Creme Brulee Cake

The first time I smacked a spoon into ramekin of creme brulee, cracking the brittle sugar crust and scooping into the dense custard below, I fell in love. I was 21 and on my first grown-up vacation with my college boyfriend. We went to San Diego for the warm weather, fun museums and, of course, great food. Before we returned to the snowy north, I sampled three different kinds of creme brulee and left the city with a new favorite dessert.

Now, decades later, I enjoy recreating the novelty of that experience by playing around and making desserts like this creme brulee cake. The layer cake recipe combines a variety of flavors and textures—tender vanilla cake, a sweet custard filling, buttercream frosting—with the smashable sugar crust that makes the original dessert so much fun. This recipe is a decadent and surprising take on creme brulee. One caveat: You’ll need a kitchen torch to make it.

Ingredients for Creme Brulee Cake

• Heavy whipping cream: Any dairy product labeled heavy cream or whipping cream will work well in this recipe. Either will give your whipped custard a rich mouthfeel.
• Vanilla extract: For deep, enticing flavor, buy one of the best vanilla extract brands, not imitation vanilla.
• Eggs: It’s always best to bake with room-temperature eggs. Remember to crack each egg into a separate dish before adding it to the rest of the ingredients in case a piece of errant shell falls in, or you encounter a spoiled egg.
• Sugars: You’ll use granulated sugar in the custard and cake, confectioners’ sugar in the frosting, and rich-tasting turbinado sugar in the crackly crust. If you can’t find the latter or its cousin, demerara sugar, use granulated sugar instead. Brown sugar tastes wonderful, but can burn quickly under the blow torch.
• Cornstarch: This magical powder will thicken your custard without changing its taste. You can also use it in pudding recipes, pie fillings and stews.
• Salt: This ingredient is surprisingly crucial for desserts; it helps balance sweetness and creates a well-rounded flavor. Once your custard is cooked, feel free to taste it to see if it needs more salt.
• Butter: Butter is essential to the frosting and custard of the creme brulee cake. Choose unsalted butter, but don’t hesitate to add a smidgen of salt to the frosting.
• Canola oil: Any neutral-tasting cooking oil—like canola, grape seed or sunflower oil—will work in these cake layers. Avoid strong-flavored oils like olive oil.
• Flour: All-purpose flour is all you need. While you need to beat the batter well as you add the various ingredients, don’t mix it more than necessary for the best texture.
• Baking powder: Using baking powder helps leaven the cake layers.
• Buttermilk: Tangy buttermilk tastes excellent, and its acidity helps tenderize baked goods. Like salt, sour flavors also help balance sweetness.

Directions

Step 1: Make the custard base

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In a large, heavy saucepan, mix the sugar, cornstarch and salt. Whisk in the cream. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly. Reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring, for two minutes longer. Remove the pan from heat.

Step 2: Add the eggs

In a large bowl, whisk a small amount of the hot mixture into the egg yolks. Add the egg yolk combo to the custard in the pan, whisking constantly. Bring the mixture to a gentle boil and cook, stirring, for another two minutes.

Editor’s Tip: Tempering your eggs slowly increases their temperature and prevents curdling when they hit the hot pan. I like to add at least a cup of hot liquid to yolks that have already been lightly beaten to ensure that the tempering does its job.

Step 3: Finish and cool the custard

Jonathan Melendez for Taste of Home

Remove the custard from heat and stir in the butter and vanilla. Let it cool for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Press plastic wrap onto the surface of the custard to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate it for one hour or until it’s cold.

Step 4: Prepare the cake pans

Jonathan Melendez for Taste of Home

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line the bottoms of three greased, 8-inch round baking pans with parchment paper and grease the top of the paper.

Step 5: Make the cake batter

Jonathan Melendez for Taste of Home

In a large bowl, beat the oil, sugar, egg yolks and vanilla until they’re well blended. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt.

Add the dry ingredients to the sugar mixture, alternating with the buttermilk mixture, and beat well after each addition. In a large bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form and fold them into the batter.

Step 6: Bake the cakes

Bake the cakes until a toothpick comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool them in the pans for 10 minutes on wire racks. Remove the cakes from the pans and let them cool completely.

Editor’s Tip: Unless your oven has an incredibly consistent temperature, you may want to swap around the cake pans after about 20 minutes of baking. Don’t do so too early, as you don’t want to disrupt the structure of the cakes before the batter sets.

Step 7: Make the buttercream

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In a large bowl, beat the butter and vanilla at medium speed until blended. Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar until the frosting is smooth, two to three minutes.

Step 8: Assemble the cake

Jonathan Melendez for Taste of Home

To assemble the cake, whisk the cooled custard on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, two to three minutes. Place one cake layer on a serving plate and spread with half of the filling. Repeat with the other layers. Top with the remaining cake layer.

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Frost the top and sides of the cake with frosting. Pipe the remaining frosting around the top and bottom edges.

Step 9: Brulee the top

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To caramelize the topping with a kitchen torch, sprinkle the cake evenly with sugar. Hold the torch flame about 2 inches above the cake’s surface and rotate the cake slowly until the sugar is evenly caramelized and crackly. Serve the creme brulee cake immediately or refrigerate it for up to one hour.

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Creme Brulee Cake Variations

• Switch the filling flavor: Use a different custard or pudding to make this creme brulee cake recipe your own. I love creme brulee cake made with coffee, butterscotch or chocolate pudding.
• Try a different buttercream: This recipe uses American buttercream, which is quite sweet. I love swapping another type of buttercream frosting—especially silky Swiss meringue—to make a richer, fluffier cake topping.
• Get creative with the cake: Instead of the light vanilla cake in this recipe, you can substitute another favorite flavor. Try stealing the layers from our coconut chiffon cake, mocha cake or malted chocolate stout cake.

How to Store Creme Brulee Cake

Place any remaining cake in a cake keeper or other tight-lidded tall container to hold it and store it in the fridge.

How long does creme brulee cake last?

In terms of food safety, brulee cakes last three days in the refrigerator—the pudding or custard is the most perishable part of the dessert and is your limiting factor. However, the top of the cake won’t stay crisp once it’s in the fridge, so expect a softer texture.

Can you make creme brulee cake ahead of time?

Creme brulee cake is best eaten the day it’s made, but you can make the custard and buttercream frosting up to two days ahead of time. Store them in the refrigerator, then make the cake layers and assemble the dessert on the day you’re planning to consume it. Just remember that if you make the custard two days in advance, you’ll want to consume the entire cake by the end of the next day.

If traveling with the cake, you can also assemble it up until the point of sprinkling on the sugar. Add the brulee topping and fire away when you reach your destination. In that case, don’t forget to pack your torch!

Creme Brulee Cake Tips

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What can you do with the extra egg whites?

Some of the best things to do with leftover egg whites include making meringue cookies or pavlova, whipping up an egg-white omelet, or storing them for a future recipe (yes, you can freeze egg whites!).

What can you serve with creme brulee cake?

Creme brulee cake is so rich that it doesn’t need much accompaniment beyond a fancy coffee shop drink or tea.