Week 130: Karpatka

Karpatka is a Polish cake with layers of puff pastry filled with a decadent raspberry pastry cream.

Jump to the recipe!

The cake was named by a group of students who noticed that the cake’s rough and textured structure resembled the Carpathian mountain range.

I think it’s so fun that dusting the top of the cake with powdered sugar looks just like the mountain snow!

This cake is also very similar to kremówka, a similar puff pastry dessert. However, kremówka uses flattened puff pastry so you don’t have the “mountain terrain” effect.

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RECIPE:

INGREDIENTS:

Custard:

• 4 egg yolks

• 1/4 cup cornstarch

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar

• 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste

• 2 cups whole milk

• 1/4 cup raspberry jam

Cake:

• 5 tablespoons butter

• 3/4 cup water

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

• 3 eggs

STEPS:

1. In a pot over medium heat, allow the milk to almost come to a boil. Set aside. Mix the egg yolks, cornstarch, sugar, and vanilla paste until they are combined. Slowly add 1/4 cup of your milk into the egg mixture and whisk rapidly. Pour the egg mixture back into the pot with the milk and cook over medium heat until the custard thickens. Make sure to keep whisking to avoid curdling the custard. Set aside to cool to room temperature and fold in the raspberry jam.

2. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and line two 9-inch springform cake pans with parchment paper.

3. In a pot, melt the butter and water together. Then, add the flour, mixing until the dough leaves a thin film on the surface of the pan. Transfer this mixture to a bowl, and with an electric mixer beat the pastry dough on medium speed. Slowly add the eggs one at a time.

4. Divide the batter between the two pans and create divots on the surface with the back of a spoon so that when the cake puffs up, it will resemble the mountain top. Bake for 20 minutes and allow to cool to room temperature.

5. In the base of a springform pan, place a cake layer as the base. Then top with the pastry cream and finish with the remaining cake layer. Chill this in the springform pan for two hours and then serve.

Enjoy!

The Bored Baker 👩🏽‍🍳