Napoleon Cake

Ah, the Napoleon cake—fancy enough to sound like it was invented by French royalty, but messy enough to remind you that dessert, like life, is best enjoyed imperfect (and with a fork in hand).

This Napoleon Cake recipe features a raspberry twist that adds just the right amount of tart-sweet finish.

This traditional fruit and cream pastry is the kind of dessert that struts into the room, flaky layers and all, and says, “Bonjour, I am pretty and I’m impressive. Now, eat me. Eat me now.”

Napoleon cake, the name alone already sounds pretty fancy, right?

The traditional Napoleon (or mille-feuille if we’re being proper), is made of flaky, golden puff pastry layered with rich, velvety pastry cream and lightly topped with powdered sugar.

The thin layers of puff pastry are created via an easy technique that is surprisingly simple.

After rolling out the store-bought, puff pastry on a sheet of parchment paper, place a second sheet of parchment paper on top of the sheet. Then, place another baking tray directly on top of the parchment.

The weight of the second baking tray will prevent the puff pastry from doing what it really wants to do, that is, puff up.

What you’ll get instead, is puff pastry that is much flatter.

While the weight of the baking tray keeps the pastry flat, the texture is still light, fluffy and flaky.

Then, all you have to do is cut the desired shapes. I used a clear quilter’s ruler (now a designated kitchen ruler), to help cut the uniform rectangles needed.

Napoleon cakes are the perfect dessert for when you want to impress people without actually suffering through a super labor-intensive dessert. It may just look like you did.

And the pastry cream? Well, that’s simple too.

It’s basically pudding that went to culinary school.

If you can stir a pot without burning the contents, you’re already halfway there.

OK, let’s start stacking this treat. A spread of raspberry jam or apricot preserves adds an extra burst of delicious flavor. You’ll only need a thin layer spread from edge to edge.

Next up, use a piping bag to pipe a few thick lines of the cream filling right on top of the jam.

Raspberries are a beautiful color contrast, but you could really add any fresh fruit you like, including blueberries or even sliced strawberries. You pick.

Meanwhile, I continue to work on my food-on-the-move videography series, and I’ve included my latest Food in Motion video above featuring this Napoleon Cake for your viewing pleasure.

You can watch the video fullscreen within this post, or you can click over and watch it full screen over on YouTube.

If you opt to watch this video on YouTube, please consider subscribing to my channel, as I’m trying to grow my audience on that platform too.

Food in Motion