If you love desserts like Cream Puffs and Eclairs, then you’ll love today’s Cream Puff Cake recipe. It is like one giant cream puff in cake form, and it’s been a personal favorite since I was a child.
This Cream Puff Cake is a dreamy layered dessert with a light choux pastry crust, creamy pudding filling, and fluffy whipped topping. Inspired by classic cream puffs, this easy dessert is a crowd-favorite and one we regularly get recipe requests for. We especially love it in the warm months when cold desserts are especially appreciated.
If you love easy layered desserts like this, be sure to try our Chocolate Lasagna and Pistachio Shortbread Dessert.
Why we think you’ll love it:
- Just like a cream puff. If you love the flavors of a cream puff, you’ll LOVE this easy dessert! It tastes like a giant cream puff in cake form!
- An easy way to feed a crowd. It makes a 9×13 without all of the work. It is perfect for holidays and gatherings. Plus, it can be made ahead and chilled!
- Stunning. With beautiful layers and a chocolate drizzle, it’s an eye catching treat!
Cream Puff Cake Ingredients
- Unsalted butter (½ cup): Adds richness and flavor to the pastry crust.
- Water (1 cup): Helps create the pâte à choux style dough.
- All-purpose flour (1 cup): Forms the structure of the crust.
- Eggs (4): Gives the crust its light, airy texture.
- Cream cheese (8 ounces, softened): Adds tangy richness to the filling.
- Instant pudding mix (2 boxes, 3.4-ounce each): Creates the creamy filling.
- Milk (3 cups) – blends with the pudding to make it smooth and thick.
- Whipped topping or whipped cream (8 ounces or 2 cups): Adds a light, fluffy topping. See our homemade whipped cream recipe.
- Chocolate syrup or white chocolate curls: Adds sweetness and decoration.
How to Make Cream Puff Cake
PREP. Prepare a 9×13 ceramic or glass baking dish by spraying it with cooking spray. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
CRUST. Boil the margarine and water in a medium saucepan.
Add flour and mix well. Remove from heat and add eggs – ONE AT A TIME (this is important).
Mix well and spread the dough into a greased 9×13 dish.
Bake the crust at 400° for 30 minutes. The crust will puff up the sides, which is what you want. Let cool.
FILLING. In a large bowl, mix pudding, milk, and cream cheese. Beat until lumps disappear.
Pour the pudding mixture into the cream puff crust. Top with Whipped Cream and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving.
Before serving, drizzle with chocolate syrup. We love to drizzle it with our homemade Chocolate Fudge Sauce. You can also top it with a chocolate ganache or sprinkle mini chocolate chips on top.
Kristyn’s Recipe Tips
- Use INSTANT vanilla pudding or white chocolate, or it won’t set. Only use the pudding powder. Do not make it into pudding.
- The butter, cream cheese, and eggs all need to be at room temperature so that they mix together smoothly. Beat the cream cheese until completely smooth to avoid lumps.
- The dough rising up the sides is normal.
- Cool the pastry crust completely before adding the filling, or the cream will melt and not set. A hot shell will also get soggy more quickly.
- Add berries to the top of the slices of cake. Use the homemade Chocolate Fudge Sauce to create a pretty design on the top of the cake.
- Chill at least one hour before slicing. Drizzle chocolate right before serving for the best presentation.
Cream Puff Cake Recipe
Video
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 4 eggs
- 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
- 2 (3.4-ounce) boxes instant vanilla or white chocolate pudding
- 3 cups milk
- 1 (8-ounce) tub whipped topping, or 2 cups whipped cream
- chocolate syrup or white chocolate curls
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Combine butter and water in a large pot and bring to a boil over high heat.
- Reduce the heat to low, add flour and stir until mixture forms a ball. Remove from the heat.
- Cool dough slightly, then beat in eggs one at a time, mixing between each addition. After adding the last egg, the dough will come together and will be smooth. Spread into a greased 9×13-inch baking ish.
- Bake for 30 minutes, then cool completely. (NOTE: The dough should rise up the sides of the dish during baking).
- In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth.
- In a separate bowl, whisk pudding mix and milk together until smooth. Add whipped cream cheese and beat until combined and smooth. Pour into the crust.
- Spread whipped cream on top of pudding and refrigerate for at least one hour before serving.
- Serve drizzled with chocolate syrup or topped with white chocolate curls.
Notes
- Use INSTANT vanilla pudding or white chocolate, or it won’t set. Only use the pudding powder. Do not make it into pudding.
- The butter, cream cheese, and eggs all need to be at room temperature so that they mix together smoothly. Beat the cream cheese until completely smooth to avoid lumps.
- The dough rising up the sides is normal.
- Cool the pastry crust completely before adding the filling, or the cream will melt and not set. A hot shell will also get soggy more quickly.
- Add berries to the top of the slices of cake. Use the homemade Chocolate Fudge Sauce to create a pretty design on the top of the cake.
- Chill at least one hour before slicing. Drizzle chocolate right before serving for the best presentation.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe FAQ
Up until you add the Whipped Cream, this can be covered and placed in the fridge up to 24 hours in advance. If you don’t want to mess up the whipped cream with Saran Wrap, just leave that off until right before serving.
Covered and stored in the fridge, this Cream Puff Cake can last up to 5 days. Keep it refrigerated when not being eaten because the dairy products need to stay cool.
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This recipe was first shared July, 2011.
I was wondering if you have to make the pudding first then mix with the milk and cream cheese or just put the pudding package in along with the milk and cream cheese? Looks so good. I can’t wait to make this
for the cheese n cool whip, are they 18 oz or one 8 oz???
This is a favorite at our house too…we call it Eclair Cake~ either way, it’s YUMMY!!!
Yes, it is!! Definitely my favorite! Thanks for stopping by! 😀
I make cream puffs all the time I add 1 stick of butter what’s the difference for adding margarine
Nothing really. I use both 🙂 Whatever I have on hand. It’s just a non-dairy substitute for butter.
I wonder if I let it cook too long/not long enough….the pastry was chewy and tasted like eggs….The filling was delish. Do you know what I could have done wrong?
this looks amazing!
I am from Canada and I wanted to get clarification on the exact measurement for the margarine.
We have margarine in tubs.
Thanks so much!
Holy cow! This is truly one of the best desserts I have ever made! It was just awesome and everyone loved it. Only one difference, I didn’t have margarine so I used butter. Making again this weekend for my in-laws!
Thank you for posting, I’m southern and we don’t believe in margarine ???? I sure was hoping I could use butter instead without messing it up!!
I made the cake and somehow there was little lumps in thE batter what did i do wrong?
It just might have not gotten mixed enough, that’s ok 🙂 Hope it still tasted ok!
Wow!
This cake looks delicious. Can’t wait to try it. Can butter be substituted for the margarine?
This is one of the best deserts I’ve ever made! It was to die for! I actually only had 2 cups of milk (which I only discovered halfway through making it), but I did have vanilla yogurt. So, I took a chance and used the yogurt to make up the missing 3rd cup of milk. That is the best mistake I’ve ever made! It was so delicious! Thanks for the recipe!
SOOO glad you liked it, Whitney!! It is seriously the dessert I ask for each year on my birthday! It’s so yummy and I’m glad you agree. 🙂
This looks so beautiful and good. Thursday Food Fest is open and I’d love if you could link this up! Thanks, Sarah