What is a crinkle cake?
A crinkle cake, also called a crumpled cake, is a dessert made with sheets of filo pastry crumpled like an accordion, then generously brushed with butter before being covered with a custard of eggs, milk or cream. As it bakes, the top turns incredibly crisp while the inside stays soft and creamy, creating a unique texture somewhere between a tart, a flan and a flaky pastry.
Though it went viral thanks to TikTok and Pinterest, the crinkle cake draws on traditional Middle Eastern and Balkan desserts made with filo. You'll find echoes of galaktoboureko, a Greek dessert of filo and semolina custard, or of soufra, a Cypriot pastry filled with crème pâtissière. The crinkle cake is a simpler, more modern take, easy to customise with fruit, pistachio cream, chocolate or nuts.
Filo pastry: where to find it and how to handle it
Filo pastry is easy to find in the chilled section of most supermarkets, usually next to the pie dough, brick pastry or pizza dough. If you can't spot it, check the world foods or Middle Eastern aisle too.
Be careful not to confuse it with brick pastry - that's the most common mistake. They look alike but don't have the same texture. Filo is made of extremely thin, almost transparent sheets that turn light and crisp once baked. Brick pastry is thicker, more supple, and won't give you the same pleats or the same crunch. For a true crinkle cake, filo is a must.
Finally, handle it quickly: it dries out within minutes in the open air and turns brittle. The easiest way is to take the sheets out one by one as you go, keeping the rest covered with a clean, slightly damp tea towel.
The secret to a moist crinkle cake that's never dry
The number-one crinkle cake fail is a dry cake. You see it in the comments under every recipe: filo that stays cardboard-like, custard that never really soaked in. It comes down to two balances.
Butter, and plenty of it. Filo is extremely thin and dry, and it's the melted butter that feeds it, browns it and makes it tender. In this recipe I use 50 g of melted butter, which works very well. But if some sheets still look dry, don't hesitate to melt a little more. Brush every pleat generously, working into the ridges: the spots you miss will stay pale, dry and less crisp after baking.
The custard should soak, not drown. Pour it slowly, leaving the ridges of the pastry poking out, they need to stay visible so they can brown and crisp up. Cover them completely and the whole cake turns soggy; add too little and the pastry stays dry. The right cue: the custard fills the hollows and comes up to the pleats without submerging them.
One last thing: don't cut the baking time short. The custard should be set and the top nicely golden, pulling it out too early leaves a runny centre and soft pastry.
My no-pre-bake version: why I do it differently
Many crinkle cake recipes I've come across bake the filo before adding the custard: ten minutes empty, then the butter, then ten minutes more. I don't.
I coil my filo, brush it with butter, pour the custard straight over and bake it, all in one go. And it works: the top browns and crisps up beautifully, the flaked almonds add their crunch, and the centre stays creamy. One step less, one thing less to watch, for a cake I find perfectly balanced. It's the version I prefer and the one I'd make again.
That said, let's be honest: pre-baking pushes the crispness further. If you love really crunchy filo like in the TikTok videos, bake the buttered pastry for ten minutes before pouring in the custard. You'll gain in crunch what you lose in simplicity, it's up to you.
Variations
With other fruit
The custard works with any juicy seasonal fruit.
| Fruit | Quantity | Tip |
|---|---|---|
| Blueberries | ≈ 150 g | The easiest, nothing to do, just scatter them on |
| Apricots | 4-5, quartered | Lovely tang and beautiful colour |
| Pitted cherries | ≈ 200 g | Works wonderfully, the cherry-and-custard duo also shines in my cherry clafoutis |
Orange blossom and pistachio: the classic
This is the original recipe, the one that went around social media: swap the vanilla for 1 tablespoon of orange blossom water in the custard, and the flaked almonds for crushed pistachios. A dessert with Middle Eastern accents, very close to the Greek and Middle Eastern pastries the crinkle cake takes after.
Should you add a syrup?
Many recipes drizzle the crinkle with a sugar syrup as it comes out of the oven. I don't, and that's a choice. With the raspberries, custard and butter, the cake is already indulgent: syrup would make it cloying and soak the crispness I worked to keep. If you love very sweet, baklava-style desserts, go for it: 120 g sugar to 120 ml water, brought to the boil, poured over warm.
Storage: does it keep well?
The crinkle cake is best on the day, when the contrast between golden pastry and creamy custard is at its peak. After that it keeps for 2 days in the fridge, covered, though the filo inevitably loses some crunch against the custard.
The good news: a few minutes in the oven or air fryer at 150°C brings it back to life. Above all, never use the microwave, it softens it for good.
