Delight your palate[#8]: Vanilla Cake with a twist

Everything was finished in less then 2 hours(with the cake assembling and stuff)

Ingredients

1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed

I cut it in half and sprinkled it with caster sugar and cinnamon. It went in the oven for about 15 min

Vanilla custard

500ml milk

~50g cornflower

4 eggs[I used 2 whole eggs and 5 whites that I had lying around]

150g suggar*

1 vanilla pod(or vanilla extract*)

nutmeg*

I put the eggs, sugar and cornflower in a double broiler and mixed it with a hand-held mixer. I incorporated the milk and put them on cooker. I let it heat and sometimes stirred it with the mixer. I let it thickens until it coats the back of a metal spoon.

I let everything cool and then assembled the cake.

Choux Pastry[recipe from BBC because I can't find my mum's recipe]
130g plain flour

100g unsalted butter, cubed

300ml/ oz water

3 eggs

pinch of salt

For the choux pastry, sift the flour into a bowl. Place the butter and water into a saucepan and heat until the butter has melted.

Bring up to the boil, then remove from the heat and add all the flour in at once. Beat with a wooden spoon until the dough leaves the sides of the pan in a ball. Return to the heat and stir continuously for 2 minutes until the dough glistens. Tip out into a bowl and allow to cool a little.

Add the vanilla extract to the beaten eggs and beat into the dough a little at a time, reserving a tiny amount of the beaten egg for brushing later. The mixture should be very shiny and just fall from the spoon.

Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7.

Line a baking sheet with non-stick baking paper. Scoop the dough into a piping bag and pipe a 15cm/6-inch circle on to the baking paper.(we didn't went to that hassle and used a teaspoon)

Turn the heat down to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and continue cooking for a further 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack. Immediately cut in half horizontally to release all the steam. If the inside is still soft and doughy, return to the oven for a few more minutes to dry out. Leave in two halves to cool thoroughly.

Chocolate filling

250g butter

3 egg yolks(the whites went into the vanilla custard)

100-150g sugar*

3-4 tablespoons cocoa*

rum extract*

a pinch of chilli*

Mix the room temperature butter with the sugar until fluffy. Add the egg yolks and then the cocoa and rum.

Fill the choux with it.

*this is mostly after taste