Learn to whip up French diplomat cream recipe—a creamy vanilla frosting that combines vanilla pastry cream (crème pâtissière) and whipped cream. It's easy to make and ideal for filling your cakes!
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What is Crème diplomate?
Diplomat Cream (French crème diplomate), also known as "Crème Madame," boasts a delightful frosting with a creamy texture, making it a favorite for filling and decorating cakes not only in French pastries but also worldwide.
This delightful vanilla frosting is a breeze to make. It starts with a classic pastry cream (creme patissiere) that's enriched with gelatin. Then, we fold in some whipped cream, known as chantilly cream (Crème chantilly), to create a beautifully creamy and luscious texture.
The result is simply amazing: it's smoother and firmer than mousseline cream or stabilized whipped cream, and it's lighter and tastier than buttercream.
Why you'll love this recipe
Want to try more French pastry recipes? Start here with this French almond cream, my favorite French puff pastry, French strawberry tart with pastry cream or this French meringue recipe.
Ingredients Notes
You need these ingredients to make this diplomate cream recipe:
Pastry cream
- Milk: use whole milk or semi-skimmed milk.
- Vanilla: a vanilla bean or use a vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste.
- Eggs: whole eggs or egg yolks for a more flavourful cream.
- Sugar: granulated sugar.
- Cornstarch: cornstarch helps to thicken the pastry cream.
- Gelatin: sheet gelatin or an equivalent amount of gelatin powder, which you can also replace with agar agar.
Whipped cream
Heavy cream: full heavy cream with at least 30% fat or heavy whipping cream and very cold. You can replace the heavy cream with mascarpone or make a mixture of heavy cream and mascarpone for an even firmer texture.
How to make vanilla diplomat cream
Here are some quick visual instructions. Don't forget that full recipe instructions with exact ingredients can be found in the recipe card below!
Make the pastry cream
Step 1: Rehydrate the gelatin sheets by immersing them in a bowl of cold water.
Step 2: Place the milk with the vanilla bean split in two and scraped (or vanilla extract) in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and let infuse for 10 minutes.
Step 3: Meanwhile, place the egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl and whisk until smooth and add the cornstarch and mix again to incorporate it.
Step 4: Pour the hot milk, previously separated from the vanilla bean, into the egg yolk mixture and mix vigorously with a whisk until you have a milk mixture.
Step 5: Transfer the hot milk mixture to the saucepan and while constantly stirring, heat over medium heat until the pastry cream thickens.
Step 6: Remove from the heat and add the drained gelatin leaves and stir to incorporate then pour the pastry cream into a large baking dish, cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator until cool.
Assemble the crème diplomate
Step 1: Place the cold, heavy cream in a mixing bowl and using an electric mixer, beat the cream at medium speed for about 3 minutes until you have a thick whipped cream with soft peaks.
Step 2: Remove the chilled pastry cream from the refrigerator and place it in a large bowl and mix the pastry cream with an electric mixer for a few seconds to loosen it.
Step 3: Gently fold in the unsweetened whipped cream with a flexible spatula until you have a smooth, creamy diplomat cream.
Enjoy! Your diplomat cream is ready to use immediately to fill your cakes or place it in the refrigerator covered with plastic wrap.
How to use this frosting
- Cake Filling: Use diplomat cream as a cake filling for layer cakes like in this strawberry cake or this fraisier cake.
- Eclairs: Pipe diplomat cream into freshly baked eclairs for a classic and delicious treat.
- Cream Puffs: Fill cream puffs with diplomat cream for a delightful and airy dessert.
- Tart filling: Spoon diplomat cream into pre-baked tart shells and top with fresh fruit for a stunning fruit tart.
- Napoleons: Layer diplomat cream between puff pastry sheets to create a Napoleon pastry.
- Profiteroles: Fill profiteroles (cream puffs) with diplomat cream and drizzle with chocolate sauce.
- Mille-Feuille: Build a classic mille-feuille (thousand-layer pastry) by layering puff pastry and diplomat cream.
- Doughnuts: Fill doughnuts with diplomat cream for a sweet and creamy surprise.
- Tiramisu: Substitute mascarpone cheese with diplomat cream in a tiramisu recipe for a lighter version of the classic dessert.
- Filling for Pastries: Fill Danish pastries or turnovers with diplomat cream and fruit preserves.
