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Vanilla Custard Cake

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This Custard Cake consists of ridiculously fluffy vanilla sponge cake layered with custard buttercream and a homemade custard filling.

slice of vanilla cake with custard filling and custard buttercream

This is a magical 'proposal-inducing' custard cake it seems. I brought Chris a slice of it to try last week and the next morning - boom! An engagement ring.
Clearly, it was the cake.

I went through a few iterations of this vanilla custard cake and wasn't happy with it - so I broke it down and analyzed every step of the recipe until it was PERFECT. I switched to a reverse creaming method to make the sponge extra light and fluffy, and I changed the frosting recipe to make it even more custardy.

The cake uses custard (vanilla pastry cream, or creme patissier) in two ways, in the frosting to make a custard buttercream, and as a filling inside and on top of the cake. This is the same custard filling recipe I use in my Custard Donuts and it's always a winner!

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Ingredients

  • Milk - For best results, use full-fat milk. Milk is the foundation of the custard and if you don't use a full-fat milk you will not get that gorgeous, thick, creamy texture that makes custard custard. And you really can't have a custard cake with mediocre custard!
  • Butter - The quality of the butter is important in this recipe, try to use something with a high fat percentage. Also, make sure the butter is at room temperature before beginning.
  • Sugar - Superfine white sugar is best (caster sugar in the UK). Regular white sugar will also work fine if you can find superfine.
  • Eggs - You will need egg yolks for the custard and whole eggs for the vanilla sponge. Save your leftover egg whites for another recipe, like my Strawberry Angel Food Cake.
  • Vanilla - Of course, vanilla is an important ingredient as the cake, buttercream, and custard filling all revolve around it! Try to use a high-quality vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste, or if you like you can even use whole vanilla pods. The quality of the vanilla you use will really shine through in this recipe.
  • Corn Starch - The cornstarch helps to thicken the pastry cream.
  • Flour - This vanilla sponge works best with cake flour, but you can also use all-purpose flour if you don't have cake flour.
  • Vegetable Oil - This helps to keep the cake moist, you can also use any flavorless oil you like.
  • Powdered Sugar - This is optional to sweeten the custard buttercream, you can leave it out or add less of it if you prefer a less sweet frosting.

It's worth noting that as always it is crucial that your 'cold ingredients' (i.e. butter, milk, eggs) are brought to room temperature before starting this bake. There are a number of components that could curdle or go wrong easily, so make it easier on yourself and keep everything at the same temperature!

See the recipe card for the full recipe.

Make the Custard Filling

The first step for making this cake is to make the pastry cream - also known as creme patissier or custard. You can make the custard a day or two in advance if you want to break the recipe into easier steps.

We will make a double batch of pastry cream - half will be used in the custard buttercream and the other half will be filling and topping for the cake.

  1. Take two tablespoons of the sugar and put it into a bowl along with the egg yolks, flour, and cornflour - whisk to combine.
  2. Put the remaining sugar into a saucepan with the milk and vanilla, and slowly warm over medium-low heat.
Whisking egg yolks with flour, corn starch and sugar to make custard filling for cake.
Milk and vanilla bean paste in a saucepan, ready to make custard.
  1. When it begins to get warm, drizzle a small amount of warm milk into the egg yolk mixture and whisk, then add a little more, repeat until everything is together in the bowl, then pour the whole mixture back into the saucepan.

    It's important to do this slowly and gradually so you don't scramble the eggs.
Drizzling warm milk into egg yolk mixture to make vanilla pastry cream.
Pouring creme patissier mixture back into saucepan.
  1. Keep heating the mixture, whisking constantly until it begins to boil. Boil for one minute or until you see thick bubbles bursting on the surface. Remove from the heat. It should be thick enough that you can draw a line in it on the back of a spoon. If it isn't, keep boiling for a little longer until it reaches this stage.
Whisking vanilla pastry cream (custard) in a saucepan.
Testing if custard filling is ready by drawing a line in it on the back of a spoon.
  1. Pass the pastry cream through a sieve into a bowl to make sure there are no lumps.
  2. Whisk in the butter one small piece at a time, making sure it melts into the mixture completely before adding the next piece.
Whisking butter into pastry cream, one small chunk at a time.
Finished creme patissier/ pastry cream/ custard being whisked to show thick and glossy.
  1. Cover with plastic wrap (make sure the plastic wrap is touching the surface of the pastry cream to prevent skin forming) and refrigerate for at least two hours. I like to make this the day before and let it sit overnight, but it can be used after 2 hours.

