp. You won’t be able to taste the vinegar or vodka in the cake at all.

Make a well in the center of the flour on the counter and pour in the liquid ingredients. Gently but quickly mix the dough, just until it comes together. Knead just a little, working the flour into the dough. Work as quickly as you can, so that the chunks of butter don’t completely melt into the dough. The chunks of butter will melt as the cake layers bake and will form air pockets in the cake layers and give them that wonderful thin, flaky, puffed texture.

Form the dough into a disc shape. Wrap the dough into parchment paper or aluminum foil and place it into the refrigerator. Chill for a few hours or overnight.

Pastry Cream:

Make the pastry cream. Follow the instructions in this post. The recipe is slightly different, but the technique is exactly the same, so use the ingredient amounts from this post, following the instructions in the other post.

Chill the pastry cream in the refrigerator until completely cool, a few hours or overnight.

I usually make the cake layer dough and the pastry cream the day before I am planning on making the cake.

Baking the Cake Layers:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare 2 large rimmed baking sheets, so you can bake the cake layers quicker, if you interchange them, putting one in the oven, rolling out the next layer and then immediately putting it into the oven as soon as the first layer bakes and so on.  Also prepare 10-12 pieces of parchment paper as big as the baking sheet.

Divide the dough into 10-12 layers. If you want an 8-9 inch cake, you will probably end up with 12 cake layers. If you want the cake to be 10 inches, you will have 10 cake layers. Also, I often make 2 smaller, shorter cakes out of this recipe, instead of one large, tall cake. In which case, you will have 2 (8-9 inch) cakes that are 6 layers high, and 2 (10 inch cakes) that are 5 layers high. You can easily halve the recipe for this cake.

Roll out each portion of cake dough right on top of a piece of parchment paper, sprinkling a bit of flour on it before rolling out the cake layers. Roll out thin circles.
Place a 8-10 inch round plate, cake pan, springform pan, etc. on top of the rolled out dough.

Use a small paring knife to cut out an 8-10 inch circle, all around the outside of the circular object that you are using. Leave the dough remnant just where they are. Transfer the rolled out cake layer along with the parchment paper to the prepared baking sheet. Use a fork to prick some holes all over the center of the cake layers to keep them from puffing up unevenly.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 8 minutes, until lightly golden. Repeat will all the cake layers. Set aside to cool. Save the cake dough scraps that baked along with the cake layers. You will use those later as crumbs to decorate the cake.

Pastry Cream Frosting:

Before you start making the frosting, make sure the pastry cream and the butter are both at room temperature. If one or the other is too cold, the frosting will not be smooth and consistent, but will have a curdled appearance, with bits of butter flecks throughout the frosting that you will not be able to fix.

In a large bowl or a standing mixer a using a hand mixer, cream the butter, powdered sugar and vanilla extract, mixing until smooth and fluffy. Add the pastry cream, a few heaping Tablespoons at a time, mixing on low speed, gradually increasing to medium speed, until all of the pastry cream is incorporated into the buttercream.

In a separate bowl, whip the heavy cream until soft peaks form. Fold in the whipped cream into the pastry cream.

Assembling the Cake:

Line your edge of your serving plate/cake stand with aluminum foil. This is a trick I use to keep the edge of the plate clean. Place a dollop of frosting into the center of the plate, just to keep the cake from sliding around.
Top each cake layer with a generous amount of frosting and spread it around evenly. You will need to use all of the frosting for the cake, so divide it evenly between all the cake layers. The frosting should be approximately the same thickness as each cake layer. Repeat will all the cake layers and frosting.

Smooth out the frosting over the sides and top of the cake. Place the cake layer scraps into a large ziplock bag. Use your hands or a rolling pin to crush them into fine crumbs. Press the crumbs over the sides of the cake and sprinkle them evenly over the top of the cake. Keep it simple like that, or decorate with fresh berries, chocolate shavings, nuts, etc. Gently pull out the aluminum foil out from underneath the cake. 

