Napolean's Torte

Napolean's Torte is a well known cake composed of thin wafers layered
with vanilla custard.  I don't know what professional chefs would say 
about this  recipe but this  is what my  mother  made for  us when I was a
lad. Actually, I don't  think I actually care  much what professional 
chefs might say.

Wafers

1          cup    margerine
1/2-3/4    cup    sugar
1                 egg    
2          cup    flour (maybe more)
2          tsp    baking powder

1) Beat the margering with the sugar with the egg.
   Add the flour to the wet mixture until it is smooth
   but not dry.
2) Roll out the pastry on a generously floured board.
   Make circles of the diameter you want for the cake. 
   Ours were usually about 25 cm across.
   You can make rectangles too if you want.
3) Make lots of wafers, you may need to mix up more batter.
   Eight or ten layers would be good.
4) Bake the wafers at 350 F for 5-10 minutes.

The torte is made by layering the wafers with vanilla custard 
between them.  The custard my mother used was the same as the 
one she made for waffles.

Put some sauce on a plate.  Put a wafer on top.  Put sauce on 
that wafer.  Repeat until your torte is built up.  Put some 
sauce on top and around the edges.  My mother often decorated 
the top by laying segments of Mandarin orange around the edge.
You can also crumble some leftover wafer pieces and sprinkle 
that on top.

A variation that I have seen is to use cinnamon in the wafers 
and the custard.
  

Back to the recipes index.