Nougatine Cake (6 Ingredients)

This 6-ingredient French nougatine cake is elegant and crunchy. Simple almond dacquoise and vanilla buttercream sprinkled with almond nougatine make every bite amazing.   

This almond nougatine cake is truly delicious. Made with two dacquoise layers sandwiched with French buttercream filling and sprinkled with almond nougatine, the cake is a little slice of heaven.

Add here that this 6-ingredient cake is gluten-free and is made in a bit over an hour. Isn't your next baking project?

Almond nougatine cake recipe

This cake recipe is a twist on French nougatine cake Saint-Louis (Le Saint-Louis in French).

Pastry chef Xavier Dalisson created it to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the consecration of the Basilica Saint-Epvre in Nancy, France.

In 1907, the cake "Saint-Epvre®" became a registered trademark and was named after a pastry shop of the same name "Saint-Louis."

The cake recipe was kept secret for many generations of pastry chefs.

In the 1960s, French chef Gaston Lenôtre created his own version of the nougatine cake and called it "Succès," meaning "success" in English.

Why you should try this recipe

1. This nougatine cake recipe is easy and quick.
2. It is a 6-ingredient cake.
3. This gluten-free nougatine dessert is perfect for serving those with gluten intolerance.
4. Replacing almonds with hazelnuts transforms almond nougatine cake into hazelnut nougatine cake. Also, feel free to experiment with other kinds of nuts.

Ingredients

For ingredients and detailed instructions, refer to the recipe card below.

Eggs: use an egg separator to facilitate the separation of egg whites from the yolks while the eggs are still chilled. Then bring whole eggs and egg whites to room temperature.

Sugar: use caster sugar or superfine baker's sugar to make the dacquoise. To make superfine sugar out of granulate sugar, process it in a food processor for a few seconds.

Almond flour: the recipe calls for blanched finely ground almond flour and not a coarse almond meal. Spoon it from a container to measure almond flour. Please, do not pack/press it down into a measuring cup.

Butter: the recipe calls for unsalted, softened butter. Use top-quality butter if possible.

Slivered almonds: use store-bought toasted slivered almonds or toast nuts yourself by bringing almonds to the oven at 300 F/150 C for 15 minutes. You can replace slivered almonds with sliced almonds if desired.

Water: it is used to make sugar syrup while making buttercream.

How to make nougatine cake

Preheat the oven to 335 F/180 C. To make the dacquoise, place almond flour and half of the caster sugar in a food processor and process for a few minutes.

Place egg whites and the remaining half of the sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat until the meringue becomes glossy (photo 1).

Add the almond flour/sugar mixture to the meringue in two to three times and gently mix with a rubber spatula (photo 2).

Prepare two baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Place two 8-inches/20 cm cake ring/s on parchment.

Transfer the meringue mixture in a pastry bag fitted with Ateco plain pastry tip 809 and pipe two spiral dacquoise disks within cake rings (photo 3).

Bake for 13 to 15 minutes until slightly golden. Remove dacquoise disks from the oven and let cool (photo 4).

Gently run a knife around the cake ring's edges to help release dacquoise from the mold.

To make nougatine, place sugar in a saucepan and melt it on medium heat.

Rotate the saucepan over your stove to stir the sugar. When the caramel gets the amber color, remove it from heat and add lightly toasted slivered almonds.

Mix them quickly and pour the mixture on parchment paper (photo 5).

Cover with another parchment sheet and roll it out with a rolling pin (photo 6). Let it cool completely.

Crush the nougatine between sheets of parchment paper with a rolling pin (photo 7).

To make the buttercream, in a saucepan, place sugar, water and heat the sugar syrup to 250 F/121 C.

In a separate bowl, using an electric mixer, beat eggs while pouring the syrup along the bowl's wall. Whisk until the mixture becomes whitish and cools down (photo 8).

Gradually add the softened butter cut into cubes and mix until smooth and shiny (photo 9).

To assemble the cake, place the buttercream in a pastry bag fitted with a piping tip Wilton 6B and pipe rosettes on the first dacquoise disk (photo 10).

Distribute the pieces of crushed nougatine (photo 11). Cover with the second dacquoise disk.

Sprinkle the cake with icing (powdered) sugar. Decorate with a few rosettes of the cream and some pieces of nougatine (photo 12).

Expert tips

1. If you do not have cake rings, draw two 8-inches/20 cm circles on parchment and flip the paper. Pipe dacquoise disks as a spiral within the circle's marks and bake.
2. Refrigerate the nougatine cake for several hours before tasting. Serve the cake at room temperature, taking it out of the fridge 30 minutes before serving.

Frequently asked question

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Recipe card

The nutritional information has been calculated using an online recipe nutrition calculator such as Verywellfit.com and is intended for informational purposes only. These figures should be used as a general guideline and not be construed as a guarantee.

The recipe was adapted from https://www.femmeactuelle.fr. It was originally published on March 08, 2018. The recipe has been revised to include improved content and photos. All posted pictures are mine.