whatsforlunchtodayhoney.netThis past Saturday night was a surprise birthday party for a friend of mine, and naturally an opportunity for some baking fun. I had another friend over to help out, and together we made a very cute, reasonably simple, and impressive looking cake: Chocolate Crepe Cake. This cake is made by layering chocolate crepes with spiced whipped cream and semi-sweet, heavily spiked chocolate. When sliced into, the cake reveals tons of layers and looks truly impressive. With well-made crepes and heavy layers of cream and chocolate, the texture becomes fluffy yet decadent. It’s not your average birthday cake and the variations are endless. What’s more, you can always double the crepe batter and make a delicious little breakfast for you and your friends.
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups cold milk
- 4 eggs
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 cup flour mixed with 3 tbsp cocoa
- 3 tbsp dark rum, brandy, or grand marnier. (The liquor really brings out the darkness of the chocolate).
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
- 2 1/2 cups heavy/whipping cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1/2-1 tsp allspice, cinnamon, cardamom, or nutmeg
- 6 to 9 ounces of semi-sweet bakers chocolate
Directions:
In a large bowl, mix together the milk, eggs, sugar, flour, liquor and butter (in that order). Blend with a mixer on high speed for three minutes. To adjust the consistency to your preference, add more milk or flour and blend again for 30 seconds at a time. Cover and refrigerate for two hours.
If you have a crepe pan, use it. I do not have a crepe pan, so I used a small non-stick skillet. Spray the pan with cooking oil. PAM is actually very useful in this situation, because if does not over-grease the pan. You want some oil, but not so much that you make a greasy crepe. Using a 1/3 cup measure, pour some batter into the middle of the pan and swirl it around to make a reasonably uniform shape. These are very thin pancakes and are easy to overcook. You will be able to see when the bottom side is cooked and ready to flip. A spatula and some resilient fingertips will do just fine. Keep making crepes with a uniform amount of batter so that they are as similar in size as possible. Once they are done, set them aside to cool.
Whip together the cream, vanilla, sugar, and spice until stiff peaks form. Do pay attention so that you don’t over whip the cream and create butter. You don’t want the cream to be the light, fluid topping you would make for pie, but too much whipping will not create the desired consistency either (near solid).
Meanwhile, make a double boiler on the stove to melt your chocolate. Boil some water in a saucepan and put a bowl ontop. Melt down the chocolate and remove it from the stove. Mix in your liquor of choice until it is well combined and smooth in consistency.
On a plate, layer a crepe, and then cream, and then a crepe, and then cream, and then a crepe, then chocolate and then cream, and then a crepe … you get the idea. Make a stack of crepes with layers of chocolate and cream, leaving some whipped cream at the end to cover the entire outside of the stack. I would recommend sprinkling sugar over the crepes as you layer them for added sweetness. Chill the cake in the fridge for four hours before serving.
We decorated our cake by dusting the top with cocoa powder through a heart stencil we made with baking parchment. The cake was very popular and is a concept that can be the basis for many other flavour combinations. I’m planning a raspberry, whipped cream, and grand marnier crepes cake for next time.
