Napoleon cake

Deliciously rich and decadent, this cream-filled pastry cake is simply divine – and it gets even better with age. Serve at room temperature with lashings of whipped cream.

Ingredients

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250g (9oz) soft butter
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 egg
125ml (4 fl oz) cold water
1/8 cup lemon juice
½ teaspoon salt

Cream filling

250g (9oz) soft butter
395g tin sweetened condensed milk

1. Place butter and flour in food processor and mix until they resemble breadcrumbs.
2. Add egg, water, lemon juice and salt and blend until just mixed.
3. Remove from food processor and gently knead into a ball.
4. Divide the dough into five balls and leave in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
5. Preheat oven to 220deg C (430deg F).
6. Lightly dust work surface with flour. Take one ball at a time and roll out to form a 25cm (10 inch) circle, about 3mm thick.
7. Place circles on baking tray, prick with a fork and bake for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned. Let cool.
8. Make cream filling: mix butter and condensed milk with electric beater to form a cream.
9. Crumble one of the pastry circles and set aside.
10. Layer pastry circles with cream in between. Smear cream on sides and top as well. Sprinkle pastry crumbs on top and sides to cover cream.
11. Refrigerate overnight. You can eat the next day – but this cake tastes its absolute best on day 3 (if you can wait that long) when the layers have soaked up the cream and the flavour is less buttery.