diff --git a/packages/@aws-cdk/cloudformation-include/lib/cfn-include.ts b/packages/@aws-cdk/cloudformation-include/lib/cfn-include.ts
index c19361247bf09..aad5c653c3693 100644
--- a/packages/@aws-cdk/cloudformation-include/lib/cfn-include.ts
+++ b/packages/@aws-cdk/cloudformation-include/lib/cfn-include.ts
@@ -634,7 +634,11 @@ export class CfnInclude extends core.CfnElement {
       l1Instance = this.createNestedStack(logicalId, cfnParser);
     } else {
       const l1ClassFqn = cfn_type_to_l1_mapping.lookup(resourceAttributes.Type);
-      if (l1ClassFqn) {
+      // The AWS::CloudFormation::CustomResource type corresponds to the CfnCustomResource class.
+      // Unfortunately, it's quite useless; it only has a single property, ServiceToken.
+      // For that reason, even the CustomResource class from @core doesn't use it!
+      // So, special-case the handling of this one resource type
+      if (l1ClassFqn && resourceAttributes.Type !== 'AWS::CloudFormation::CustomResource') {
         const options: cfn_parse.FromCloudFormationOptions = {
           parser: cfnParser,
         };
diff --git a/packages/@aws-cdk/cloudformation-include/test/test-templates/custom-resource-with-attributes.json b/packages/@aws-cdk/cloudformation-include/test/test-templates/custom-resource-with-attributes.json
index 716224153dbb9..c490a16515944 100644
--- a/packages/@aws-cdk/cloudformation-include/test/test-templates/custom-resource-with-attributes.json
+++ b/packages/@aws-cdk/cloudformation-include/test/test-templates/custom-resource-with-attributes.json
@@ -27,9 +27,9 @@
       "DependsOn": [ "CustomResource" ]
     },
     "CustomResource": {
-      "Type": "AWS::MyService::AnotherCustom",
+      "Type": "AWS::CloudFormation::CustomResource",
       "Properties": {
-        "CustomProp": "CustomValue",
+        "ServiceToken": "CustomValue",
         "CustomFuncProp": {
           "Ref": "AWS::NoValue"
         }