Carpatka Cake Recipe in Strawberry Style

Prepare the buttery pastry cream. Pour the milk into a saucepan. Split the vanilla pod, scrape the inside well with a knife, and add the seeds along with the pod to the milk. Bring to a boil, then let infuse for an hour off the heat.

Meanwhile, in a bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar. Add the cornstarch and flour and mix to combine. Remove the vanilla pod from the milk and gradually pour it into the egg-flour mixture while whisking to obtain a smooth and lump-free mixture. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and heat over low heat, stirring regularly. The cream should thicken.

When it's ready, remove the saucepan from the heat and add 50 g of butter cut into pieces. Mix well to incorporate it. Pour the cream into a bowl, covering it with film to prevent a skin from forming on the surface. Let it cool completely at room temperature (for 2 hours).

In the meantime, prepare the dough. Preheat the oven to 190°C, conventional heat. Prepare the choux pastry. In a saucepan, bring the water with the milk, salt, powdered sugar, and butter cut into pieces to a boil. Remove the saucepan from the heat and add the flour all at once. Mix well until you achieve a smooth, homogeneous texture. Lower the heat to medium and place the saucepan back on the heat, stirring the dough continuously for a few minutes. The dough is ready when it forms a smooth, shiny ball that pulls away from the sides of the saucepan. Remove the saucepan from the heat and let the dough cool for 5 minutes, continuing to mix. Add the eggs one by one, mixing each time with a spatula to incorporate them well. If your whole eggs do not weigh exactly 250 g, make up the missing amount with beaten egg.

Line the bottom of a 24 cm diameter round springform pan with parchment paper. Evenly spread half of the choux pastry on the bottom. Bake for 25 minutes. The cake should be well risen, golden, and dry. Do not open the oven door during baking! Let it cool for 10 minutes, then remove it from the pan onto a wire rack and let it cool completely.

Then spread the second half of the dough in the same mold. Sprinkle the surface with sliced almonds. This will be the top layer of the cake. Bake again for 25 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes, then unmold onto a rack and let it cool completely.

When the pastry cream is at room temperature, finish preparing the mousseline cream. Remove the plastic wrap and whisk the cream for a few seconds to soften it. Then add the remaining 200 g of butter, cut into small pieces, gradually, while continuing to mix constantly. Once all the butter is incorporated, continue whisking for a few minutes to fully aerate the cream.

Assemble the cake. In the cleaned baking mold, line the edges with acetate. Place the first biscuit, which does not contain almonds, at the bottom. Cut the strawberries in half (the largest ones), after removing the stem, and arrange them around the pastry ring with the central part facing outward and the tip pointing up. Place them side by side, as close as possible, since the choux pastry biscuit is irregular.

Spread about half of the cream over the biscuit (to a thickness of about 1 cm), then place the remaining strawberries on top, whole, with the pointed end facing up. Cover with the remaining cream. Place the second biscuit on top (the one with almonds), pressing down gently. Refrigerate the cake for at least 4 hours (overnight for me).