Rafaello

Finally! :) After few considerations and reading many descriptions about this cake, I finally decided to prepare it :) Prepare - not bake, because it is a non-baking cake! ;) (and I really, really love such cakes - time&energy saving ;) ). I prepared it, mixing all the ideas for this cake I found on the Internet. I must honestly admit that all the people who tried it enjoyed it a lot. To my great surprise, among many (from my point of view) better cakes, this Rafaello was the one that disappeared first. 

And - this is another cake, after greatest-of-them-all Gourmet Sensation and it's brother Gourmet Sensation vol 2. which really gets better with time! (second day, amazing!) 

I do recommend! Easy, not expensive, wonderful cake, both in its appearance and taste :)

Though, surprisingly, this cake might be even better - try the second version of Rafaello here.

Ingredients: (for a small rectangular pan, otherwise there's not enough cream, but You can double the ingredients and make double cream, then You'll also need more crackers)

• 1 litre of 3,2% milk
• 2 vanilla powdered custards, 40g each (or double the recipe for this budyń, recipe here ;) )
• 2 tablespoons of potato starch
• 3/4 glass of sugar
• 2-3 vanilla sugars (16g each)
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1 egg yolk
• 250g of butter
• 200g of shredded coconut (150g for the cream, 50g to sprinkle the top)
• 2-3(3-5 if bigger pan) packs of crackers (rectangular shape)

Optional ingredients:

• almond flakes, for sprinkling the top
• 1/2 glass of vodka or 
• 1/2-3/4 glass of advocaat (if You wish to add any alcohol, I would recommend this one)

Preparation of budyn/custard:

For those of You, who has powdered custard, follow the steps below, if You can't buy powdered budyn/custard then follow all the steps in that recipe, just remember to double all the ingredients.

1. Take a glass, fill 3/4 of it with milk. Add powdered custard and potato starch. Stir till smooth (no clumps please!)
2. Take a pot, put all the remaining milk in there, add sugar, start boiling. Stir from time to time to help the sugar dissolve. Bring to boil and add the mixture from the glass. Lower the heat, stir energetically till it turns thick. Cool down.

Now, when the custard is ready: 

1. Using a stand mixer, mix butter with egg yolk, adding cooled down custard, one tablespoon after another.
2. Here is a good time to add alcohol and mix.
3. Add shredded coconut (leave around 50g for sprinkling the top), mix till it links.
4. Take a rectangular pan - preferably a rectangular springform pan (no baking paper inside is necessary, in both cases).
5. Put one layer of crackers and start adding some part of the cream, to cover the entire crackers layer (yes, I realize how hard it is to distribute the cream, You can use many techniques to make it easier - for example: put some lumps and try to link them or distribute the cream through syringe and then smooth it with a spoon)
6. Put another layer of crackers and cream - repeat till all the ingredients are used, the last layer is cream.
7. Sprinkle the top with shredded coconut or/and almond flakes.
8. Cover the cake with foil, put in the frigde for at least 3 hours.
9. Bon Appetit! ;)