- Dessert Cups: Serve diplomat cream in small dessert cups or glasses for an elegant individual dessert.
Recipe Tips
Variations & Substitutions
Recipe Questions
You can add fruit purees or food coloring to color your diplomat cream.
No, diplomat cream is a rather fragile cream and cannot be frozen.
Diplomat cream can only be kept in the fridge for about 2-3 days max.
Mousseline cream is the mixture of pastry cream with butter, diplomat cream is the mixture of pastry cream with unsweetened or sweetened whipped cream.
More vanilla frostings
I hope you love this fluffy Diplomat cream. If you make it, be sure to leave a comment and a rating so I know how you liked it. Happy Baking!
Print
Diplomat Cream
- Total Time: 45 minutes
Description
Recipe for smooth vanilla diplomat cream, a pastry cream with gelatin and whipped cream
Ingredients
Pastry cream:
- 250 ml (1 cup) milk - semi-skimmed or whole
- 1 vanilla bean - or 1 tsp of liquid vanilla
- 40 g egg yolks - (2-3 yolks)
- 50 g (¼ cup) sugar - granulated
- 25 g (¼ cup) cornstarch
- 2 sheets of gelatin
Whipped cream:
- 200 ml (¾ cup) heavy cream - full and cold
Instructions
Pastry Cream:
- Place the gelatin leaves in a bowl of cold water and let sit for 10 minutes.
- Heat the milk with the vanilla bean, split and scraped, until it boils, then let it steep for 10 minutes.
- Place the egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch in a large bowl and beat with a hand whisk for 2 minutes until smooth.
- Remove the vanilla bean from the milk and pour it over the egg yolks while mixing with the whisk.
- Return the mixture to the saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat while stirring until the pastry cream thickens. As soon as it starts to boil, extend the cooking time by 2 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and add the gelatin leaves and mix vigorously to incorporate them.
- Pour the pastry cream immediately into a baking dish and cover with cling film and place in the refrigerator until completely cooled.
Whipped cream:
- Place the cold, full-fat heavy cream in a medium bowl.
- Mix with an electric mixer for about 3 minutes on medium speed until the mixture is stiff like whipped cream.
Diplomat Cream:
- Remove the pastry cream from the refrigerator and place in a large bowl.
- Using an electric mixer, blend the pastry cream for 1-2 minutes to loosen it.
- Add the whipped cream to the pastry cream and mix with a spatula until you have a smooth and firm diplomat cream.
- Use immediately or place in the refrigerator.
Notes
Conservation : 2-3 days in the fridge under a plastic wrap
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Category: frosting, fillings, cream
- Cuisine: Française
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 portion
- Calories: 914
- Sugar: 69.3 g
- Sodium: 185.5 mg
- Fat: 47.4 g
- Carbohydrates: 92.9 g
- Protein: 30 g
- Cholesterol: 553.8 mg
Thank you for helping me with my problem. My whipped cream was always at the bottom liquid. ♡♡♡
Hello, to make a successful whipped cream, you need to use full fat cream with at least 30% fat content and, above all, cold cream. You can place it in the freezer for 15 minutes before whipping it, and also place your bowl and whisk in the fridge before making the recipe.
Hello,
You say for the whipped cream that :
You can replace the heavy cream with mascarpone or make a mixture of heavy cream and mascarpone for an even firmer texture.
What exactly do you need to do? make it half and half? and do you have to whip the cream with the mascarpone? or incorporate them after the cream has been whipped?
Hello, you can see directly in this strawberry fraisier cake recipe how I use diplomat cream with a blend of cream and mascarpone.
Hello,
To make a diplomate with 250g of milk, how much mascarpone and cream should I use for the whipped cream? Thank you in advance for your answer.
Hi Isabelle, you can use the diplomat cream from my strawberry fraisier or I use a mixture of cream and mascarpone.
Hello, I'd like to know if it's possible to make this cream without using gelatin, will it still hold well inside a cake? And can I add butter to firm it up a bit instead of gelatin? Thank you for your return and your lovely recipes.
Hello Anna, thank you for your message and yes it's quite possible to make this recipe without using gelatine, the texture will be a little less firm but if it's to garnish the inside of a cake that's no problem and yes it's possible to add a little unsalted butter to the custard at the end of the preparation.