4-Ingredient Paper Thin Napoleon Cake Recipe: Easy & Moist
This easy and soft, paper thin napoleon cake recipe consists of ONLY 4 Ingredients. A decadent dessert that is so tender, you'll go for seconds.
Ingredients
- 2 lbs Puff Pastry sheets (Pepperidge Farm brand) thawed according to package instructions.
- 8 oz Philadelphia Cream Cheese (softened)
- 10 oz Condensed Milk (preferably La Lechera)
- 16 oz Extra Creamy Cool Whip
Instructions
How to make multi layered Napoleon Cake:
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Preheat oven to 400F. Bake 4 sheets of puff pastry according to package instructions. (DO NOT roll out the dough with a rolling pin or poke the sheets with a fork) and allow to completely cool.
How to make Pastry Cream:
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While the puff pastry sheets are baking and cooling, prepare your cream. Into a bowl of a standing mixer, add 8oz of cream cheese and10oz condensed milk and mix together until there are no lumps of cheese left. Add 16oz thawed or frozen cool whip and mix on low speed until everything is incorporated, then whip on high speed until the cream is thick in texture and holds shape.
How to assemble Multi layered Napoleon cake:
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Place baked puff pastry sheet in between 2 cutting boards and press down firmly to flatten it out. (I like to do this in a large baking sheet to catch all the falling crumbs)
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Once you have pressed the sheets, you will notice all the buttery layers and air pockets inside. Shake off the crumbs from the top and use the air pockets as a guide to peel off as many thin puff pastry layers as you can. (see pics) The layers won't be perfect, some will tear and that's normal, (This is probably the hardest part or most annoying of the whole recipe)
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Reassemble the sheet cake back together alternating it with the cream. Use the bottom of the sheet cake as the base, and spread a thin layer of cream, follow with peeled layers attaching then with cream as needed.
Repeat this until you have used up all the puff pastry sheets.The layers DO NOT have to be perfect, some will tear (like a face mask) and that is okay. Assemble it like a sweet puzzle alternating paper thin cake, cream, cake, cream, cake... etc. The more layers you get, the better your cake will be.
The key here is to alternate many paper thin layers of puff pastry and thin layers of cream for best results.
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5.When you are done with all the layers, top off the top and sides of the cake with all those golden brown crumbs. Don't worry about any imperfections, crumbs usually cover it all up. I don’t claim to be a professional cake decorator, so I’m sure you can make it much prettier than mine, but non-the-less, this cake is a delicious dessert even with just golden crumbs as decor.