Make the Vanilla Sponge Cake

This is my go-to Vanilla Cake recipe - I use it as a base for lots of other cakes and cupcakes.

  1. Preheat oven to 335°F / 170°C (or 150°C for a fan-assisted oven) and grease two 8-inch cake pans.
  2. Split the milk into two containers, one with ½ cup of milk (118g) and one with ¾ cup of milk (177g).
  3. Mix the ½ cup of milk with the vegetable oil and set aside. Mix the ¾ cup of milk with the eggs and vanilla. Whisk together lightly and set aside.
Process shot of making vanilla cupcakes - separating milk into two portions.
Mixing milk with other ingredients to make vanilla cupcakes.
  1. Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of your mixer and turn on low with your paddle attachment.
  2. Slowly add the butter, one small chunk at a time, letting it mix for a few seconds in between additions. Once it's all in it should look kind of like chunky breadcrumbs.
Sifting dry ingredients to make vanilla cupcakes for valentines day.
Adding butter one chunk at a time to dry ingredients to make vanilla cupcakes.
  1. Add the milk/oil mixture and slowly turn your mixer up to a medium speed, just so it doesn't splash. Beat for exactly two minutes.
Process shot of making vanilla cupcakes - mixture looks like chunky breadcrumbs.
Adding milk and oil to dry ingredients to make vanilla cupcakes.
  1. Scrape the sides of your bowl to make sure there are no lumps, then turn the mixer back on low.
  2. Add the milk/egg mixture slowly and mix on low until just combined.
Process shot of making vanilla cupcakes - showing cupcake batter.
Process shot of making vanilla cupcakes - showing cupcake batter.
  1. Divide the batter into the prepared cake pans and bake for 30-40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
  2. Let cool in the pan for at least 30 minutes before removing and putting on a wire rack to cool.

Tip: I always recommend weighing your ingredients with a kitchen scale, rather than using measuring cups. It's very difficult to measure accurately with cups and this can mess up your bakes.

Make the Custard Buttercream

This Custard buttercream, or 'German Buttercream' is silky smooth and full of rich, creamy, vanilla flavor.

  1. Before you start, move roughly ⅓ of the pastry cream into a separate bowl and place it back in the fridge. Put the remaining ⅔ of the pastry cream in a covered bowl on the counter to come to room temperature. At the same time, remove your butter from the fridge so it can also come to room temperature.
  2. Once it's at room temperature, you can start making the frosting. Place all the butter in your stand mixer and beat with a whisk attachment on high speed until pale and fluffy (about 3-5 minutes)
  3. Add the pastry cream one tablespoon at a time until it is all added, whipping in between additions.
  4. Add the vanilla and salt and mix in.
  5. At this stage, taste-test the buttercream to see how much sweetness you would like to add. Add the powdered sugar a little at a time, whipping after every addition, until the desired sweetness is reached.
  6. The custard buttercream should be lovely and silky smooth - if it curdles it's usually just a sign that the ingredients were not the same temperature - to fix it just take the bowl and very gently heat the bottom of it over a bain marie and whisk until it comes together again (it shouldn't take long), then return to the stand mixer and it should be beautifully silky again!

Assemble the Custard Cake

  1. Once completely cooled, cut each of the cakes in half so you should have four thin cake layers. I use this cake leveler, but you can also use a serrated knife.
  2. Start building your layers, first with cake, then a layer of custard buttercream, smoothing it out as you go. Add your second layer of cake on top and put on a slightly thinner layer of custard buttercream.
  3. On top of the thinner layer of custard buttercream, pipe a border of buttercream around the outside of the middle layer, and fill the middle with half of the cold custard you reserved in the fridge. Add the next layer of cake on top
  4. Add another generous layer of buttercream, followed by your final cake layer. Decorate the cake however you like - smooth, naked, semi-naked or messy. Pipe some rosettes around the top of the cake and then pour the remaining custard on top of the cake, in the middle of the rosettes.

