No-bake aristocrat cake with palm puff pastry

The roots of this cake lie in the recipe for a multi-layered cake, which, according to one version, was created by a pastry chef in France in 1645. Claudius Gel. The original recipe, which quickly became popular, was brought to Italy by Neapolitan spies, where Italian pastry chefs modified the recipe by adding custard to the dough layers. This new product received the name “Neapolitan” and came to Western Europe as French aristocrats fled during the French Revolution, later evolving into the simplified name “Napoleon”.

Inside RussiaThis cake has become one of the most famous desserts, first prepared in 1912 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the country’s victory over Napoleon and his troops. The Russian version of the Napoleon cake arose from the need to make it more accessible to everyone after the Russian revolution, adapting the ingredients of the original recipe due to its perception as a “bourgeois” dessert. Initially, Russian pastry chefs could not use butter or eggs, they resorted to margarine and sugar. Over time, the cake was transformed with higher quality ingredients.

Although known as Napoleon in Russia and the United States, “mille-feuilles” (thousand layers) in France and Italy, “Vanilla slice” or “Cream slice” in the United Kingdom, “mille-feuilles” (mille-feuilles) in Hungary It is called a thousand layers). It is called “Királyi france krémes” and has other names in different European countries.

Napoleon cake is being made today several layers of baked puff pastry filled with mousseline cream and decorated with crumbled puff pastry. This last element symbolizes the snow, which is believed to have helped the Russians defeat Napoleon’s army. Its preparation involves moistening the puff pastry with cream and resting it in the refrigerator overnight to make it softer.

How to prepare Napoleon cake

We found a very simple recipe to make the Napoleon cake on the YouTube channel ‘Cocina con Carmen’, which has almost one and a half million followers. What attracts our attention most about this delicious dessert is that there is no need to use an oven to prepare it.

• Palmeritas De Hojaldre

• Custard cream:

– 6 egg yolks

– 1 liter of milk (4 cups)

– 150 g sugar (3/4 cup)

– 120 g corn starch (1 heaping glass)

– 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

– 40 g butter (2 tablespoons)

1. To assemble the cake, place a springform pan on a plate.

2. Place a layer made with puff pastry palms and fill the gaps with chopped palms.

3. It’s time to make the pastry cream. You can also buy it ready-made, but it will be much tastier if you make it yourself. Put 120 grams of corn starch and sugar in a bowl and mix well.

4. Pour part of the liter of milk we need and add six yolks and a teaspoon of vanilla extract.

5. Now add the rest of the milk and mix well.

6. Take a non-stick pan, place a strainer on it and pour the mixture. Place the pan on medium heat and stir the mixture. You will see how the mixture thickens without stopping stirring. When you see that it has reached a sufficient consistency, remove it from the stove.

7. Add the butter to the mixture and mix well to combine everything. Now your cake cream is ready.

8. It’s time to pour about a third of the cream over the palmeritas. Add another layer of palmerita and a third of the pastry cream, and finish with another layer of palmerita and the rest of the pastry cream.

9. To finish, garnish with chopped palm trees. Once tempered place it in the fridge for at least 6 hours, but ideally leave it overnight. And the cake is ready.