Golden Staircase Pie

During the Christmas holidays, I remembered a pie/tart/cake that my Mum used to make when I was younger. It had luscious layers of sweet lemon, orange and vanilla custards, a crumbly pastry and cream. I started thinking about this cake, dreaming about it even. So therefore, I had to make it..... Luckily we had a dinner invitation to a friend's house for New Year's Eve, so I had a great excuse to make something a little bit special.

It was called a Golden Staircase Pie. My Mum made this pie and served it in her cafe. And although it was stunning to look at and popular with customers, I have never seen this served in any other cafe or restaurant I've visited. Even 'Google' could not provide me with a picture of this pie, only two or three recipes in the whole 'interweb'. My recipe is adapted from the Epicurean website.

Anyhow, I ploughed ahead, found a recipe which I adapted to local ingredients and here's the result.  It was good, excellent even. The textures were as I remembered them; crumbly pastry, creamy lemon layer, the firm orange custard layer in the middle and the soft vanilla layer on top. The difference in my recipe to those that I've found and that which my Mum used is the addition of passion fruit. I didn't have any passionfruit, so I left them out, but you could add this fruit to the bottom level and spoon over the top as a nice 'tropical' taste to the pie. I think you could also add some chopped or canned pineapple onto the top to serve. 

I'd save this cake for a special occasion, as  it is a little bit of any effort to make it. It's not difficult, it just takes some time as you have to wait for each layer to set before making the next layer. But definitely worth it.

What you'll need

Makes one large cake, 10 - 12 pieces.

For the pastry

125g butter, at room temperature
70g caster sugar
1 egg yolk
1 cup self-raising flour
45g cornflour
35g plain flour
4 teaspoons milk

For the bottom lemon level

200ml lemon juice
325ml sweetened condensed milk

For the middle orange level

100g caster sugar
250ml orange juice
4 heaped teaspoons custard powder
4 heaped teaspoons cornflour
4 teaspoons lemon juice

For the top vanilla custard level

60g butter, at room temperature
250ml milk
6 heaped teaspoons cornflour
6 teaspoons caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

To serve 

Thin slices of whole orange and lemon or pulp from three passionfruit
Whipped thickened cream

What to do

Step 1 - make the pastry
Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, then add the egg yolk. Sift flours together. Add flours to the mixture, then add the milk. If the pastry is too sticky, add a bit more plain flour until it comes together into a ball. Roll out pastry to a 1cm thickness. Grease and line a 22cm pie plate or springform cake tin. Put in the pastry and press into the corners of the tin. Leave an overhang that you can cut off later. Bake in a 180 degree Celsius over for 20 minutes until golden. Remove from the oven and let cool completely in the tin.

Step 2 - first layer
Mix condensed milk and lemon juice together. Stir and it will thicken after a little while. Pour the mixture into the baked and cooled pie pastry. Place in the fridge to cool and set.

Step 3 - second layer
Heat juices over low heat in a small saucepan. Mix together the custard powder, cornflour and sugar. Add to warmed juices. Stir with a whisk until thickened (this happens very suddenly, so don't leave the pot). Cover with a lid to prevent a skin forming. You will end up with a very thick orange custard. Cool the mixture, then spread over first layer. Chill in the fridge until well set.

Step 4 - third layer
Heat the milk gently in a small saucepan. Mix the cornflour together with a little milk and stir well. Add the cornflour mix to the warm milk, stirring continuously. Cover with a lid and set aside to cool.
Cream butter and sugar well with electric beaters. Beat in the cooled cornflour/milk mixture. Gradually add vanilla. Spread over orange juice layer. Chill well.

Step 5 - decoration
Once set, spoon or pipe whipped cream over the cake. Lay slices of orange and lemon over the cream and spoon over passion fruit pulp if you like. Slice using a heated knife and serve immediately.