What is the Reverse Creaming Method?

The reverse creaming method basically takes everything you know about mixing cake ingredients together and flips it on its head! The result is a beautifully tender crumb that just succumbs to your fork as you go to take a bite. I knew I needed this cake to be soft as clouds so that you could really appreciate the texture of the custard inside it.

Reverse creaming involves mixing your dry ingredients first, then slowly adding the butter into them to coat the flour in butter - this stops the gluten from forming, making the end result beautifully soft.

Then you add the wet ingredients and beat the mixture to develop a little gluten - just enough so the cake slices will have some structure! It's a completely different approach to mixing ingredients but it gives an incredible result!

Reader Review:

I made this cake for my birthday last month and I have to say it’s the best cake that I’ve ever made! I’ve used the reverse creaming method a lot but there’s something about this recipe that is just perfect. The cake was so soft and moist. The German buttercream (my first time making it) was absolutely delicious and my new favorite buttercream! Add to that the pastry cream? It’s the perfect cake! Thank you so much for this recipe!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Brianna M

What makes this Custard Cake Custardy?

There are three main components to this custard cake: the vanilla sponge, the creme patissiere filling, and the custard buttercream.

Vanilla Cake - Firstly, the sponge is flavored with vanilla - which many people mistake as being a 'plain' flavor - but it's not! Vanilla is actually an exotic and complicated flavor profile and is the foundation for a really good custard.

Creme Patissiere - Creme patissiere or pastry cream is basically custard. But it's made properly, not out of the custard powder you can buy in a can. It is the foundation for many French pastries and can be used to fill tarts, pastries, and desserts. I also use it in my Strawberry Custard Tarts, and those are ALWAYS a huge hit!

Custard Buttercream - Custard Buttercream or German Buttercream is mostly comprised of whipped butter and custard. It's a traditional frosting for many German goodies and makes for a frosting which is sweet, creamy, and silky. I highly recommend it for any custard lovers.

Equipment

Storage

The custard needs to be stored in the fridge as it contains dairy, so you'll want to keep your custard cake refrigerated in an airtight container. It will be good like this for up to 4 days.

More Custard Desserts

If you are a custard lover, you may enjoy some of these custard recipes!

Recipe

slice of vanilla cake with custard filling.

Vanilla Custard Cake

Soft and fluffy vanilla cake sandwiched with custard buttercream and creme patissier
Recipe Author: Jules Grasekamp
Print Recipe
Servings 16 slices
Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes

Equipment

Ingredients
 

For the Vanilla Pastry Cream

  • 3 cups Whole Milk 720ml
  • 1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract
  • 7 Egg Yolks
  • ¾ cup White Sugar 150g
  • 6 tablespoon Cornstarch
  • 1 ½ sticks Unsalted Butter 170g

For the Vanilla Cake

  • 1.25 cup Whole Milk 300ml
  • ⅓ cup Vegetable Oil 80ml
  • 3 Large Eggs
  • 2 ¾ cups Cake Flour 312g
  • 1 ¾ cups White Sugar 350g
  • 1 ½ teaspoon Baking Powder
  • ½ teaspoon Salt
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
  • 2 sticks Butter 227g

For the Custard Buttercream

  • Vanilla Pastry Cream (⅔ of the pastry cream prepared for the filling)
  • 4 sticks Unsalted Butter 452g
  • ⅓ cup Powdered Sugar 38g
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
  • ¼ teaspoon Salt

Instructions
 

Make the Pastry Cream (Custard)

