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Smooth + rich Cream Puff Cake is a take on the popular cream puff dessert. Drizzle it in chocolate for a perfect bite!
If you love desserts like Cream Puffs and Eclairs, then you’ll love this cake version. Cream Puff Cake is like one giant cream puff in cake form!
Cream Puff DESSERT
This Cream Puff Cake is an ALL-TIME favorite dessert!!
I have my mom make it for my birthday each year, because it’s my favorite, and I’ll tell you why I LOVE it so much. It’s because it’s like a GIANT Cream Puff, and I LOVE Cream Puffs!!
If you like them too, then I promise you will love this Cream Puff Cake Recipe. It’s the perfect combination of crust, cream, and pudding, and I think I could eat it all day long.
How to Make Cream Puff Cake
This Cream Puff dessert is easier to make than you’d think. The crust is the hardest part and that’s not very hard either – it just takes getting used to.
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.
RECIPE Tips
Pudding. Use INSTANT vanilla pudding or white chocolate, or it won’t set. Only use the pudding powder. Do not make it into pudding.
Room temperature ingredients. The butter, cream cheese, and eggs all need to be at room temperature so that they mix together smoothly.
Pastry. 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.
Toppings. 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.
Homemade Whipped Cream
Make your own Whipped Cream using 2 cups heavy whipping cream, 4 tablespoons powdered sugar, and 2 teaspoons vanilla.
- Chill your metal mixing bowl then add heavy cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla to the bowl.
- Use an electric mixer and whip on low speed then increase to medium-high. Mix until soft peaks form.
Use Cool Whip instead of Whipped Cream. Cool Whip is an easy substitute for whipped cream. Make whatever is best for you and be sure to still have some homemade Chocolate Fudge Sauce on hand to drizzle over it – you won’t regret it!
Storing Info
Make ahead of time. 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.
STORE. 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.
For more Cake recipes:
More Collections: New Years Eve Desserts,
Cream Puff Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter, or margarine
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 4 eggs
- 1 box instant vanilla or white chocolate pudding (large box)
- 3 cups milk
- 8 oz cream cheese softened
- 8 oz whipped cream
- chocolate syrup
Instructions
- Prepare a 9×13 ceramic or glass baking dish by spraying it with cooking spray. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- 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.
- 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.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Make it look extra fancy, drizzle the hershey syrup side to side…start on the left go right and keep going on the whole cake. So now you have lines of chocolate across the cake. Now take a knife and start at the top and draw it down, then up, down and up…and you will be amazed how it looks. I hope I explained how easy it is.
Thanks for sharing that tip!! I’ll have to do that next time 🙂
What is a stick of butter equivalent to, and what is 1c? This cream puff cake looks amazing, can`t wait to try it.
A stick of butter is equal to 1/2 cup and 1c is 1 cup 🙂 I’d love to know what you think! Thank you!
Hi there!
“Cream Puff Cake”
Can the butter (or butter flavor Crisco) be substituted for the margarine in the cream puff layer?
It seriously looks amazing. Cream puffs are my favorite.
I have used butter and margarine and they both work, but I would stay away from the crisco. It would change the recipe for sure. Good luck and hope you like it, as much as we do 🙂
I am going to try your cream puff cake, it looks so good!
Yay!! I hope you like it! Let me know what you think 🙂 Thank you!!
I make the cream puff cake all the time. But I use instant pistachio pudding instead of vanilla or chocolate. Everyone loves it.
My hubby loves pistachio, too!! Thanks so much for letting me know!!
Would like to have sugar and fat stats for your desserts as my husband is diabetic and has kidney issues so we must carefully scrutinize his sugar and fat intake. EF
Is it 18 oz of cream cheese/cool whip or 1 – 8 oz pkg/carton? These items are typically packaged in 8 oz sizes.
Made the cream puff cake for card night and it was a hit. Fabukous
Happy it was a hit!! This is one of our favorite recipes!!! Thanks for letting me know!
Enjoy your recipes and posts very much !
I followed the crust recipe exactly and spread it only on the bottom of the pan. The sides “grew” up and out of the pan more than 3″. What’s up with this?
Hi Susan! The sides are suppose to go up the sides so it creates a big type bowl for the cream to go in. 😉