Dutch · Desserts

Tompouce

Two layers of crisp puff pastry sandwiching thick vanilla pastry cream under a pink icing, the classic Dutch cake.

55 min prep and cooking plus 20 min setting 1 hr 15 min start to finish Serves 8 servings Hard
Jump to Recipe Method
Tompouce

Photograph credit: Dubbele tompouce - Bussing 2024-12-03 by Andy Li · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons

How to Cook Tompouce

Tap a step to highlight it, or turn on Cook Mode for large type and step-by-step focus.

  1. Heat the oven to 200°C / 390°F. Lay the pastry on a lined tray, cover with baking paper and a second tray and bake for 15 minutes until gold. Cool.

  2. Whisk the yolks, sugar and cornflour with a little milk. Warm the rest of the milk, pour on, return to the pan and stir for 5 minutes until very thick. Add the vanilla and cool.

  3. Whip the cream to stiff peaks and fold into the cooled custard.

  4. Trim the pastry and cut into 8 rectangles for the base and 8 for the top.

  5. Spread the cream thickly on the bases and press on the tops.

  6. Mix the icing sugar, juice and water to a thick icing, spread over the tops and leave to set for 20 minutes.

What Can Go Wrong

  1. Bake the pastry between trays so it stays flat.
  2. Make the cream stiff.
  3. Cut with a serrated knife in a sawing motion.

About This Recipe

It looks like a pink brick and eats like a custard slice, which is what a tompouce is. This is the classic Dutch cake, a slab of crisp puff pastry on the bottom and top with a thick vanilla cream between, and the top is covered with pink icing and eaten on the Queen's Day, now King's Day, when it is dyed orange.

Bake the puff pastry between two trays so it rises evenly and stays flat. Cool it completely, then trim the edges and cut into rectangles. For the cream, cook milk, yolks, sugar and cornflour for 5 minutes until very thick, beat in vanilla and cool, then fold in whipped cream. Make the cream stiff, because a runny cream squirts out of the sides when you cut the slice.

Spread the cream on the base layer in a thick slab and press the top layer on. Mix icing sugar with a little raspberry juice and water until it is thick enough to spread without running and ice the tops. Let the icing set for 20 minutes. Cut with a serrated knife using a sawing motion, and eat with a fork, as it will squeeze out when bitten.

To Go With It

Coffee · Tea · Sparkling wine

Storing Leftovers

Best the day it is assembled.

Common Questions

How long does Tompouce take to make?

40 minutes of preparation and 15 minutes of cooking, plus 20 minutes of setting, so allow 1 hour 15 minutes from start to finish. The recipe serves 8.

What's in a Serving

Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.

750Calories
10gProtein
83gCarbs
42gFat
1gFibre
42gSugar
240mgSodium

Your notes on this recipe

Cooked this? Keep a note for next time

Your own rating out of 5

Private to you: notes and ratings are saved in this browser only, are never sent anywhere, and other readers cannot see them.

Compiled by Turab

Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked.

First published ; last changed .