  • Make the pastry cream 2 - 24 hours ahead of time as it needs time to cool and thicken. Use the steps below or see my Vanilla Pastry Cream post for more detailed instructions and process pictures.
  • Put the egg yolks in a bowl with the sugar and cornstarch- whisk to combine until pale and thick.
    7 Egg Yolks, ¾ cup White Sugar, 6 tablespoon Cornstarch
  • Put the milk and vanilla in a saucepan over medium heat until it is scalding hot. This means you can see steam rising from it and tiny bubbles appearing on the surface. Don't let it boil.
    3 cups Whole Milk, 1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract
  • Drizzle a small amount of hot milk into the egg yolk mixture and whisk, then add a little more, and repeat until everything is together in the bowl, It's important to do this slowly and gradually so you don't scramble the eggs
    Pour the whole mixture back into the saucepan.
  • Return to the heat, whisking constantly until it begins to boil.
    Boil for 1-2 minutes or until you see thick bubbles bursting on the surface. It should be thick enough that you can draw a line in it on the back of a spoon - if it isn't, keep boiling until you reach that stage. Remove from the heat.
  • If done gradually, there shouldn't be any lumps in the custard, but if there are you can pass it through a fine mesh sieve to remove them.
  • Whisk in the butter one small piece at a time, making sure it melts into the mixture completely before adding the next piece
    1 ½ sticks Unsalted Butter
  • Cover with plastic wrap (make sure the plastic wrap is touching the surface of the pastry cream to prevent a skin forming) and refrigerate for at least two hours. I like to make this the day before and let it sit overnight, but it can be used after 2 hours.

Make the Vanilla Cake

  • Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C (160°C for fan-assisted) and grease two 8-inch cake pans. Ensure the butter, eggs, and milk are at room temperature before beginning.
  • Split the milk into two containers, one with ½ cup of milk (118g) and one with ¾ cup of milk (177g).
    1.25 cup Whole Milk
  • Mix the ½ cup of milk with the vegetable oil and set aside.
    ⅓ cup Vegetable Oil
  • Mix the remaining milk with the eggs and vanilla. Whisk together lightly and set aside.
    3 Large Eggs, 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
  • Place the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into the bowl of your mixer and turn on low with your paddle attachment
    2 ¾ cups Cake Flour, 1 ¾ cups White Sugar, 1 ½ teaspoon Baking Powder, ½ teaspoon Salt
  • Slowly add the butter, one small chunk at a time. Once it's all in it should look kind of like chunky breadcrumbs
    2 sticks Butter
  • Add the milk/oil mixture and slowly turn your mixer up to a medium speed. Beat for exactly two minutes
  • Scrape the sides of your bowl to make sure there are no lumps, then turn the mixer back on low.
  • Add the milk/egg mixture slowly and mix on low until just combined.
  • Divide into cake pans and bake for 30-40 minutes - check to see if a toothpick comes out clean before removing from the oven.
    Let the cakes cool in the pan for at least 30 minutes before removing them.

Make the Custard Buttercream

  • About an hour before you start, move roughly ⅓ of the pastry cream into a separate bowl, cover with plastic wrap and place it back in the fridge.
    Put the remaining ⅔ of the pastry cream in a covered bowl on the counter to come to room temperature.
    At the same time, remove your butter from the fridge so it can also come to room temperature.
  • Once it's at room temperature, you can start making the frosting. Place all the butter in your stand mixer and beat with a whisk attachment on high speed until pale and fluffy (about 3-5 minutes)
    4 sticks Unsalted Butter
  • Add the room temperature pastry cream one tablespoon at a time until it is all added, whipping in between additions.
    Vanilla Pastry Cream
  • Add the vanilla and salt and mix in.
    1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract, ¼ teaspoon Salt
  • At this stage, taste-test the buttercream to see how much sweetness you would like to add. Add the powdered sugar a little at a time, whipping after every addition, until the desired sweetness is reached.
    ⅓ cup Powdered Sugar
  • The custard buttercream should be lovely and silky smooth - if it curdles it's usually just a sign that the ingredients were not the same temperature (see notes for how to fix it).

