The best Cream Puff Cake recipe, featuring a fluffy crust, easy vanilla filling, and of course, chocolate. This cream puff recipe will be your new favorite dessert!
Why You’ll Love This Cream Puff Cake Recipe
If you’ve tried a Cream Puff, you know how delicious they taste.
The texture of the pastry is slightly chewy, but also light and airy. And it traditionally contains a vanilla pastry cream.
Today’s Cream Puff Cake recipe is an easy version of the traditional dessert.
Here’s why I love it:
- This is the best (and easiest!) way to make cream puffs for a crowd! Cream puff cake is always a winner for potlucks and backyard barbecues.
- It has homemade flavor with shortcut ingredients. Cool Whip and pudding mix make it easy to assemble!
- Needless to say, this cream puff cake is delicious, but I also love the contrasting textures. The airy, chewy crust is the perfect base for all that whipped vanilla cream!
If you enjoy this sweet dessert, you should try making my tres leches cake next!
Important Ingredient Notes
- Unsalted butter – The go-to for baking! Unless a recipe says otherwise, always assume you should use unsalted butter.
- All-purpose flour – I use the flour to make something called choux pastry. The crust gets puffy thanks to steam instead of a traditional leavener like baking soda or powder.
- Vanilla extract – I recommend pure vanilla extract, not imitation.
- Eggs – Eggs also help give choux pastry its signature texture.
- Instant vanilla pudding mix – Regular vanilla or French vanilla both work for this cream puff cake recipe.
- Milk – I recommend whole milk for the richest cream filling, but any kind you have on hand is fine.
- Cream cheese – Use the kind that comes in a block not a tub.
- Cool Whip – While homemade whipped cream is delicious, Cool Whip lasts longer, so it won’t deflate in the fridge. You can make my stabilized whipped cream instead of Cool Whip.
- Chocolate syrup – The perfect finishing touch! Use our homemade chocolate syrup recipe!
How to Make Cream Puff Cake
Prepare: Preheat your oven to 400ºF. Coat a 13×9 baking dish with baking spray.
Make the Choux Pastry:
- In a small saucepan, add the butter and water.
- Bring the mixture to a boil over medium high heat.
- Remove the pan from heat and whisk in the flour.
- Pour the flour mixture into a mixing bowl and beat in the eggs one at a time until well blended.
- Mix in the vanilla extract.
Bake: Spread the pastry crust into the prepared baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes, then remove from the oven and cool completely.
Make the cream: In a large bowl, whisk together the pudding mix and milk until blended. Beat in the softened cream cheese for 3-4 minutes.
Assemble: Pour the cream into the cooled crust. Top with homemade whipped cream or whipped topping and chill for at least one hour. Drizzle with chocolate syrup or top with chocolate chips before serving.
Tips and Tricks
- Start by softening the cream cheese at room temperature. This will ensure that it mixes in smoothly and evenly into the cream.
- You can make this cake ahead of time. The cake will still taste fresh and delicious, just like when you first made it.
- You can also make cream puff cake ahead in parts—either make the cream topping or the crust ahead of time. This is perfect for busy times when you don’t have much time to cook. Especially helpful before a party when you have a lot of tasks to complete.
- Store cream puff cake in the refrigerator for up to four days. I don’t recommend freezing it.
More Easy Custard Recipes
If you love this cake with the creamy, custard like filling, here are a few of my favorite desserts that are similar:
- Traditional Chocolate Eclair Cake made with layers of graham cracker, pudding mix, and chocolate ganache.
- This easy Banana Eclair Cake is a favorite summer treat. It consists of layers of cinnamon graham crackers, vanilla pudding, and fresh banana. No need to bake it! To top it off, I literally topped it off with a cinnamon glaze!
- This Strawberry Eclair Cake is made with a filling of Cheesecake JELL-O. Plus there’s no oven needed which means it’s perfect for the warmer weather!
- Easy, fried Boston Cream Donuts in under 30 minutes! Made using biscuits and filled with a creamy pudding mixture, these are sure to tempt you! Don’t forget the rich chocolate ganache!
- Rich, fudgy and dense…this Chocolate Pudding Cake is a huge hit at family parties!
- You’ve got to try my reader favorite Boston Cream Pie next. Topped with a dreamy chocolate ganache too!
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Cream Puff Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 large eggs
- 2 boxes instant vanilla pudding mix, 3.4 ounce each
- 2 ½ cups milk
- 8 ounce cream cheese softened
- 8 ounce Cool Whip thawed
- ¼ cup chocolate syrup
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray a 13×9 baking dish with baking spray. Set aside.
- In a small saucepan, add the butter and water. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Remove from heat and whisk in flour.
- Pour flour mixture into a mixing bowl and add in eggs one at a time until well blended. Add vanilla extract.
- Spread into prepared baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes.
- Remove from oven and cool completely.
- In a mixing bowl, whisk together the pudding mix and milk until blended. Beat in softened cream cheese (for about 3-4 minutes).
- Pour into cooled crust. Top with cool whip. Drizzle with chocolate syrup.
- Refrigerate for at least one hour. ENJOY.
Notes
- One of the things I love about this cake is you can make it a day or two in advance and it will still have the same texture and flavor as if you just prepared it
- Store cake in refrigerator for up to four days.
Can gluten free flour be used
Delicious, making 1 for my daughter, its oh so good
Can I just make and bake the puffed crust and then store the crust in the frig for a day or so before topping it with the filling?
The puffs are best when baked fresh that day.
Could you add peanut butter to the filling?
This is a favorite — I’ve made it more than a dozen times. The only change I make is using real whipped cream instead of Cool Whip. I make my whipped cream a little less sweet than most people but that’s personal preference.
This was always made for family gatherings at my sister in laws house. Everyone loves it. The recipe he used was minus the chocolate drizzle and was called Moon Cake. Its so easy and very light, not a heavy dessert, so you can eat a big piece!
This is a popular DESSERT. I often take it to potlucks and always bring home an empty pan.
Can this be made one day before serving? Thank you
Someone asked if it can be made a day ahead of time, but saw no answer.
It’s definitely more fresh on day one.
Could you use puff pastry sheets instead of making crust
i suggest beating the cream cheese before adding the pudding. doing as directed leaves lumps of cream cheese in the mixture no matter how fast you are beating it
What are the measurements for the crust?
If you scroll to the end of the post you’ll see the printable recipe card with measurements 🙂
I made it but i dont know it got a liquid texture …can you tell me the reason why?
I am not familiar with making puff pastry. Directions are to spread in prepared pan and not to be surprised at how it will puff up. A cut slice of the finished product shows crust up the side. With all the photos taken, why not one of the baked crust before adding the filling?
We cant get enough of this cake. We have been making it for years and this recipe is amazing. Thank you so much for reminding me to make it again!
Is the mixing of the choux stirred with a spoon or an electric mixer? TY for a response.
Whichever works best for you. I use an electric mixer.
This recipe if perfect. Just printed it and can’t wait for company to try it out.
Definitely a party perfect dessert and so easy!!
This is like a dream come true! It’s beyond delicious.
Perfect way to make dessert for a party or get together! Looks amazing!
This seems so much easier than make individual cream puffs. What a great idea for any large gathering! I cant wait to try my hand at it!
I adore making cream puffs but have never made them in cake form. This is a recipe I can’t wait to try. It looks amazing!!
What a great way to make cream puffs for a crowd! That puff pastry dough sounds amazing and drizzling some chocolate sauce and chocolate chips over the finished cream puff sounds like the perfect topper.