It is best to refrigerate the cake overnight, so that the frosting soaks into the cake layers and gets really soft and tender. It will get slightly shorter as the frosting seeps into the cake layers.

Keep the cake refrigerated. It helps to let it stand a room temperature for 30 minutes or so before serving.

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Napoleon Cake

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4.8 from 15 reviews

Napoleon Cake is a classic Russian cakes, made of very thin and flaky puff pastry cake layers and a smooth, rich and luscious pastry cream in between the layers.

  • Author: Olga's Flavor Factory
  • Total Time: 2880 minutes
  • Yield: 1 cake 1x
  • Category: Dessert

Ingredients

Scale

Cake:

  • 4 1/2 cups all purpose flour (plus another 1/2 cup or so for dusting the counter when rolling out the cake layers)
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3 1/2 sticks butter (cold) (total: 14 oz)
  • 3/4 cup chilled water
  • 1 Tablespoon distilled white vinegar
  • 2 Tablespoons vodka
  • 2 eggs (beaten)

Pastry Cream:

  • 5 cups milk
  • 10 egg yolks
  • 3/4–1 cup granulated sugar
  • 6 Tablespoons cornstarch

Cake Frosting:

  • 12 oz butter (room temperature)
  • 3/4 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Instructions

Cake Layer Dough:

  1. Combine the flour and salt on the counter or food processor. Add the cold butter, cut into chunks, into the flour and use a knife to work it into the flour, until there are pea sized bits of butter throughout the dough.
  2. In a medium bowl or large mixing cup, whisk the water, vinegar, vodka, and beaten eggs until evenly mixed. The vinegar and the vodka help to make the cake layers really tender and flaky. The vodka gives the dough more liquid and makes it easier to work with and roll out, but when the cake layers bake, the vodka will cook out, which makes the cake layers more crisp. You won’t be able to taste the vinegar or vodka in the cake at all.
  3. Make a well in the center of the flour on the counter and pour in the liquid ingredients. Gently but quickly mix the dough, just until it comes together. Knead just a little, working the flour into the dough. Work as quickly as you can, so that the chunks of butter don’t completely melt into the dough. The chunks of butter will melt as the cake layers bake and will form air pockets in the cake layers and give them that wonderful thin, flaky, puffed texture.
  4. Form the dough into a disc shape. Wrap the dough into parchment paper or aluminum foil and place it into the refrigerator. Chill for a few hours or overnight.
  5. Make the pastry cream. Follow the instructions in this post. The recipe is slightly different, but the technique is exactly the same, so use the ingredient amounts from this post, following the instructions in the other post.
  6. Chill the pastry cream in the refrigerator until completely cool, a few hours or overnight.
  7. I usually make the cake layer dough and the pastry cream the day before I am planning on making the cake.

Baking the Cake Layers:

  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare 2 large rimmed baking sheets, so you can bake the cake layers quicker, if you interchange them, putting one in the oven, rolling out the next layer and then immediately putting it into the oven as soon as the first layer bakes and so on. Also prepare 10-12 pieces of parchment paper as big as the baking sheet.
  2. Divide the dough into 10-12 layers. If you want an 8-9 inch cake, you will probably end up with 12 cake layers. If you want the cake to be 10 inches, you will have 10 cake layers. Also, I often make 2 smaller, shorter cakes out of this recipe, instead of one large, tall cake. In which case, you will have 2 (8-9 inccakes that are 6 layers high, and 2 (10 inch cakethat are 5 layers high. You can easily halve the recipe for this cake.
  3. Roll out each portion of cake dough right on top of a piece of parchment paper, sprinkling a bit of flour on it before rolling out the cake layers. Roll out thin circles.
  4. Place a 8-10 inch round plate, cake pan, springform pan, etc. on top of the rolled out dough.
  5. Use a small paring knife to cut out an 8-10 inch circle, all around the outside of the circular object that you are using. Leave the dough remnant just where they are. Transfer the rolled out cake layer along with the parchment paper to the prepared baking sheet. Use a fork to prick some holes all over the center of the cake layers to keep them from puffing up unevenly.
  6. Bake in the preheated oven for about 8 minutes, until lightly golden.
  7. Repeat will all the cake layers. Set aside to cool. Save the cake dough scraps that baked along with the cake layers. You will use those later as crumbs to decorate the cake.