Assemble the Cake

  • Once completely cooled, cut each of the cakes in half so you should have four thin cake layers. I use this cake leveler, but you can also use a serrated knife
  • Start building your layers, first with cake, then a layer of custard buttercream, smoothing it out as you go. Add your second layer of cake on top and put on a slightly thinner layer of custard buttercream.
  • On top of the thinner layer of custard buttercream, pipe a border of buttercream around the outside of the middle layer, and fill the middle with half of the cold custard you reserved in the fridge. Add the next layer of cake on top
  • Add another generous layer of buttercream, followed by your final cake layer. Decorate the cake however you like - smooth, naked, semi-naked or messy.
    Pipe some rosettes around the top of the cake and then pour the remaining custard on top of the cake, in the middle of the rosettes.

Notes

Pastry Cream
The vanilla pastry cream will be used for both the custard buttercream and as a filling. Make one batch of it and then divide it as per the instructions above. 
It's best to make the pastry cream in advance so it has time to cool for at least 2 hours, but you can also make it the day before. 
*If your buttercream curdles - take the bowl and very gently heat the bottom of it over a bain marie and whisk until it comes together again (it shouldn't take long), then return to the stand mixer and it should be beautifully silky again!
Tried this recipe?Would you do me a huge favor and leave a rating and review?

It really helps and I love hearing all your feedback!

Nutrition

Calories: 733kcalCarbohydrates: 55gProtein: 7gFat: 55gSaturated Fat: 37gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2gMonounsaturated Fat: 12gTrans Fat: 2gCholesterol: 226mgSodium: 274mgPotassium: 196mgFiber: 1gSugar: 35gVitamin A: 1448IUVitamin C: 0.5mgCalcium: 85mgIron: 2mg

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Reader Interactions

Comments

    4.42 from 63 votes (45 ratings without comment)

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    Recipe Rating




  1. Kris

    5 stars
    This gorgeous cake was so fun to make! I made it for my birthday tomorrow, and cannot wait to share it with my family. I love custard, and I sampled a little bit of the crème patisserie with the buttercream to get an idea of what the filling will taste like and it is absolutely a winning combo! I can’t believe some of the comments, it’s a beautiful cake and so impressive.

    Reply

    • Jules Grasekamp

      Hi Kris,

      Yay I'm so glad you loved the custard cake and had fun making it 🙂
      I hope your family loved it too.
      thank you so much for trying my recipe and for letting me know you enjoyed it!

      Jules

      Reply

  2. Holly

    2 stars
    Positives: the custard recipe was good and I appreciated the section on how to bring curdled buttercream back together.

    Negatives: this cake tasted like biting into a stick of sweet butter. It does use 7.5 sticks of butter, so that is understandable, but unfortunately, I would not make it again.

    Reply

  3. Shiv

    Thinking of making this cake for Christmas, since custard-on-custard sounds like a sure win. Want to clarify first, since previous comments have me doubting myself: The pastry cream made at the start of this recipe provides the total amount needed for both custard filling and buttercream, right? That is, I don't also need to make a separate batch of the linked recipe?

    Reply

    • Jules Grasekamp

      Hi Shiv,

      Sorry for the confusion!
      Yes you make one batch of pastry cream at the start and that will be divided up for both the filling and the buttercream.
      The link provided is just for a more detailed post on the process of making the pastry cream if anyone would like some more guidance, but this recipe card has everything you need to make the custard cake.

      I hope that clears it up, and I hope you love the cake!

      Jules

      Reply

  4. AMM

    3 stars
    My cakes rose a lot early in the baking process but ended very sunken in the middle, leaving the finished cake wonky.. 1.5 Tablespoons is SO MUCH baking soda- could this be why?
    I would also recommend:
    -Take out the custard for the frosting from the fridge before you take out the butter. It's denser and takes longer to come to room temp. I took butter and creme out 1 hour before mixing. When I mixed mine, it came out not-pretty.
    -Whip the frosting another 3 minutes after incorporating creme.
    -Refrigerate the cakes before cutting and frosting.

    I spent nearly all day on the cake and it's ugly as can be. 🙁

    Reply

    • Shiv

      Thinking of making this cake for Christmas, since custard-on-custard sounds like a sure win. Want to clarify first, since previous comments have me doubting myself: The pastry cream made at the start of this recipe provides the total amount needed for both custard filling and buttercream, right? That is, I don't also need to make a separate batch of the linked recipe?

