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Crispy puff pastry bases, delicate pudding buttercream with a hint of caramel and aromatic roasted walnuts come together to create an irresistibly delicious combination. The Grand Napoleon cake is not only a tasty highlight on the coffee table, but also a visual one with its layers. It is ideal for a special occasion or celebration. You can find a detailed Grand Napoleon recipe with the exact quantities and step-by-step instructions below.
Special features of the Grand Napoleon cake
In addition to the classic Napoleon cake, there are other different recipes for the popular Russian layer cake with puff pastry. Each one has its own special features. Perhaps you have already tried the Napoleon cake with beer puff pastry and plombir cream, the quark cream cheese Napoleon or the Lazy Napoleon cake.
What makes the Grand Napoleon cake so special is its nutty and slightly caramel taste. Each layer is sprinkled with aromatic roasted walnuts. The cake frosting contains caramelized sweetened condensed milk.
Also try the quick Napoleon tarts and the Napoleon puff pastry slices.
How to make crispy, tender bases
The Grand Napoleon cake bases taste crispy and tender. They are made from homemade, just like for the sugar tongues or the cake “Styopka rastryopka”, thinly rolled out puff pastry.
To ensure that the cake bases turn out perfectly, use cold ingredients for the dough. You should also only knead it briefly and work it as quickly as possible so that it doesn’t get warm.
The thin cake bases bake quite quickly. So don’t leave them unattended in the oven to prevent them from burning.
Frosting with a variety of flavours
The cake frosting for the Grand Napoleon consists of vanilla pudding, caramelized sweetened condensed milk and butter. This makes it very versatile in taste. It is creamy, smooth, caramelized and buttery at the same time.
To prevent the cake frosting from curdling, all ingredients must be at room temperature. So give the butter and caramelized sweetened condensed milk plenty of time to warm up when they come out of the fridge. The vanilla pudding, on the other hand, should cool well before you use it.
The Grand Napoleon cake is
- flaky,
- creamy,
- nutty,
- buttery,
- crunchy,
- tender,
- caramelly,
- moderately sweet,
- incredibly tasty,
- aromatic,
- with walnuts,
- with many thin layers,
- an eye-catcher on the coffee table,
- easy to make with a certain amount of time,
- ideal for a special occasion, alongside the chocolate Spartak cake, the Mikado cake and the honey cake “Posolskiy”,
- an old classic of Russian cuisine.
How to make Grand Napoleon cake: tips and tricks
- Use cold ingredients for the dough.
- The amount of flour you use for the dough may vary. Add as much flour to the sour cream and butter mixture in portions until you have a soft, no longer sticky dough.
- Knead the dough only briefly until it is just about homogeneous. If you knead it for longer, the butter will melt in the dough and it will absorb more and more flour. This could make the cake bases taste tough and not flaky.
- Work with the dough and the pieces of dough as quickly as possible so that they do not get warm.
- Note that the dough does not contain any sugar. You can adjust the amount of sugar for the cake frosting to taste.
- Do not leave the cake bases unattended in the oven. This is because they are done quite quickly and could burn.
- Butter, caramelized sweetened condensed milk and the vanilla pudding for the cake frosting must be room warm and all three must be at about the same temperature so that they can combine well when whipped without the mixture curdling.
Did you make the Grand Napoleon cake using this recipe? I look forward to your result, your star rating and your comment below on how it turned out and how you liked it.
Try these other cake recipes:
- Smetannik cake “Mishka na severe” – Soviet classic
- Cake “Monastyrskaya izba” – Russian cherry honeycomb dessert
- Kiev cake – the tastiest Ukrainian classic
Grand Napoleon cake
Ingredients
for the dough
- approx. 230 g flour
- 85 g butter cold
- 100 g sour cream or crème fraiche cold
- 30 ml water cold
- flour for the work surface
- 50 g walnuts roasted and roughly chopped
for the frosting
- 80 g sugar
- 30 g cornstarch
- 2 eggs
- 330 ml milk
- 1 pinch of ground vanilla bean
- 170 g butter room warm
- 120 g caramelized sweetened condensed milk room warm
- 100 g walnuts roasted and roughly chopped
Instructions
Preparation of the dough
- Put 100 g flour and cold butter cut into pieces into a mixing bowl and quickly work it into crumbs.
- Add sour cream and cold water and mix.
- Add the remaining flour in portions and knead briefly and quickly to form a barely homogeneous dough.
- Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces, cover and chill for approx. 1.5 hours.
- First take the first dough piece out of the fridge, roll it in flour and roll it out very thinly on a baking paper sheet into a rough circle that will fit a Ø 20 cm cake ring. Place the cake ring on the rolled-out dough and cut out the circle. Chill the cut dough scraps for now.
- Place the baking paper with the round cake base on a baking tray, prick the cake base several times with a fork and bake in a preheated oven at 392 °F (200 °C) for approx. 5 minutes.
- Take the remaining dough pieces out of the fridge one after the other, roll them out in the same way as the first piece, cut out Ø 20 cm round cake bases and bake them one after the other.
- Knead all the cut-off dough scraps together briefly, roll them out thinly, cut out another Ø 20 cm cake base and bake it together with the remaining thinly rolled-out dough scraps.
- Leave the 9 cake bases and the leftovers to cool completely.
- Then finely crumble the leftovers and mix it with 50 g of coarsely chopped walnuts.
Preparation of the frosting
- Mix cornstarch and sugar in a thick-bottomed saucepan.
- Add eggs and mix vigorously to form a homogeneous mixture.
- Pour in milk and stir.
- Bring the milk mixture to the boil, stirring constantly, allowing it to thicken into a pudding, and continue to simmer for about 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly.
- Remove the pudding from the heat, stir in vanilla and leave to cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally.
- Beat softened butter for approx. 5 minutes until it becomes a light and creamy mass.
- Add caramelized sweetened condensed milk and whip to a homogeneous caramel buttercream.
- Add the vanilla pudding in batches and beat briefly each time to form a homogeneous frosting.
Preparation of the cake
- Spread 8 of the cake bases with the frosting, leaving some frosting for the sides and top of the cake, and then sprinkle the cake layers with roughly chopped walnuts.
- Stack the 8 cake bases on top of each other and place the 9 cake base without the frosting and nuts on top. Place a cutting board on top of the cake, press it down gently to bring the cake layers closer together and then remove the cutting board.
- Now spread the top and sides of the cake with the remaining frosting.
- Sprinkle the cake completely with the walnut crumb mixture and chill for approx. 8 hours or overnight.
Notes
- Use cold ingredients for the dough.
- The amount of flour you use for the dough may vary. Add as much flour to the sour cream and butter mixture in portions until you have a soft, no longer sticky dough.
- Knead the dough only briefly until it is just about homogeneous. If you knead it for longer, the butter will melt in the dough and it will absorb more and more flour. This could make the cake bases taste tough and not flaky.
- Work with the dough and the pieces of dough as quickly as possible so that they do not get warm.
- Note that the dough does not contain any sugar. You can adjust the amount of sugar for the cake frosting to taste.
- Do not leave the cake bases unattended in the oven. This is because they are done quite quickly and could burn.
- Butter, caramelized sweetened condensed milk and the vanilla pudding for the cake frosting must be room warm and all three must be at about the same temperature so that they can combine well when whipped without the mixture curdling.
- Take note of the detailed tips and tricks for making the Grand Napoleon cake at the top of the article.
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