This is my favorite cake recipe. It only requires four ingredients (plus flavoring of your choice) and it is perfect for layer cakes !
I’ve shared this cake recipe before, with this Easter cake, or this nectarine layer cake, and I thought it was time it had its own post.
You see, I’ve used this cake recipe for four years now. It’s my go-to whenever I have to make a layer cake for a birthday or another special occasion (see this other Easter cake).
Tarte à la Crème ("Pastry Cream Tart") is just that : a pie crust filled with delicious pastry cream. This French tart is very easy to make (and even easier to eat !).
I told you you'd need to know how to make pastry cream !
Just like tarte au sucre, tarte à la crème is one of those desserts that takes me right back to my childhood. Tarte à la crème literally translates to pastry cream tart, and it is just that : a pie crust filled with pastry cream.
Preheat your oven, start baking the pie dough (I usually use pâte brisée, which is your regular pie crust dough, but I've also made it with pâte feuilletée (puff pastry) or pâte sablée (shortbread crust). Brisée is my favorite !). While the pie crust is starting to bake, make your pastry cream. Here is my how-to post on making pastry cream. Once the pastry cream has thickened, don't let it cool ! Take the pie crust out of the oven, pour the cream into it, spread evenly, and back to the oven it goes for about thirty minutes, until the dough is baked.
You can head to my Instagram story highlights to see how to make the tart :)
The hardest part of this recipe is waiting for the pastry cream tart to cool down completely so you can eat it. ;)
Here's how to make Tarte à la Crème (or pastry cream tart) :
TARTE À LA CRÈME (Pastry Cream Tart)
by A Cup Of Sprinkles
Tarte à la Crème ("Pastry Cream Tart") is just that : a pie crust filled with delicious pastry cream. This French tart is very easy to make (and even easier to eat !).
Cook time : 1 tart
Ingredients : 1 pie/tart dough 160g of sugar 1L of milk 2 tsp of vanilla extract 100g of flour 2 eggs 20g of butter, melted
Instructions :
Preaheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Roll out the dough and place it in a tart/pie pan. Using a fork, gently poke the bottom of the dough. Start baking.
While the pie dough starts baking, make the pastry cream : In a saucepan, whisk together the milk, sugar and vanilla extract.
In a bowl, mix together the flour, eggs, and melted butter.
Set the saucepan on low heat until the sugar is dissolved, then bring the milk to a boil.
Once the milk is boiling, remove from the heat. Add 2 tablespoons of milk to flour/egg and stir until combined. Then, while stirring, slowly pour about half the milk to the flour/eggs.
Transfer the milk/flour/egg back to the milk remaining in the saucepan (while stirring), and set it on low heat, stirring constantly, until the pastry cream has thickened.
Once the pastry cream has thickened, take the pie crust out of the oven. Fill the crust with pastry cream and spread evenly. Make sure not to overfill the crust !
Bake for another 30 minutes, until the pie crust has a golden color.
Let cool completely before eating.
Let me know in the comments if you make tarte à la crème/pastry cream tart ! You can also share a picture on Instagram by tagging @acupofsprinkles and using the hashtag #acupofsprinkles !
Want to know how to make pastry cream ? Look no further ! This is my favorite recipe (and way) to make pastry cream.
I'm French. I thought I'd remind you of this little detail about me, so that you can trust me when I say that I've eaten my fair share of pastry cream in my quarter century on this Earth, and that this pastry cream recipe I'm sharing with you is the best I've ever used.
This recipe is one I got from my mom's old recipe notebook, and it has never failed me. I've tried other pastry cream recipes but I always end up disappointed. Now, obviously, just like there is no one right way of making chocolate chip cookies or vanilla cupcakes, there are probably a lot of different ways of making pastry cream.
This one is my favorite.
This recipe makes the best vanilla cupcakes ever : they stay soft & moist for days ! They'll be the perfect base for any cupcake creations you come up with !
I've shared my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, now it's time to share my favorite vanilla cupcake recipe !
I've tried a lot of vanilla cupcake recipes in the past, but I'd never be happy with them : the cupcakes wouldn't taste the way I wanted them to, or they'd dry out in a day. Then I found this recipe from LilieBakery ; I tested the recipe once, but the order in which I was supposed to add the ingredients didn't really work. The cupcakes still ended up tasting amazing, so I knew I had to try the recipe again, and this time I added the softened butter at the end, instead of mixing it with the eggs and sugar, as that's what I'd had trouble with the first time. Success ! I had finally found the perfect vanilla cupcakes recipe !
This recipe is the one I used for these raspberry mascarpone cupcakes. You might also recognize the cupcakes in these pictures as the ones from this 2 ingredients chocolate buttercream recipe post. This recipe for vanilla cupcakes also pairs up wonderfully with mascarpone whipped cream frosting !
These vanilla cupcakes stay soft and moist for days ! I actually left one, uncovered, on the kitchen counter to see how long it'd stay soft and delicious, and four days later it hadn't dried out !
Here's how to make the best vanilla cupcakes ever :
VANILLA CUPCAKES
by A Cup Of Sprinkles
Adapted from LilieBakery
This recipe makes the best vanilla cupcakes ever : they stay soft & moist for days ! They'll be the perfect base for any cupcake creations you come up with !
Cook time : 12 cupcakes
Ingredients : 100g of flour 2 tsp of baking powder 1 pinch of salt 2 eggs 100g of sugar 1 tsp of vanilla extract 100g of softened butter
Instructions :
Preheat the oven.
In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
Beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla together.
Mix in the dry ingredients. Add in the softened butter and, using a hand mixer, beat on medium speed until well combined.
Line the cupcake pan with baking cases, and fill them with about 1 1/2 tablespoon of batter (about halfway).
Bake for about 20 to 30 minutes, until the cupcakes are a golden color, and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool before frosting.
Let me know in the comments if you make these vanilla cupcakes ! You can also share a picture on Instagram by tagging @acupofsprinkles and using the hashtag #acupofsprinkles !
See other cupcake recipes.
See other "best ever" recipes.
This is my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. I've used it for years and it makes the best chocolate chip cookies ever.
I realise there are thousands of chocolate chip cookie recipes on the Internet. There are also probably hundreds of recipes out there that claim to make the best chocolate chip cookies ever, so adding mine shouldn't have been a priority for me. Yet here we are, with me talking about the best ever chocolate chip cookies. See, the recipe I'm sharing today is one I've been using for years now. When I say years, I think it's been over eight years now. I can't remember where I found it, and I wouldn't even be able to find it again, as it's changed so much over the years.