Pastry Cream Frosting:

  1. Before you start making the frosting, make sure the pastry cream and the butter are both at room temperature. If one or the other is too cold, the frosting will not be smooth and consistent, but will have a curdled appearance, with bits of butter flecks throughout the frosting that you will not be able to fix.
  2. In a large bowl or a standing mixer a using a hand mixer, cream the butter, powdered sugar and vanilla extract, mixing until smooth and fluffy.
  3. Add the pastry cream, a few heaping Tablespoons at a time, mixing on low speed, gradually increasing to medium speed, until all of the pastry cream is incorporated into the buttercream.
  4. In a separate bowl, whip the heavy cream until soft peaks form. Fold in the whipped cream into the pastry cream.

Assembling the Cake:

  1. Line your edge of your serving plate/cake stand with aluminum foil. This is a trick I use to keep the edge of the plate clean. Place a dollop of frosting into the center of the plate, just to keep the cake from sliding around.
  2. Top each cake layer with a generous amount of frosting and spread it around evenly. You will need to use all of the frosting for the cake, so divide it evenly between all the cake layers. The frosting should be approximately the same thickness as each cake layer.
  3. Repeat will all the cake layers and frosting.
  4. Smooth out the frosting over the sides and top of the cake. Place the cake layer scraps into a large ziplock bag. Use your hands or a rolling pin to crush them into fine crumbs. Press the crumbs over the sides of the cake and sprinkle them evenly over the top of the cake. Keep it simple like that, or decorate with fresh berries, chocolate shavings, nuts, etc.
  5. Gently pull out the aluminum foil out from underneath the cake.
  6. It is best to refrigerate the cake overnight, so that the frosting soaks into the cake layers and gets really soft and tender. It will get slightly shorter as the frosting seeps into the cake layers.
  7. Keep the cake refrigerated. It helps to let it stand a room temperature for 30 minutes or so before serving.

Notes

When making the cake layer dough, I usually do it on the counter, using a plastic pastry mat on top of my counters as a work surface so I don’t damage the counters. Since it’s a large portion of dough (10-12 cake layers), I find it easier to mix it on the counter by hand, using a knife to work the butter into the flour and then adding the liquid ingredients and mixing it by hand very quickly. You can also divide the ingredients in half and use a food processor to pulse the butter into the flour, then pour in the liquid ingredients and pulse just enough times for the dough to come together. Both methods are very quick, it usually takes about 5 minutes total. You don’t want to overwork the dough or it won’t be as tender.

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111 Comments

      • Cynthia

        I have been looking for a recipe that is similar to my mom’s. It was a Lithuanian tradition to make it for special occasions. I used your recipe but did not add the whip cream to the frosting but instead added a little bit of lemon juice to the frosting and extra powdered sugar. It was delicious and approved by my mom!!! Only thing she mentioned was that she layers apricot jam on 2 of the layers instead of the frosting. I’ll try that next time. Thank you for the recipe!!



          • Melissa

            This cake is always a hit when I make it. The only challenge I have is my puff pastry shrinks so much so I always get a smaller cake than desired. What can I do to prevent the shrinkage?



          • olgak7

            Hi Melissa.
            I think what helps the most to keep it from shrinking is to roll out the dough quickly and while it’s still as cold as possible. The warmer is it, the more it will shrink. Keep most of it in the refrigerator while you are not rolling it out and only take it out right before rolling it out. I hope that helps.

