You Have To Try This TikTok-Famous Phyllo Dough Crinkle Cake
If you’re looking for a quick, easy, impressive dessert that can also be breakfast, look no further than the latest TikTok obsession: Crinkle Cake. Sweet, creamy custard flecked with vanilla and baked up in a rectangle of crunchy, feather-light phyllo dough. Sounds amazing, right? That’s because it is. TikTokers have been creating their own versions of this cake, and the ingredients are everything you already have in your house: butter, eggs, milk, sugar…and that package of phyllo dough in the back of your freezer (why did you buy that again?). Use it all to make this custardy cake that's so difficult to stop eating once you pick up that fork. We’re about to give you all the delicious deets.
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What is Crinkle Cake?
It’s called Crinkle Cake on TikTok but the more traditional name for this Middle Eastern dessert is Muakacha (pronounced moo-ah-ka-cha). Muakacha is an Arabic word meaning "wrinkled." And this dessert is definitely wrinkled, with a texture similar to baklava. In fact, the step of wrinkling the phyllo dough is pretty fun and would make a great task for a tiny kitchen helper, should you have one.
The Crinkle Cake is a simple recipe made in a 9x13 baking dish (although some TikTokers are using round cake pans). The baking dish is filled with crumpled-up pieces of puff pastry, covered in a blanket of butter, then a custard mixture is poured over the top. The whole thing is baked until golden. When it comes out of the oven in a baklava-like twist, the cake is covered in a simple syrup and chopped pistachios. The result is a crispy-topped pillowy cake layered with pockets of pistachios and drenched in a gooey simple syrup. It’s just as impressive for a lazy Sunday breakfast at home as it is for a fancy dinner party.
Courtesy of Jessica Wrubel
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What are the ingredients for Phyllo Dough Crinkle Cake?
The basic ingredients are milk, eggs, butter, sugar, vanilla and phyllo dough. This is a fantastically easy recipe that takes less than an hour from TikTok to table. Hands-on time is less than five minutes as the oven does all the work for you. The hardest part of this recipe is waiting for the phyllo to defrost, which could take a couple of hours.
Courtesy of Jessica Wrubel
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What does Crinkle Cake taste like?
The pistachios give it a much-needed crunch and the simple syrup floats on top until the whole thing sets and it sinks into the phyllo. Every bite is a satisfying shatter in your mouth of feather-light custardy goodness. It’s best warm, right out of the oven but the cake also keeps well too—either at room temperature or in the fridge (if it lasts that long).
I used only about half of the simple syrup recipe and it was fantastic. Others on TikTok say that they didn’t use the simple syrup at all as it was sweet enough as is. Using only half of the syrup gave it some dimension and I didn’t find it too sweet; it was just enough to coat the phyllo so that it was slightly saturated but still deliciously crispy on top.
Phyllo Dough Crinkle Cake Recipe
The recipe here is from food blogger and cookbook author Genie Sheikah (@genie_cooks), whose recipe went viral after a feature on Corey Bonalewicz’s Instagram page (otherwise known as Corey B on IG at @Iamcoreyb). It has since gone viral on TikTok with users making their own versions of the cake.
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Ingredients:
1 package phyllo dough
2 sticks butter melted
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
2 teaspoon vanilla
Chopped pistachios, for garnish
2 cups sugar (for simple syrup)
Directions:
1. Before starting, make sure the phyllo dough is completely defrosted according to the package directions. Preheat your oven to 350 and spray a baking dish (I used a 9x13) with cooking spray.
2. Take two sheets of dough at a time and crinkle them to fit into your dish. Bake for 10 minutes.
3. After 10 minutes, pour your melted butter on top and bake for an additional 10 minutes.
4. Make the simple syrup: In a small saucepan, combine the sugar with 1 cup of water and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add a small squeeze of fresh lemon juice and boil for an additional 10 minutes until it thickens and coats the back of a spoon.
5. Combine your eggs, sugar, milk and vanilla. Whisk well then pour over your phyllo dough. Bake for 30 minutes or until puffy and golden brown on top.
6. Top it off with simple syrup (I used half the recipe) and garnish with pistachios.
Courtesy of Jessica Wrubel
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Tips for Perfecting the Crinkle Cake
Don’t worry if it needs a little longer to bake as every oven is different. Mine took a bit longer to bake at each interval but it was worth the wait in the end.
Make sure you buy phyllo dough and not pastry dough at the grocery store. They are different types of frozen dough that will yield different outcomes for this recipe.
As the simple syrup was cooking, I wondered if infusing it with another flavor would make this even better. Lemon peel, rose, vanilla bean, ginger and cardamom or cinnamon would all be amazing here.
Just like the simple syrup can be customized, think about what other toppings you could use in lieu of the pistachios. Any chopped nuts here would be great and so would coconut flakes or a drizzle of chocolate.
Users on TikTok have various combinations including Bischoff, cinnamon bun, Nutella, lemon and blueberry and one genius post that layered ingredients in personalized giant muffin tins instead of a 9x13 dish resulting in bite-sized cakes that would be perfect for transporting.
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