Rich tea-infused custard and peach jam layered with flaky puff pastry. 462: Peach Rooibos Napoleon Torte

This Eastern European cake is a cross between a mille-feuille pastry and an icebox cake – puff pastry layers smothered in pastry cream, coated in crumbs and chilled in the fridge for 12 hours before slicing.

I went rogue with the shape, but this time it was only slightly intentional. Instead of an upright round cake, it ended up being a rectangle on its side. The main culprit was puff pastry that defied gravity despite a heavy pan squishing it down in the oven. After stacking four layers with filling it was emulating the Leaning Tower of Pisa a little too accurately so I got ahead of disaster by going horizontal. (Remember when vertical cakes were trending? Pretend it’s 2022.)

I infused the custard with rooibos tea and snuck in some peach jam every other layer. Overall delicious elements, but my main complaint with mille-feuille stands with this one too. You take one bite and everything squishes out!

My hand was reaching for Earl Grey but pivoted at the last second to snatch some rooibos tea bags instead. While Earl Grey would have been delicious, the flavor is so delicate that it can sometimes get lost in all the dairy. Rooibos stood up for itself, with the flavor coming through surprisingly well!

Steeping in a custard hottub.

I wonder if I could’ve gotten it even thinner if I had let it rest for 15 minutes after the first roll. Hypothetically it lets the gluten in the flour relax enough to stretch a little further. Next time!

I saw a cute lunch idea where you pop squares of pastry into muffin tins and put a meatball, sauce and cheese in the divot and bake til crispy! Like an elevated pizza pocket.

The scraps are getting baked up just to crumble down. They get to be the pastry confetti on the outside of the cake!

Next time I gotta try putting a heavy pot on top of the pan weighing them down.

Adding to the confetti bowl as I attempt to straighten out the sides.

Behold! Said bowl of pastry confetti.

This was about the point where I realized vertical wasn’t viable.

Highly recommend putting the cake on the inside of the actual lid of the container, with the bottom part acting as a plastic cake dome. That way you don’t have to reach in or flip delicate cakes to get them out!

Much buttery confetti.

I almost cut it the short way which would have just looked like a boring ol’ slice. Oops!

Impractical side cut, but what a slice shot!

Probably won’t make this exact structure again, but the joy from covering it in crumb confetti alone was worth it.

Happy munching!

Inspiration from: https://somebodyfeedseb.com/napoleon-cake/