    • Maggie

      Cake looks very delicious. Napoleon Cake is not russian. It’s origin is from France. It was invented in the 18th century. For some reason the cake became Russia’s favourite Cake.



      • Natasha

        This is indeed a Russian Napoleon, a cousin of the French version. The differences are that it is taller with more pastry and cream layers. It’s also meant to sit 24-48 hours in the fridge so that it becomes soft. The French mille feuille pastry is meant to be crispy with much less cream. Its flavors are very separate, a complete contrast to the Russian one where flavors meld together. It tastes totally different. So although Napoleon may have originated in France, Russian cooks have made it their own.



  • Anna

    I love this cake! So much work from scratch!!!
    I use premade pastry dough and do whipped cream with cream cheese frosting. People love it… I will try your Frosting next time. Looks amazing

    • olgak7

      I hope you will enjoy the frosting, Anna. It is a lot of work. I save cakes such as this one for special occasions and it’s totally worth it:).

    • Tammy M Seelman

      What kind of premade pastry dough do you use? I am being very zealous in attempting this recipe but don’t want to mess it up so thought I would attempt it with premade first.

  • Lora

    Mouth watering! I will have to make this cake for my husband’s birthday. It’s his favorite. Your pictures are amazing. So perfect and colorful.

  • Albina

    Hi Olga! I am about to make the pastry cream and I am a bit lost about ingredients. The posted recipe has different ingredients than the pastry cream here. Do I add butter at the end or not?

    • olgak7

      Use the recipe for the pastry cream posted here, Albina. No, you do not need to add any butter at the end, since you will be making a buttercream and mixing the pastry cream with the butter.

  • Lana

    If using the puff pastry bought from store, would the cream/frosting ingredients portions stay the same? Or should I divide by half ? Your cake looks very tall! and beautiful !

    • olgak7

      This is a very large cake, 10-12 layers, each one a 10 inch circle. I am not exactly sure how much store bought puff pastry you would need in proportion to the pastry cream, since I usually make the puff pastry dough from scratch. You would need to experiment.

  • Olga

    I always wanted to try making this cake but its a little frightening with the amount of steps, esp the pastry cream part. I was thinking of making it for my father in laws birthday but his birthday is in a day. Or maybe ill try it for Thanksgiving.

    • olgak7

      This is definitely a cake for more experienced bakers and/or special occasions, but I think it’s completely worth it. Of course, that is highly subjective:). I hope you do try it, Olga.

      • Olga

        I am trying it out for Thanksgiving. Already have the pastry cream and dough in the fridge, ready to bake and put together tommorow.

  • Oksana

    HI Olga
    I am planning on making this cake for my daughter one year old birthday party and wanted to know if I can make dough using a 9+13 baking pan?

  • Emma

    Hi Olga!
    I baked it for Thanksgiving! It turned out soo delicious!!! Thanks for the recipe! I will definitely make it again!;)

  • Olga

    Hi Olga,
    Made this for Thanksgiving and it wasn’t as good as I expected it to be. It was to dry. Is that normal?The cream was dry. Even if it stood in room temperature for a while. Def wont go thru all that work to make another one.

    • Emma

      Hi! I made two cakes the day before Thanksgiving. One we had on Thanksgiving day and the other on Sunday after the Thanksgiving. The one we had on Thanksgiving day was too dry but the one we had on Sunday was soooooo good! I will definitely make it again but at least 2 -3 days in advance…

      • olgak7

        That’s great, Emma:). I’m so happy you enjoyed the cake. Thank you so much for taking the time to write. I have found that when frosting cakes, you need to use more frosting than you think you do, and giving more time for the cake to soak in all the frosting makes a huge difference:). Another tip is to bring the cake to room temperature for at least 30 minutes before serving it.

