No-bake eclair cake

Éclair cake is a deliciously creamy no-bake dessert made with layers of biscuits and homemade vanilla pastry cream, lightened with mascarpone. The filling is based on classic French crème pâtissière – the same kind of cream used in traditional éclairs. Instead of baking, layers of popular petit beurre biscuits form the “cake”. If you’d like to balance the sweetness, you can also use plain salted rectangular crackers. The cake is best prepared on the day it is served, although you can spread the work over two days by making the crème pâtissière the day before and chilling it overnight. Children especially love Éclair cake, but adults are more than happy to help themselves to a generous slice too ;).

If you don’t have the time or ingredients to make homemade pastry cream, you can use ready-made custard powder instead – for the amount of milk in this recipe, use 2 packets of custard powder, 40 g each, and sweeten to taste.

Ingredients for the biscuit layers:

• 250 g petit beurre biscuits

Ingredients for the vanilla cream:

• 600 ml milk
• seeds scraped from 1 vanilla pod
• 6 large egg yolks
• 100 g caster sugar
• 40 g plain flour
• 40 g potato starch
• 500 g mascarpone, chilled

Prepare the pastry cream. Place the milk and vanilla seeds in a large saucepan. Bring to the boil, then immediately remove from the heat.

Place the egg yolks and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk until very pale and fluffy. Add the plain flour and potato starch and continue mixing until you have a smooth paste. Add 100 ml of the hot milk to the egg mixture and mix until combined. Pour the tempered egg mixture into the remaining hot milk and stir well to combine. Return to the hob over a medium heat and bring to the boil, stirring frequently. Once boiling, cook for about 1 minute, stirring constantly, until the custard thickens. Remove from the heat. Cover the surface of the custard directly with cling film and leave to cool completely. Do not stir while cooling. Once cool, refrigerate, preferably overnight. The pastry cream can be kept in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Place the chilled mascarpone in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk briefly to loosen it. Add the chilled pastry cream in several batches, whisking after each addition until you have a smooth cream.

Ingredients for the chocolate topping:

• 80 ml double cream
• 40 g dark chocolate (approximately 50% cocoa)
• 60 g milk chocolate

Heat the double cream in a small saucepan. Remove from the heat, add both chopped chocolates and leave for 2 minutes. Stir until the chocolate has completely melted and you have a smooth glaze. Leave to cool slightly until it thickens.

To assemble:

Line a 24 × 24 cm baking tin with baking paper (you can also use a 20 × 30 cm tin, but the cake will be lower). Arrange a layer of biscuits over the base. Spread half of the vanilla cream over the biscuits and cover with another layer of biscuits. Spread over the remaining cream and finish with a final layer of biscuits. Refrigerate for 1–2 hours. Once chilled, pour over the thickening chocolate topping.

Éclair Cake is at its best 1–2 hours after assembling. This is what makes it different from many other no-bake cakes, which are usually best the following day. In my opinion, once the biscuits become very soft the next day, it isn’t quite the same – although the cake is still delicious, of course :).

Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from “Kwestia Smaku”,