To make Vanna’s Angel Voices Cake pour the homemade custard over the pastry base in the prepared tin and carefully cover with another pastry layer. Bake until golden on top. Vanna’s gorgeous cake doesn’t need anything except for a light dusting of icing sugar.
Vanna’s Angel Voices Cake Recipe
Serves 8
Ingredients:
Icing (confectioners’) sugar, for dusting
Custard
1 litre (34 fl oz/4 cups) full-cream (whole) milk
4 egg yolks
80 g (2¾ oz/⅓ cup) caster sugar
50 g (1¾ oz) cornflour (cornstarch)
rind of 1 lemon, cut into strips
Pastry
125 g (4½ oz) unsalted butter, softened
150 g (5½ oz/⅔ cup) caster sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon natural vanilla extract
grated zest of 1 lemon
400 g (14 oz/2⅔ cups) plain (all-purpose) flour, plus extra for dusting
2 teaspoons baking powder
Method:
To make the custard, warm the milk in a saucepan over a low heat almost to boiling point, then set aside. Whisk the egg yolks, caster sugar and cornflour together briskly in a large bowl until well combined – the texture should be like smooth ricotta. Gradually pour the milk through a fine-mesh sieve into the egg mixture, whisking constantly. Wipe out the saucepan and pour the mixture back into it. Add the lemon rind and warm over a low heat, stirring intermittently with a balloon whisk, until it thickens, about 20 minutes. Scrape down the side of the pan as you go. Pour through the clean fine-mesh sieve into a bowl and set aside.
To make the pastry, beat the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer until pale. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition until well incorporated. Add the vanilla and lemon zest and mix well. Sift the flour and baking powder together three times, then gradually fold them into the butter and sugar mixture. Divide the pastry (it’s quite soft) into two rounds and cover them with cling wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180°C (360°F). Before you grease the tin, trace its outline onto two sheets of baking paper, cut out the circles and set aside. Grease a 24 cm (9½ in) round non-stick springform tin with butter and line the base with baking paper.
Place one of the baking paper circles onto your bench and dust it with flour. Place one of the pastry rounds on top and dust it with flour. Place the other sheet of baking paper on top. Roll the pastry out between the two sheets until it reaches the size of the circle. Remove the top sheet, dust the pastry with a little more flour, then roll the pastry onto your rolling pin. Carefully unroll the pastry into the base of the prepared tin. Repeat with other pastry round to make a second pastry layer and set aside.
Pour the custard over the pastry base in the tin and carefully unroll the second pastry layer on top. Bake for 35–40 minutes, or until golden on top.
Allow the cake to cool completely in the tin before removing the springform side. Vanna’s gorgeous cake doesn’t need anything except for a light dusting of icing sugar.
This cake will keep for up to 2 days stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
This is an edited extract from Pranzo by Guy Mirabella (Hardie Grant Books), RRP $60 AUD / $70 NZD. Available in stores nationally from 4 March 2025.