    • olgak7

      I’m sorry you weren’t happy with the results. Did you use all the frosting? Usually when I use all the frosting, it gets nice and soft, but if you aren’t very generous with it, it will be dry. The cake needs as much of it to soak into the cake as possible. Also, how long did you let the cake stand before serving it? I don’t mean bringing it to room temperature, but how much time after frosting passed before you served it. For this cake, it’s important to give it at least 24 hours before serving it, so the frosting softens the cake layers perfectly.

  • Natalya

    Hi, Olga. I absolutely love your recipe. It is so so good. I do not know if you can help me with my little trouble I ran into while doing this cake. For some reason I’m not able to incorporate all pastry into butter cream. I tried it twice but butter mixture starts to flake off. I do not know if that’s just the brands of butter that I use or what. I used Kroger Brand first time and Tillamook second time. But still I was only able to incorporate half of pastry cream. Even though I had troubles It turned out so delicious. I love it so much. Was just wondering if you could give me any advice on incorporating pastry cream into butter cream.

    • olgak7

      That happens when the butter or the pastry is too cold. They should both be at room temperature. If either are on the cooler side, the butter will become cold and create little “flakes”. I hope that helps, Natalya.

  • Inna

    Hey olga, I’m a little confused at the pastry cream step, the Ingredients you listed dont match up with all the ingredients on the link you provided in the pastry cream step, so I only you the ingredients listed above or all in the link….? I’m afraid to get this step wrong

    • olgak7

      Use the ingredients that I have listed in the Napoleon Cake recipe and the process from the pastry cream. It’s the exact same process and I didn’t want to repeat it and make the blog post even longer. The ingredients you need are the ones listed in this recipe for the cake.

  • Luda

    When i assembled the cake it looked just like yours, tall and beautiful round. Surprisely next day it wasn’t so tall anymore and not evenly round. Do you know why? Could be layers to thin?

    • olgak7

      Hi Luda.
      It is normal for a frosted cake to shrink a bit over time as the frosting soaks into the cake layers. It won’t shrink significantly and it should still be evenly round.
      The layers could not be too thin.
      As the frosting seeps into the cake layers, the cake becomes more tender, so that is a good thing.

  • Olga

    I made this cake again. And again it tasted dry. The layers felt hard and the cream felt like butter cream and it stood in room temperature for 30 mins at least. However I had about a cereal bowl size left of cream. I tried hard to use up all the cream but didnt get to. Is it actually suppouse to be soft, soft as spartak cake? Is the cream like butter cream when just taken out of fridge?

    • olgak7

      Hi Olga.
      I’m sorry you weren’t happy with the results of your cake.
      No, the layers should not be hard and the filling shouldn’t taste like buttercream.
      Unfortunately, it is hard for me to help when I don’t have a lot of information to go off of. I’m not sure why your cake wasn’t soft and tender. I never have any frosting leftover. I hope you will be able to find the recipe that you are looking for.

  • Lena

    Hi Olga ☺️I have made this cake today. The cake layers turned out very good but I had a very hard time frosting the cake and putting it together… It seems like the frosting wasn’t thick enough and it would just drip down to the bottom of the plate when more cake layers would be put on. There were also some tiny bits in the frosting. Any idea what did I do wrong? Unfortunately I couldn’t use all of the frosting. Would it be a good idea to cool the frosting before assembling the cake?

  • Annamária Semianová

    Hey, I am about try this cake, but I don´t know how much butter I need for cake layers. Could you write me how much is it in grams or ounces? Thank you very much!

  • Veronica

    Delicious cake… great recipe but so frustrating to follow your writing. The way you write this recipe is extremely confusing and I ended up messing up the cake like four times because of the very confusing recipe. Please refine it. Please. It made a difficult cake a million times more frustrating to make. I will write it down and make a better one for myself not the future. Wasted so much money and time on extra ingredients even though I had pre planned and pre made everything days ahead. I’m sorry but I am so frustrated at this point it made me cry twice. Thanks.



    • olgak7

      I’m so sorry to hear that, Veronica. I will refine the recipe. Thank you for taking the time to write.
      Can you clarify which parts of the recipe were confusing for you?

