Cakes can be filled with rich, creamy custard in between soft, spongey cake layers.
You can make a variety of custard flavors for filling cakes with including vanilla, caramel, coffee, chocolate, banana, or lemon.
Vanilla Custard
Vanilla pastry cream has a lovely vanilla aroma, and is thick, creamy custard filling for cakes.
Milk is heated in a saucepan over medium heat with vanilla paste or a vanilla pod (sliced in half and seeds placed into the saucepan).
In a separate bowl, egg yolks and granulated sugar are whisked together with cornstarch.
Just before the milk begins to boil, slowly add the hot milk to the egg mixture to temper the eggs.
Whisk milk vigorously so the eggs do not cook!!
After the milk has been completely mixed into the eggs, place the entire mixture back into the saucepan and heat on medium heat.
Whisk vanilla pastry cream as it begins to thicken.
Remove it from the heat source and let it cool. Place it in the fridge to chill for a couple of hours prior to using it in between your cake layers.
Coffee Custard
Coffee pastry cream is a delicious espresso flavored custard filling that you can use in between chocolate cake, vanilla cake, or mocha cake.
Half and half is heated in a saucepan with espresso powder to infuse the coffee flavor.
In a separate bowl, egg yolks, sugar, salt and cornstarch are whisked together.
Temper the eggs by added the hot half and half to the eggs slowly, and whisking vigorously.
Once all of the half and half is added to the eggs, place the entire mixture back in the saucepan and heat on medium heat.
Thicken the mixture until it becomes custard consistency. You’ll feel the resistance when the cornstarch becomes activated.
After the custard has thickened, it is removed from the heat source. Cubes of butter and vanilla bean paste are whisked in to finish off the coffee pastry cream cake filling.
Chill the pastry cream, and then it’ll be ready for you to assemble your cake.
Chocolate Custard
Chocolate pastry cream is a rich, chocolate custard filling for cakes. You can use chocolate pastry cream in between layers of chocolate cake or vanilla cake.
Chocolate pastry cream is made heating milk with vanilla paste in a saucepan on low heat.
In a separate bowl, egg yolks are whisked together with sugar and cornstarch.
Temper the eggs by pouring the hot milk into the eggs slowly, and whisking vigorously. You do not want to cook the eggs!
Once all of the milk has been added to the eggs, place the entire mixture back in the saucepan, and heat on low heat to thicken the custard.
After the custard has thickened, add chopped dark chocolate to the custard.
Whisk until the chocolate completely melts into the pastry cream. Let the custard cool, and then chill in the fridge until you’re ready to assemble your cake.
Lemon Custard
Lemon pastry cream is a thick, citrusy, creamy cake filling you can use with lemon cake or vanilla cake.
Lemon pastry cream is made by heating milk and lemon peel in a medium saucepan until just before it begins to boil.
The milk is removed from the heat source, and let to sit and infuse the lemon flavor into the milk.
An egg is whisked together with a couple of egg yolks and sugar, along with cornstarch and salt.
Lemon peel is removed from the warm milk, and then the eggs are tempered with the lemon infused milk.
After the milk has been added to the eggs, the entire mixture is placed back in the saucepan and heated on medium heat.
Lemon pastry cream will thicken, and then then it can be removed from the heat source. Add a couple of cubes of butter, and whisk in until they have completely melted.
Chill lemon pastry cream in the fridge until you’re ready to assemble your cake.
Caramel Custard
Caramel pastry cream is a sweet, creamy cake filling you use for vanilla cake, chocolate cake, or pumpkin cake.
Caramel is made by cooking sugar in a saucepan until it turns a golden amber color.
Caramel sauce is then infused into pastry cream to create this luscious custard filling for cakes.
Banana Custard
Banana pastry cream can be used to make banana cream cake, or you can use it in between layers of vanilla cake.
Milk is heated in a saucepan over medium heat until just before it begins to boil. Granulated sugar is added to the saucepan and set to low heat.
In another bowl, granulated sugar is whisked together with cornstarch and egg yolks.
Temper the eggs by slowly adding the hot milk to the egg yolk mixture and whisk vigorously.
Once all of the milk has been added to the eggs, it’s placed back into the saucepan and heated until the custard begins to thicken.
Banana cream is removed from the heat source, and then cubes of butter are melted into the custard.
Vanilla extract and mashed banana are whisked into the banana pastry cream and then it is set to cool.
Chill banana pastry cream in the fridge until you’re ready to assemble you cake.
