Do you ever wish you had more easy-to-prepare dessert recipes up your sleeve? Luckily, with the help of social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, you can find tasty dessert recipes made simple with store-bought ingredients like canned biscuits and frozen phyllo dough. Sure enough, while your grandma’s classic dump cake may be the beginner friendly dessert anyone can make, crafting a home-baked cake with thawed phyllo dough is just as easy and delicious.
Next to serving as the flaky dough you should be using for baked brie, phyllo dough can also become a mouthwatering dessert thanks to one unique folding technique. Developed by food influencer Ramena Avakian, this one-of-a-kind crinkle cake took foodies by storm via TikTok a few years back. Even though Avakian’s account is no longer active, her crinkle cake remains a go-to recipe for many at-home chefs.
To make this one-of-a-kind dessert, all you need is phyllo dough and a small assortment of everyday baking essentials like butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. The process behind making this cake involves accordion-folding two thawed phyllo dough sheets at a time and stacking them like file folders in a baking dish. After baking for 10 minutes, you pour melted butter over the cake. Then, after another 10 minutes in the oven, pour over a homemade custard made of whisked milk, eggs, and sugar. Topped with a simple syrup, this crispy yet creamy dessert can be customized in more ways than one.
How to successfully upgrade TikTok’s viral crinkle cake
For starters, consider infusing your neatly folded pastry sheets with extra ingredients before baking. For a fall-inspired twist, layer in sliced apples. Then, upgrade the included custard with warming spices like cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg. You can also update the original recipe by adding chopped chocolate between the folds of dough when you pour over the custard. The final result should taste similar to a chocolate-filled croissant.
When it comes to veritable toppings, while you can cover your cake in a syrup made of sugar, water, and lemon juice, consider swapping out this combination for the secret liquid that makes pastries and desserts irresistible. Commonly used in Middle Eastern dessert recipes like baklava, orange blossom water adds a hint of citrus to any classic vanilla-kissed recipe.
Add a splash of this unique ingredient to your water and sugar as it thickens to a glaze over your stove. With just a bit of orange blossom water, one cinnamon stick, and a few strips of lemon zest, you can easily give your crinkle cake a bright-tasting finishing touch. Conversely, you can also try rose water for a more pronounced herbal flavor. Other toppings include, chocolate chips, dried rose petals, fresh fruit, and chopped nuts like pistachios or toasted walnuts. Lastly, feel free to top your cake with a sprinkle of powdered sugar before serving. With such an easy recipe, you have more time and energy to dress this tasty dessert any way you like.