    • Faith

      This is the only website I go to for all of the new recipes I want to try because of the clear and concise directions along with pictures for more fool proof directions. Olga’s writing is great.
      @Olga, thanks for your website. It has made me into a better cook (and working on making me a better backer). God bless!



    • olgak7

      If you want to make this dairy free, I would suggest finding another recipe, since this one has many dairy components. I also don’t recommend using oil or margarine for this recipe. I have never tried baking it in a taste oven, so I am not sure if it will work or not.

  • Nadia Ostap

    Can this cake be made by alternating the pastry cream layers with apricot jam? This way the there will be soft and crisp layers. I was always under the impression that Napolean cakes were always supposed to be crispy.

    • olgak7

      I have not tried it with apricot jam, but you certainly can. I prefer this cake to be tender, but you can make it however you like. I personally don’t like crisp Napoleons; I like when they just melt in your mouth:).

  • Leyla

    I should’ve read the comments before making this cake! The layers turned out great but I had the same trouble with the frosting as others. Too runny. Very disappointed 😔

  • Devon

    For anyone struggling with runny/curdled frosting: stick it in the food processor with 8oz cream cheese and an extra cup of powdered sugar. Then fold in the whipped cream. With that workaround, decent recipe!



  • Abc

    This part is confusing. Instructions in where in the post? And where is this other post?

    “Make the pastry cream. Follow the instructions in this post. The recipe is slightly different, but the technique is exactly the same, so use the ingredient amounts from this post, following the instructions in the other post.”

  • Chris

    I made this for my wife’s birthday as it is her favourite cake and she loved it. I halved this recipe and it still made a good sized 5-layer cake which would have been enough for 6-8 people easily. I don’t know why some people said it was confusing, as long as you read through the recipe before starting, this recipe has been explained well.

    Like some people said, I didn’t use all of the cream but I think it would have been better if I left it in the fridge before putting it on the cake. We left it for a day and a half before eating it and it was so tasty! I will definitely be making this again.



    • olgak7

      Hi Chris!
      Thank you for taking the time to write. I’m so glad that you enjoyed the cake and were happy with how it turned out. That’s awesome! How great that you put were so dedicated to make such a special cake for your wife’s birthday.

  • Anna Painter

    So I made the pastry cream and frosting following your directions exactly. The pastry cream and butter stood at room temperature for several hours and in the end it still curdled dm and turned out runny! What did I do wrong?

    • olgak7

      If you followed the instructions exactly, then I don’t know what could have made the frosting curdle. I’m sorry that it didn’t work out for you, Anna.

      • Masha

        Olga. I have had same issue. Made this cake twice and my custard cream and butter also curdled and I dont know how else to troubleshoot this . My custard and butter was in room temp since morning and made this cream around 4pm. Not

        • olgak7

          I’m sorry to hear that it didn’t work out for you. This is definitely a difficult recipe to master. Maybe try to increase the speed of your mixer. It’s also really important that all the ingredients are at room temperature. Sometimes if the butter cream and the custard are both at room temperature and the bowl is cold, that can make a difference too.
          However, if the ingredients are too warm, that could be a problem too, since they start to kind of “melt” and that will not create the right texture either. I hope it will work out better for you next time.

  • Karen

    This came out absolutely perfectly! I followed all of the instructions EXACTLY and had zero issues even though it was my first time making it. Thank you for an incredible recipe!!



    • olgak7

      I’m so happy this recipe worked out so well for you, Karen! Great job! This is definitely an advanced baking skills recipe and you got it.

  • Irina S Lak

    I love this cake it’s really tasty. Mmmm. I’m going to make this cake for my birthday. Thanks for the ideas.



