A Staple Filling for Many Desserts
In Denmark, kagecreme is an essential component of the Danish birthday layer cake, or fødselsdagslagkage. It’s also a component in many other desserts and baked goods, including pastries. You can find it in powdered form in any Danish grocery store, much like vanilla pudding mix in the US. In fact, when we run out of our stash of kagecreme powder from our last trip to Denmark, we usually just buy American vanilla pudding mix…but honestly, it’s just not the same. So, we decided to create our own homemade recipe!
Delicious & Easy
This pastry cream is smooth and delicious with a slight hint of vanilla. It’s very easy to make, and tastes a lot better than anything store-bought! Kagecreme is great for cakes, trifles, tarts, cookies, as well as our recipe for vandbakkelser (choux buns).
Here are a few of our other recipes that include kagecreme:
- Spandauer (Danish Pastry with Custard or Jam)
- Lagkage (Danish Birthday Layer Cake)
- Blåbärsbullar (Blueberry Buns)
The Basic Technique
To make kagecreme, you simply heat up some milk until it is simmering and whisk your remaining ingredients (except the butter) together really well in a heat proof bowl. Be careful not to let the milk get too hot, as you don’t want to scorch it! The most difficult part is tempering the egg mixture – just be careful not to pour the milk too quickly or you might end up with scrambled eggs.
Once the eggs are tempered, return the mixture to the pan and whisk until it thickens – it’s like magic before your very own eyes! We like to finish off our pastry cream with a few tablespoons of butter for added richness and a silky smooth finish. See the list of ingredients and our step by step recipe below! If you try our recipe, please leave us a comment and a rating below – we love to hear how our recipes turn out! You can also tag us on Instagram!
Check Out Our Youtube Video!
For a visual demo of the recipe, watch our video here:
Kagecreme (Danish Pastry Cream)
Ingredients
- 3 large egg yolks OR 4 medium egg yolks
- 50 grams sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 25 grams cornstarch
- 400 ml whole milk
- 28 grams unsalted butter
Instructions
- Combine the egg yolks, sugar, salt, vanilla extract, and cornstarch in a large heat-proof bowl. Whisk vigorously until smooth.
- Heat the milk in a saucepan on medium heat. You may need to stir or whisk occasionally to prevent any of the milk solids from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Once the milk starts to very lightly simmer, with small bubbles forming around the edges, remove it from the heat. Pour half of the milk into the egg mixture, while whisking vigorously to prevent the eggs from clumping together. It helps to put a towel underneath the bowl to help prevent it from sliding around.
- Then, pour the egg and milk mixture into the saucepan with the rest of the milk and whisk (it's easiest to do this off the heat!).
- Place the saucepan back on medium heat and continue to whisk. Once the mixture is heated through, it should start to thicken (note: for the starches to thicken, it needs to get up to near boiling point. Our stove runs quite hot so we keep it at medium heat or lower; if you need to turn it up, you can do so). Whisk for about 30 seconds after bubbles start to break the surface to ensure the starch has fully thickened the mixture. Remove from heat and add the butter, whisking until it melts into the mixture.
- Transfer to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap, making sure that the plastic wrap touches the surface of the cream to avoid a skin forming. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours or until cooled. Then you can use the pastry cream to fill pastries, use in cakes, or for whatever you like!
This recipe was great! I used it to make jordbærtærte and it was so quick and easy. My husband is from Denmark and he vouched for the authenticity and loved the flavor. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Laura! So happy to hear that it turned out well! We LOVE jordbærtærte <3 Thanks for using our recipe and leaving a rating and comment - we really appreciate it 🙂
I’ve had issues in the past where I end up with scrambled eggs. I was so suprised with myself that this turned into an amazingly smooth custard. Perfect!
Yay! We are so glad it worked out – thank you for using our recipe!
Simple. Delicious. Perfect.
Thank you for using our recipe!!
Worked well, though it stiffened considerably after an overnight in the fridge. Is that normal, or did I let it thicken too much when cooking?
Thanks for trying our recipe! Yes that is normal as we primarily use this recipe for toppings/fillings, and it helps considerably when it is stiffer for layering in cakes and filling pastries! If you do end up preferring a less stiff pastry cream you can always add less cornstarch, or let it warm up a little from fridge cold temperature before using it!
Thank you so much for this recipe the instructions are very clear and precise it worked on my first attempt! I’m filling it into the Danish layer cake for my son’s third birthday today. He never had it before but the vanilla and cream topping will entice him for sure.
Thanks for using our recipe and so glad it worked out!!
I made a half recipe for a Danish foreign exchange student on my cross-country team, and she loved it! I made another one two days later for my family, and it tastes amazing. It’s a very easy recipe to follow and only took me about an hour and a half to make. If you’re using dry yeast only use 1/3 of the amount of fresh yeast called for. I made a half recipe, so I used 8g instead of 25 and it turned out great!
Yay, so happy to hear it! Thank you for using our recipe and leaving a comment; we really appreciate it!
So nice and simple – that video gave me confidence to try!
Thanks a bunch! 😊
Wonderful, that’s what we love to hear! No problem, thanks for the lovely comment 🙂