A Napoleon cake you’ll finish the same day

Ingredients

• Sponge layers:
• plain flour – 3 glasses
• butter – 200 g
• salt – 0.5 tsp
• egg – 1 pc
• water – ¾ glasses
• vinegar – 1 tbsp
• Cream:
• butter – 400 g
• condensed milk – 300 g
• milk – 1 l
• eggs – 4 pcs
• sugar – 1 glass
• vanillin – 1 pack
• plain flour – 2 tbsp
• potato starch – 2 tbsp

Method

1. Step 1

   To prepare the Napoleon dough, all ingredients must be chilled.

   
2. Step 2

   Sift the flour into a deep container and grate the butter into the flour using a coarse grater. The oil should be from the refrigerator, you can even put it in the freezer for 15 minutes.

   
3. Step 3

   Grind the flour and butter into crumbs with your hands. If you have a food processor with a large bowl, you can combine the butter and flour there. The main thing is that it should be crumbly.

   
4. Step 4

   In a glass (250 ml) we dilute 1 chicken egg and 1 tbsp. table vinegar, mix. Add cold water to the top, stir and pour this mixture into the butter-flour crumbs.

   
5. Step 5

   We don’t knead the dough too much – we just collect it into a ball, wrap it in cling film, or put it in a disposable bag. Place in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours. If you don’t have time to wait, you can put the dough in the freezer for 30 minutes. But it’s better to prepare the dough in advance - for example, in the evening, and bake in the morning. Or, conversely, in the morning and bake in the late afternoon.

   
6. Step 6

   Take the chilled dough out of the refrigerator and knead it on a clean surface - it should not stick to your hands or the table. If the dough still sticks, add a little flour.

   
7. Step 7

   Divide the dough into small balls. I divided it into 10 parts for cakes with a diameter of 28 cm. If you want to make cakes with a smaller diameter, divide into more parts.

   
8. Step 8

   Leave the balls in the refrigerator and take them out one at a time to roll out. Lightly sprinkle the surface with flour and roll out a very thin cake - about 1 mm thick. Using a rolling pin, transfer to a baking tray sprinkled with flour (lightly), cut out the desired shape and pierce the cake with a fork over the entire surface. I don’t remove the edges, but bake them together with the cakes. They will then be used for sprinkles. Bake the cakes at 180° for about 3-5 minutes until golden brown.

   
9. Step 9

   And so we bake all 10 cakes, then cool them.

   
10. Step 10

    For impregnation we will prepare butter custard. You can, of course, use classic custard, but my family likes this one. Of course, this cream will be based on custard. First, prepare the classic custard. To do this, grind the eggs with sugar, add vanillin or vanilla sugar. Add flour and starch to the egg mixture. You can only take flour if there is no starch. Mix well until smooth. You can use a mixer so it will be faster and more efficient. Pour in the milk, stir and place on low heat. With constant stirring, bring to a boil and cook over low heat for 3-4 minutes until thickened. Cool the finished cream to room temperature.

    
11. Step 11

    In a separate container, with a mixer, beat the butter, previously softened at room temperature, for about 5 minutes, then add condensed milk and beat for another 5-7 minutes until smooth.

    
12. Step 12

    Add 2-3 tablespoons of custard and beat together with the butter cream until all the custard is added.

    
13. Step 13

    Assembling the cake. We put the first cake layer on a plate and grease it with cream, we don’t skimp on the cream - this amount is just enough for all the cake layers to generously grease each one. Cover the top with the cake and gently press down with your hands so that the cake lies tightly on the cream. Grease all the cakes and the top one too.

    
14. Step 14

    We make crumbs from the scraps of cake using a regular rolling pin. Decorate the top and sides of the cake with crumbs. We put it in the refrigerator for impregnation for at least 4 hours, and preferably for a day.