  • Nemat

    Thanks for recipe Olga. I tried it. Did not have any issues with cream but layers were not soft after refrigerating overnight ( as said in recipe ). Needs to be eaten with fork and knife. I will try it again after refrigerating one more day. But would be great if recipe mentioned 1-2 days instead of overnight.
    Thanks

    • olgak7

      Hi Nemat,
      What a bummer that the cake wasn’t as soft as you wanted it. I never make it days in advance and always only keep it in the refrigerator overnight before serving.
      Did you use all of the cream?

  • Tanya Mungapen

    Hello Olga, i’m loving this recipe and would like to try this, is it possible to get the ingredients in metric measurements? I’m not too good with ‘cups’, i’m more of ‘grams’ instead, much appreciated, thank you. Tanya.

  • Mariyka

    I made this cake twice. And both time very disappointed. Can you help me. Wonder what I am doing wrong. How long do you mix your butter before adding custard cream?? My butter always separates and I end up at a point where I dont know what to do. Custard always stays in fridge over night so its not like I can redo it again real quick . I had both butter and custard in room temp for almost half day and I had same thing as first time making this cake . Separation. Also what kind of butter do you use ?? Wonder how to fix this. I really love this cake and so does my husband. I want to master it . Thanks

    • olgak7

      Hi Mariyka,
      Sorry to hear about your struggles with this cake. I know it is very frustrating when a recipe isn’t working out.
      First of all, if you make the custard the day before, make sure to bring it to room temperature. I would also suggest mixing it up separately with a mixer to make sure it’s nice and smooth first.
      I use many different brands of butter and have never had any issues with any particular brand or type. I just make sure it’s full fat, not some sort of reduced fat, lactose free or anything like that product. The amount of time is not really specific either, I go by the way it looks and the texture of the butter mixture. It needs to be light and fluffy.
      It’s also possible that the butter and the custard are too warm or you mixed them too long or not long enough. It’s really hard to give advice when I’m not seeing it or how you are preparing it. I try to add as much details as possible and share lots of process pictures and share as many tips as I can. I hope it works out better for you next time.

  • Bruno

    Hi Olga. I have not done the recipe yet, but have a question… when you bake the puff pastry, I didn’t understand if I should leave the pan on top of it (like we do with regular puff pastry by placing a tray on top) or if I should remove it after using it as a guide to cut the circle. Would you mind clarifying?

    Thank you.
    Bruno

    • olgak7

      I don’t have a pan on top. Poking holes in the pastry should be just fine to make sure the pastry doesn’t puff up too much but gets some lift and gets much more golden and crisp without the pan on top. It will puff up a bit, but will be just right for the cake.

  • ashok

    Guys, Thanks For sharing this Great Recipe. My Family Loved it. I am definitely sharing this recipe and this website with my friend. Hope they also love it. Thank you again for sharing such a great recipe.



  • Bart A Byrd

    I shop at “Sweet Buns Asian bakery they have a version that’s a bar of sponge encased in pastry cream with broken puff pieces on The outside. Im curious if anyone has tried this version?

  • Ruti

    I want to make this beautiful cake. I am wondering if you have ever made the cake in advance and froze the cake, assembled, for 2 or 3 weeks and then defrosted in the refrigerator?

  • Anneli

    Hi Olga,

    We used to live in Russia and this is our favourite cake so I am really looking forward to trying to bake one myself.
    Unfortunately, I have not been able to find distilled white vinegar in Germany. What can I replace it with? Japanese rice vinegar 5,8 % acidic? Or is there something better?

    Thanks

    • olgak7

      Hi Anneli,
      I hope you will enjoy this cake:). I’m not sure what you can use instead of distilled white vinegar. It has a very neutral flavor, so most other vinegars will give the cake layers a bit of their flavor too, so just be aware of that. The acidity should be about 1%. Try to find a vinegar that has as little flavor as possible.

  • BM

    Hi Olga,
    I will be making this cake for my husbands bday.
    He loves any version of this custard dessert. French vanilla slice or Balkan’s krempita.

