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Mille Feuille Cake

French Mille Feuille cake topped with red fruit and flowers.
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5 from 10 reviews

This mille feuille cake is a French dessert made with crisp, caramelized puff pastry and vanilla-mascarpone cream. This easy single-layer version is topped with fresh red fruit and edible flowers, and it is much simpler to make than the classic three-layer pastry.

Ingredients

Scale

For the crust:

  • 8.8 oz. (250 g) puff pastry 
  • 100 g icing (powdered) sugar

For the vanilla cream:

  • 2/3 cup + 3 tablespoons (200 ml) of milk
  • 1/2 cup + 1 teaspoon (120 ml) whipping cream 
  • 3 large egg yolks
  • 1 1/2 sheet of gelatin
  • 6 oz. (170 g) mascarpone
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons (15 g) corn starch
  • 9 1/2 teaspoons (40 g) brown sugar
  • 1 vanilla bean

For the decoration:

  • fresh red fruit, edible flowers, fresh mint leaves

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Instructions

  1. To make the pastry vanilla cream, start one day before. Soak gelatin in cold water for 10 minutes. Whisk the remaining cream ingredients in a medium pot. Bring the cream to a boil, continually stirring with a hand whisk. Remove the pot from the heat as soon as the cream thickens. Mix in the drained gelatin. Pour the cream into a shallow dish, wrap it with plastic film in contact, and chill for 24 hours.
  2. To make the crust, preheat the oven to 355°F (180°C). Thaw the puff pastry dough, roll it on a lightly floured work surface, and prick with a fork. Cut out a large rectangle. Put the dough on the baking sheet between two sheets of parchment paper and cover it with a baking sheet or baking tray (not too heavy and, if possible, perforated). Bake for about 30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through. Make sure that the dough gets a beautiful caramel brown color.
  3. To caramelize the puff pastry, remove it from the oven. Remove the second baking sheet and the sheet of parchment paper from the top of the pastry. Sprinkle with icing sugar. Bring the baking sheet with the pastry under the oven grill for a few minutes to caramelize the sugar. It takes about two to three minutes; watch it carefully to prevent the pastry from burning. Remove from the oven, cool completely, and cut a rectangular strip 4'' x 10 '' (10 x 27 cm) with a ruler and a sharp serrated knife. Let it cool to room temperature.
  4. To assemble the cake, whip the cream to aerate. Place the cream in a pastry bag fitted with the Ateco plain pastry tip and pipe dollops (the size of regular walnuts) on a caramelized puff rectangle. Decorate the top of the cake with halves of fresh strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, or other fruits of your choice. Arrange edible flowers and mint leaves between fruits and serve immediately.

Notes

  1. Cover the vanilla cream with plastic wrap, pressing it onto the surface to prevent a crust from forming while refrigerating.
  2. Cover the puff pastry with a baking sheet on top of the parchment to prevent extensive puffing while baking.
  3. Do not burn the pastry while caramelizing. Two to three minutes is enough for a beautiful result.
  4. Cut the end of the pastry bag and decorate the cake with cream balls if you do not have a special tip. It works.

Nutrition

Find it online: https://www.bakinglikeachef.com/millefeuille-christophe-michalak/