Diplomate Cake - Recycling Brioche and Croissants

Think of this cake as like a Bread and Butter pudding, only replace the bread with Brioche and replace the butter with Croissants and Pain au Chocolats and you have got one of my favourite bakery cakes.

To think this recipe came about after a baker didn't want to throw away unsold, stale brioche. Instead they turned it into something unbelievably tasty.

Luckily I've been on a bit of a brioche baking spree (I've been perfecting my sourdough brioche recipes) and we had some stale brioche left over, which is perfect for making this cake.

It's so simple, you are going to love it.

Let me show you how it's done.

You will need the following:

Ingredients:

• 500 g stale brioche (if it's not stale, toast the brioche in slices)
• 2 stale croissants
• 2 stale pain au chocolats
• 100 g glacé cherries
• 4 eggs
• 200 ml full fat cream
• 1 L full fat milk
• 4 tbsp brown rum

Utensils:

• Chopping board
• Knife
• Bowls
• Measuring spoon
• Baking dish (I used a long terracotta terrine dish)

1. Slice the brioche and cut it into small cubes, around 2 cm².
2. Cut the croissants and pain au chocolats into small cubes.
3. Cut in half the glacé cherries.
4. Place them all into a large bowl.

1. To the cream add the eggs and rum.
2. Once well mixed pour in 1 L of milk.
3. This may seem like a lot, but the stale brioche will soak most of it up.

1. Pour the egg mix all over the brioche and pastries and leave to soak for at least an hour.
2. You want the stale brioche and pastries to absorb as much of the egg mixture as possible.
3. You do not want it to be dry, the cake needs to have an "eggy" texture to it. Add more milk and cream if you feel the mix is too dry.

Bake in the oven at 180°C for 35-45 minutes. You may need more time if you use a large round dish.

Always check with a skewer, it needs to come out clean and the top of the cake should be a dark golden brown.

Once fully cooled turn the dish upside down and you'll now see a beautifully smooth surface.

Decorate with any remaining glacé cherries, or leave it natural.

Cut a slice. Just look at that texture.

You can see layers of brioche with the pastries and cherries, surrounded by a wonderfully rich rum egg nest. Think of it like French toast but on steroids.

You could easily add other dried fruits to the mix and why not throw in some cinnamon or all spice for an extra kick.

Bon appétit.