    I’ve read though the comments and now I’m not sure if I should leave it for 24hours or only 3 h so that dough is still crispy.

    What would you recommend ?

  • Stella Benkler

    Hi Olga.
    I love this recipe and have made it multiple times. Question about the dough. When the dough comes together, I still have small chunks of butter, which seep out a bit during baking. In the dough ball picture above, I don’t see any chunks of butter. Am I not kneading enough? Or should I roll it out and fold, like ruff puff?

    • olgak7

      Yes, there are still supposed to be chunks of butter. The butter will melt in the oven and create pockets of air. It should not leak out when baking. Either your oven isn’t hot enough, or the dough is too warm. Be sure to keep most of the dough in the refrigerator to keep it as cold as possible. No, do not roll and fold it like puff pastry.
      If the dough gets too warm, the butter will melt and leak instead of puffing out and giving you a flaky, tender dough. If your kitchen is too warm or it’s taking you a little longer to roll out the dough, place the rolled out cake layer back in the refrigerator to chill before baking. Hope that helps.

  • Shana

    In reading the comments I too felt I goofed in the execution of this beautiful cake. I did to some degree. For starters the pastry cream had these “flakes”. I’m not sure how or why- maybe it was in fact the cold mixing bowl, as everything else was definitely room temp. I still decided to proceed and make it work. I finished baking the pastry around midnight- all 10 layers. They were easy and gorgeous!! It was 1:00am and after reading some reviews I decided I needed to assemble the cake to give it 2 days to absorb the cram and ensure I had a delicious cake. This was Wednesday when I started and I needed the cake for Friday.
    When I went to assemble everything the layers began sliding apart the taller I went. I had some of those cake collars so I quickly assembled as best I could, put a cake collar on and tossed it in the fridge. I still had half a bowl of the pastry cream.
    When I got home on Thursday I decided to dissect the cake and fill it with more pastry cream. The pastry cream had set a bit more by the next day and was more like pudding. In having done this, I salvaged the cake, used all the cream and served a delicious, moist cake. Can’t wait to give it a go again- and I love the pastry dough- so easy to work with and tasty! Thank you Olga!!
    The next day I got home



    • olgak7

      You have so much perseverance, Shana! I really admire that. I’m so glad you made it work and were happy with the results. This is definitely a cake for advanced bakers and takes a lot of effort.

  • Tanya Kirilyuk

    This recipe did not disappoint! It took a little time but was well worth the effort! Everyone enjoyed it and i will make it again soon!



  • Pam F.

    Amazing! I followed the instructions exactly (but I did add a few apricot layers—like I remember from the Lithuanian bakery in Chicago). Like Olga, I like a less sweet version, and this was perfect—it was just like I remember. Will definitely make this again.



  • Paige

    Made this cake for my husbands bday! He’s been asking for this cake for 12 years and this was the year! Background: I am a bread baker…NOT a pastry baker.

    This cake turned out amazing!! I followed the directions religiously and gave myself PLENTY of time. I made the pastry cream/butter cream and mixed them together and the let it rest in the fridge overnight before whipping the heavy cream and folding it in. I really didn’t want to mess up!

    I also bought puff pastry and rolled it out this time. Now that I’ve gone through the process once and am reasonably satisfied with the outcome I think I’ll try sourdough pastry crust from scratch next year.

    One note: I would roll the puff pastry layers even thinner than you think AND trim your layers again after the bake. The layers are not perfect which makes the (already tall) cake SUPER tall and not quite perfectly symmetrical.

  • Kristina

    I made this cake 4 times, each time it came out perfect! It’s a family favorite! Thank you for the great recipe!



  • SK

    Thanks for this, Olga! The ingredients in this recipe don’t match the pastry cream recipe—and not just the amounts. This is why people are asking questions. Do we follow the pastry cream recipe and essentially double the size of everything on the pastry cream page? Or do we leave out the butter, which would match the ingredients listed on this Napoleon page?

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