Coffee, cherry and chocolate karpatka

Golden layers of choux pastry with all their beautiful ripples and waves, filled with a velvety and creamy coffee crème légère, a roasted hazelnut, brown sugar and honey crumble and fresh cherries, topped with a small sea of milk chocolate.

If you like chocolate eclairs or profiteroles, you are guaranteed to adore karpatka. I made karpatka for the first time a couple of years ago— it was my contribution for Christmas dinner, it being one of the many desserts that came out later in the night. It is named after the Carpathian mountains, and is just one of so many beautiful Polish desserts. When I lived in Edinburgh, I had a favourite Polish supermarket that I’d go to often, and every time I went I was struck by how beautiful the cake display was—so many layers, shapes, textures and colours. There must have been over 30 different types of cake and each one was so unique and very beautiful to me. I’d love to dedicate more time to researching Polish cakes and bake my way through them all.

Much of this recipe can be made in advance–the choux pastry can be made and stored in a sealed piping bag in the fridge up to two days in advance, the crème pâttissière element of the filling can also be made up to two days in advance, and the crunchy hazelnut crumble can be made up to four days in advance, stored in the fridge until ready to use.