Crème Brulee Cake: Full Tutorial

Crème brulee is my favorite dessert of all time, so it made sense for me to turn my favorite custard and caramelized sugar treat into cake form. I decided to make a crème brulee cake for my birthday this year, and in this tutorial I’ll show you how I made this showstopping cake from the perfect vanilla cake layers, to the light pasty cream filling, and the iconic burnt sugar icing that brings all the flavor together. I’m just going to say it, the best part of making this cake was using the kitchen blowtorch to caramelize the sugar!

Notes:
Crème Brulee Cake Instructions: I suggest starting this recipe over the course of two days or plan for a very long day in the kitchen.

Vanilla Cake
Ingredients:
This Makes Three 8” cake layers, or Four 6” Cake layers
1 ½ cups butter (3 sticks), softened
3 cups granulated sugar
6 eggs room temperature
4 cups + 2 TBS flour
3 ½ tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 ½ cup milk
3 TBS vanilla Extract

Instructions:
Preheat Oven to 350 and prepare two 8 inch cake pans.
Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together in medium bowl. Set aside.
Beat butter on medium speed for 3 minutes. Add sugar and beat another 3 minutes.
Add eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition.
Start adding flour mixture a cup at a time, and alternate with milk. Start and stop with flour mixture (I added one cup flour, half cup milk, one cup flour, half cup milk, and rest of flour)
Add vanilla extract and mix
Divide batter evenly between two pans.
Bake for 25-30 minutes until a knife/toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Cool in pan for 10 minutes before transferring to rack.
Let cool completely before frosting
*Cakes can be wrapped in saran wrap and a layer of foil and frozen for up to a month. Defrost on counter still in saran wrap for about 2 hours when you are ready to use.

After you have baked the cake layers, prepare the crème brulee filling as it needs to chill at least two hours (but can be made 24 hours ahead of time)

Crème Brulee Filling *Modified from Preppy Kitchen

Ingredients:

2 cups whole milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
6 eggs yolks
2/3 cup sugar
¼ cup of cornstarch
1 Tablespoon butter


In a medium saucepan over medium heat, bring milk and vanilla to a boil.
Immediately turn off the heat and let sit for 10-15 minutes (this infuses the flavor).
In a separate bowl, whisk yolks and sugar until light and fluffy. Next, add cornstarch and whisk until smooth (no lumps!).
Add in about a ¼ cup of the hot milk mixture to the yolk mixture (to temper the egg yolk mixture). Next, add in the rest of the hot milk mixture.
Strain mixture for lumps and return back to the saucepan.
Cook over medium heat, constantly stirring until boiling and starts to thicken.
Remove from heat and add in butter. Let sit for a few minutes before covering with plastic wrap and chilling for at least 2 hours. Remove from fridge 1 hour before using.
After preparing custard, start preparing the Burnt Sugar for the Icing.


Burnt Sugar Syrup (for Icing) *You could easily half this for enough, I had extra!*

Ingredients:

1 ½ cup white sugar
¾ cup boiling water

Instructions:
Allow 15-20 minutes to prepare this burnt sugar syrup.
In a heavy saucepan (not cast iron!), melt sugar over low heat until completely melted, stirring often. The mixture needs to e thick and medium brown color.
When there is a thick syrup without any lumps, remove from heat.
Slowly whisk in the boiling water, be careful as the mixture may spatter when adding the water.
Mix the burnt sugar and water until smooth, trying to get rid of any lumps. If some pieces remain, you can remove them manually with a spoon.
Set burnt sugar aside to cool completely before using it in the icing. The syrup should thicken to the consistency of honey.
After burnt sugar has been prepared and cooled, you can prepare the icing.

Burnt Sugar Icing
Ingredients:

7 cups (2 lb. bag) confectioners sugar
1 cup softened butter
Approximately ¼ to ½ cup burnt sugar syrup
3 tsp vanilla extract
Approximately ¼ cup heavy whipping cream (depending on the consistency you desire).
Instructions:
Cream butter on high until smooth, approximately 3 minutes.
Start mixing in about half of the powdered sugar into the butter mixture slowly.
Add in burnt sugar syrup and mix until smooth
Next, add in remaining powdered sugar and mix.
Add in vanilla extract and half of the heavy whipping cream.
Beat until smooth (approximately 3 minutes)
Check consistency and add in more whipping cream if needed. If frosting is too runny, add in more powdered sugar half cup at a time.
You are finally ready to assemble the cake!
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Music by Epidemic Sound