      Reply

      • Jules Grasekamp

        Hi Shiv,

        Sorry for the confusion!
        Yes you make one batch of pastry cream at the start and that will be divided up for both the filling and the buttercream.
        The link provided is just for a more detailed post on the process of making the pastry cream if anyone would like some more guidance, but this recipe card has everything you need to make the custard cake.

        I hope that clears it up, and I hope you love the cake!

        Jules

  5. Tianda

    I would love to make this ahead of time and freeze. Do you think the cake would freeze okay so that I can simply defrost and ice?

    Reply

  6. Tabby

    5 stars
    Hi. The cake is amazing. However I have to remake it because I didn’t know what size of pan to use UNTIL I read the comments. I highly recommend you add that to your recipe as it overflowed all over my oven. Yes, my bad, but it really would be nice to read size of pans before I baked. Cake IS delicious!

    Reply

  7. Kaylee

    1 star
    I really don't understand how other people had success with this cake. I have been baking for many years and have never had anything as remotely bad as this recipe. I don’t understand the need for doubling the custard recipe because there was so much excess custard and buttercream. The icing was absolutely horrible in my opinion and ruined the entire cake. This took up half of my day and I was making it for a birthday and ended up having to run to the store to buy cookies because there was absolutely no way I could serve this cake. I would not recommend wasting your time and all that precious butter. If you somehow still feel inclined to make this recipe after my review, do yourself a favour and DO NOT double the custard recipe! And DO NOT put any butter in the custard! The custard was actually very nice before adding in all that butter!

    Reply

    • Jules

      Hi Kaylee,
      I'm really sorry to hear you had trouble with this recipe. The custard recipe is doubled so you can use one batch to make the custard buttercream, and the other batch to go in the middle and on top of the cake. You can absolutely feel free to skip this step if you don't want the extra custard in there! It is very common to add butter to the base crème pâtissière recipe here in Europe - this enriches the flavor and also makes it more stable for piping into things like eclairs and donuts. I'm not sure why this would have made your custard taste bad, as in my experience, butter makes everything better! Did you use salted butter perhaps?

      European buttercreams like German Buttercream and Italian Meringue Buttercream are definitely a very different flavor profile to what a lot of people are used to - they are a lot less sweet and more buttery. It can be an acquired taste but I think a lot of people, once they start using them, will never go back to classic American buttercream - myself included! I"m very sorry to hear you didn't like it, especially as this is one of the most popular recipes on this blog. I hope your next bake will turn out great and that you enjoyed the birthday celebrations anyway. Happy baking! 🙂

      Reply

      • Sommer

        3 stars
        I'm having an issue with the buttercream as well. It's either smooth and drippy all over or curdled. I can't get a good consistency to pipe it. It just runs everywhere or if I chill it, curdles. I'm thinking of just making my standard buttercream and maybe adding just a bit of what I have in it but I'm very sad.

      • Jules Grasekamp

        Hi Sommer,

        Sorry to hear you're having buttercream problems! It sounds like the issue is with temperature. I have a buttercream troubleshooting section on my Russian Buttercream post which talks about both issues you're describing here and how to fix them. The same principles apply for all kinds of buttercream so it will work for this too. I hope that helps! You can find the post here - https://bonnibakery.com/russian-buttercream/

        Jules

  8. Diana

    Where is the recipe for the custard cream?

    Reply

  9. Greg Davis

    5 stars
    Made this for a dinner party and it was a great success. The instructions for the custard were very helpful and I made the custard a second time to fill eclairs. Thanks so much!

    Reply

  10. Brianna M

    5 stars
    I made this cake for my birthday last month and I have to say it’s the best cake that I’ve ever made! I’ve used the reverse creaming method a lot but there’s something about this recipe that is just perfect. The cake was so soft and moist. The German buttercream (my first time making it) was absolutely delicious and my new favorite buttercream! Add to that the pastry cream? It’s the perfect cake! Thank you so much for this recipe!

    Reply