Lighter Napoleon Cake with Lavash and Pastry Cream

Cooking method

1. Step 1:

   

   Start with the cream. This recipe makes a small cake, so I doubled all the ingredients. The milk and egg should be at room temperature, so take them out of the fridge ahead of time.

2. Step 2:

   

   Whisk the egg with the sugar and vanilla sugar until smooth.

3. Step 3:

   

   Add the cornstarch to the mixture—you can sift it in—and whisk thoroughly, breaking up any lumps.

4. Step 4:

   

   Pour in a quarter of the room-temperature milk and whisk well.

5. Step 5:

   

   You should have a smooth, slightly thick mixture.

6. Step 6:

   

   Pour the rest of the milk into a heavy-bottomed saucepan, set it over medium heat, and warm it until hot—but don't let it boil.

7. Step 7:

   

   Whisking constantly, pour the hot milk into the egg-cornstarch mixture in a thin stream. Doing it this way helps prevent lumps.

8. Step 8:

   

   Pour the whole mixture back into the saucepan and set it over low heat.

9. Step 9:

   

   Cook the cream, whisking constantly, until it thickens. Take it to whatever thickness you like, keeping in mind that it will set up more as it cools.

10. Step 10:

    

    Take the pastry cream off the heat, press plastic wrap directly onto its surface, and let it cool. It's best not to put it straight into the fridge.

11. Step 11:

    

    For the layers, we'll use plain lavash. A nice even rectangular sheet is easiest to work with.

12. Step 12:

    

    Cut the lavash into squares or rectangles of whatever size you want. Depending on the size and shape of the pieces, your cake can end up short and wide or small but tall and layered.

13. Step 13:

    

    Put a sheet of lavash on a plate and spread it with cream, then sprinkle the cream with shredded coconut. (Skip the coconut if you don't care for it.) Top with a second sheet of lavash. Keep alternating layers of lavash, cream, and coconut to build the whole cake.

14. Step 14:

    

    Coat the top of the cake thickly with shredded coconut—I also added some coconut flakes (coconut crunch) on top. Refrigerate the cake overnight so it can soak through.

15. Step 15:

    

    Transfer the finished cake to a platter, cut it into pieces, and serve. Enjoy!