Napoleon with strawberry curd

Crispy and very juicy cake, summer berry flavour in custard strawberry curd and ice cream buttercream... A lot of ice cream buttercream!

We'd like to share a recipe for a Napoleon cake - not a classic recipe for a well-known dessert.

A mix of a modern view and established traditions!

• Sift the flour, and add cold butter (cut into cubes).Then take a knife and chop the butter, mixing it with flour. When the pieces of butter are quite small, grind into small crumbs by hands.
• Prepare a glass with a volume of 250 ml (8.5 fl oz). Add the vinegar, a pinch of salt and an egg. The egg should be right from the fridge. Mix everything with a fork, and then add the ice cold water. The water should fill the glass up to full.
• Pour this liquid into a bowl with flour and butter. Quickly knead the dough into a ball. Do not try to mix everything thoroughly. The butter must not melt.
• Divide the ball into 9-10 equal parts. Put them into the fridge for 2 hours. You can cover with cling film to keep the dough moist.
• When the time passes, take out the dough. Do not take all parts at once, but only one piece at a time.
• Sprinkle the flour on the table, and roll out a round layer of dough. The thickness of the dough is approximately 2-3 mm (0.1 inch). To make the cake even, put a plate and cut out a circle. Then roll up a ball from the rest of the dough and make the final cake layer.
• Bake tha cake layers on the baking paper. The baking temperature is 190-200C (374-392F). Bake until it gets golden brown color. There are 11 cake layers in total. 10 layers are used for the cake itself, and the 11th goes for sprinkling.

• Mix an egg, sugar and cornstarch in a different bowl. If you don’t have cornstarch, you can use potato starch instead
• Pour milk into a saucepan and bring it to a boil. Then turn the heat low and trickle the egg mixture. Stir constantly. Cook until thickened. Make sure nothing burns.
• Add the butter and mix until completely dissolved. After that the cream should be cooled first to room temperature, and then cooled in the fridge.
• The cream is cold. Now whip the cream with the mixer at a high speed until thickened. Pour the whipped cream into the cooled prepared cream, and mix with a spatula. Not with a mixer!

The most convenient way to do this is in the round springform cake pan.

• Lay the first cake, spread the strawberry curd on it, add the buttercream, level it. Then proceed with all 10 cake layers. Leave the 11th cake layer for sprinkling.
• Leave some cream for final leveling.
• Do not put the cream on the topmost layer; cover it with a plate. And put the cake into the fridge for 3-4 hours. It should settle down a little and soak. It is even better to leave the cake for the night.
• Then take it out of the pan. Coat the sides and the top layer with the remaining cream. Grind the 11th cake into crumbs and sprinkle it on the whole cake!
• Decorate the cake with fresh berries.

It's obscenely delicious!

• If you wish, you can use ready-made strawberry puree or make it yourself. Ready-made puree can be purchased in a supermarket or a pastry shop. Manufacturers have a line of all kinds of fruit and berry purees.
• If you want to make puree yourself, use fresh or frozen strawberries. Get rid of the stalks, rinse and put the berries into a blender. Grind to the liquid state.
• Put the puree into a saucepan. Put the saucepan on the stove, add the starch, mix and bring to a boil over low heat. After that add butter, sugar and yolks, mix everything and boil until thickened.

How can you check if your strawberry curd is ready? It shouldn't fall in drops off the spoon.