Carpathian Cream Cake

How to prepare carpathian cream cake

1. For the base, put water and butter in a saucepan and bring to a boil. When the butter is melted and boiling, add all the flour at once and stir quickly until the dough comes together, like a ball around the wooden spoon.
2. Remove from heat and add one egg at a time, mixing after each one until fully incorporated. At first, when you add each egg, the dough seems to separate, but keep mixing and it will return to its original consistency.
3. Line two 28 x 18 cm baking pans with parchment paper and grease the sides with a small cube of butter.
4. Divide the dough equally between the two pans and level with the back of a spoon. The dough is somewhat firm and elastic, so persist in spreading it evenly across the entire pan. It's okay if spoon marks are visible on the surface at the end.
   * if you don't have two pans of the same size, divide the dough in two and bake them one at a time, they will turn out fine, nothing happens to the dough if it sits
5. Bake the layers at 200°C for about 25-30 minutes, until the layers are puffed and pleasantly golden brown.
6. Remove the layers from the oven and let them cool. They will deflate a bit, but that's perfect, especially the bottom one should deflate a bit for a flatter base. You can leave the top one to cool in the turned-off oven with the door slightly open if you want it to keep its puffed shape (I didn't do this).
8. While the layers are cooling, prepare the cream.
9. Put the gelatin sheet in cold water to soften.
10. In a saucepan, mix the egg yolks with the flour, starch, salt and about 50 ml of the milk (by eye) just until it looks like a cream.
11. Put the rest of the milk with the sugar and 1/3 of the butter to boil. Add the vanilla bean seeds and the pod. When hot, remove the pod and start adding it slowly to the egg cream. With one hand stir the cream with a whisk and with the other slowly pour in the milk.
12. When you've finished adding the milk, put the saucepan over medium heat and continue stirring with the whisk until you feel it becoming slightly viscous. Immediately lower the heat and don't stop stirring. In a few minutes the cream will thicken, becoming like soft polenta. Remove from heat and continue stirring to let it cool a bit. Gradually add the rest of the butter, stirring until it melts.
14. Add the gelatin squeezed of water. Continue stirring until it dissolves. Let the cream cool down more, until warm but not hot. Stir occasionally to prevent a skin from forming.
15. In the pan, place one of the pastry layers (the one you like less 😊 ). Pour the cream over it and level. Place the second layer on top and press gently. Let cool completely (about 1 hour at room temperature).
16. Put the cake in the refrigerator for the vanilla cream to set (ideally overnight, it takes several hours).
17. Cut into 8 pieces (preferably with a large serrated knife, a bread knife; wipe the knife after each cut) and serve straight from the refrigerator.

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