Cardamom Napoleon Cake — mamalife.love

My mom made the worlds most amazing Napoleon Cake ever. It was perfect. So I open her cook book to find it. I find 6-8 different recipes for a "napoleon" cake!!!! My mom had them labeled as napoleon #1 , napoleon #3.... Napoleon Nadia (for a person that gave her the recipe) and so on. I asked my sisters if they knew what she had "hers" under, nobody knows. So here I go, I'll be making all of them. To this first one I added Cardamom essential oils to the custard cream, the flavor blew my mind.

Cardamom Essential Oil Primary Benefits

May help ease indigestion and maintain overall gastrointestinal health*
Promotes clear breathing and respiratory health*
Helps alleviate occasional feelings of stomach discomfort*
Flavorful spice for cooking and baking

Ingredients:

For the layers

Ingredients:

For the layers

1 cup sour cream ( I used low fat, and I've used plain yogurt as well)

2 sticks of butter - room temp

3 egg yokes ( I used the egg whites as a face mask after!)

a pinch of salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 - 1.5 tsp apple cider vinegar

3 cups sifted flour

Custard cream

1.5 Liters whole milk

2 sticks butter (oh yes, this cake is a treat) room temp, cube them

4 Tbs flour - sifted

1.5 cups sugar

7 egg yokes ( I'll give you an idea of what to use the egg whites for in another post)

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1-2 drops cardamom essential oil, depending on taste. Start with one drop.

To make the dough for the layers combine the sour cream and the egg yokes, then add the butter. Put the baking soda in a small dish, then pour the vinegar over it to make it fizz up. As that reaction is happening pour it all into the batter. Add the sifted flour, turn the dough out onto parchment paper and refrigerate for an hour. After the dough rested, divide into 12 equal sections and begin rolling out each one into a circle. Use a plate or I used a spring pan as my guide for equal layers.

I use a fork to score the rolled dough so there aren't any huge air pockets. These bake pretty fast, 6-8 min each on 350 degrees. They should be a golden brown color and nice and crispy. Allow them to cool on a wire rack before stacking them. Be careful, these are pretty thin and crisp and will break.

As I bake my layers I start on the custard.

In a large pot bring the 1.5 liters of whole milk to a gentle boil. Wisk pretty frequently so that the bottom won't stick. As the milk heats up beat the 7 egg yokes and the 1.5 cups of sugar in a mixer, add sifted flour, and vanilla extract. Once the milk just starts to come to a boil, take a ladle full of the hot milk and pour it slowly into the egg mixture as the mixer is going not to cook the eggs. Repeat that about three more times. Then pour the egg mixture in the pot of milk. Bring this mixture to a boil and cook for two min or so, ad the cardamom oil. You will need to wisk this custard mixture pretty much constantly. Take it off heat and wisk in the two sticks of butter. Allow to completely cool. It's been cold outside so I've been putting it outside, then, after it cools I put it in the fridge. You can make the custard the night before as well.

Time to assemble !

I really like to assemble all my cakes in a spring pan. Because once I get that spring ring off the custard is set and beautiful and I can just decorate it.

Take the spring pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. Begin the layering adding about 4 Tbs or more of cream for each layer. You want the layers to be completely covered in the custard. For the last one I safe the custard and refrigerate it till morning. This cake has to sit over night to absorb all the custard into the cake layers. The next morning, pop open the spring pan, remove the cake, put the remainder of the custard cream on top and sides of the cake.

I used the extra pieces of dough as I cut the layers to size, and baked them off for the signature napoleon crumble or top and sides. I could have just used a food processor to pulse the crumbles to size, but my son needed to get some if his energy out, so I just let hi, break the pieces apart with a rolling pin. He did great.