Karpatka Cake

I found this Karpatka cake recipe in my mom’s old Soviet-era notebook. Somebody gave it to her decades ago and she had completely forgotten about it. I decided to use it in this book, but only after adding my own little spin: a dash of bright orange liqueur and some aromatic grated orange zest. Imagine the largest, most luxurious éclair you can conjure and that’s what Karpatka cake is. It is like a cloud of rich milky frosting trapped between two layers of pâte à choux. (The name translates to Carpathian cake, so called because the sugar-dusted craggy-topped pastry recalls the snow-capped peaks of the Carpathian mountains.) Once you’ve tasted this dessert, it’s difficult not to eat the full cake in one sitting.