We love crepes, we love cake. Put the two together and we might have just found the best dessert ever.
Sue Neal shares the finer points of making the perfect crepe.
Strawberry Lemon Mascarpone Crepe Cake
20+ Crepes
1 cup pureed strawberries
1 cup lemon curd (see recipe below or use store bought)
1 cup mascarpone (or Cream cheese), softened & whipped
9 cups stabilized whipped cream (see recipe link above)
2 cups sliced strawberries
8 similar sized strawberries, cut in half through the green.
powdered sugar
optional: 1/4 cup candied lemon peel
Make crepes (see recipe above) and store in fridge or layer between parchment or wax paper and store in freezer for up to 3 months.
Fold strawberry puree with 2 cups of stabilized whipped cream and 1/2 cup mascarpone. Taste. Strawberries can be sweet or tart, or somewhere in between. If tart, add a Tbsp of powdered sugar a little bit at a time until you get the sweetness you like. Continue folding in 2 more cups of stabilized whipped cream. Cover and put in fridge until ready to use.
Fold Lemon Curd with 1 cup of whipped cream and 1/2 cup mascarpone. Finish folding remaining 2 cups of whipped cream. You will have a little bit less lemon mousse than strawberry mousse because you will start and finish with the strawberry mousse. Reserve the last 3 cups of whipped cream for piping on top.
Lay one crepe on serving dish and place about 1/2 cup strawberry mousse in center. Use a metal spatula to spread mousse all over surface and pushing out towards edges.
For extra strawberry flavor, I thinly sliced large strawberries (Costco!) on my mandolin, or just practice your cutting skills. I placed these on top of each layer of strawberry mousse.
Place another crepe on top and repeat with lemon mousse. Continue alternating between strawberry and lemon mousse until you run out. finish with a crepe on top. As you are layering, make sure the cake is laying even. Press down gently on the side that is uneven if necessary. Cover lightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate 6 hours or overnight (preferable)
Finish by dusting top of cake with powdered sugar. Pipe rest of whipped cream into rosettes (one per serving). Sprinkles with candied lemon peel and place half of a strawberry (if large) or a whole (if small) into each rosette. Slice & serve!
Blueberry/lemon version:
Omit directions for Strawberry Mousse. Substitute Blueberry curd (see Lemon Curd recipe below) for Lemon curd.
Lemon Curd & Candied Lemon Peel
1 cup sugar
3 Tbsp room temp butter
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
Approx 6 lemons
I like to make curd and candied lemon peel at the same time to get the most out of the lemons.
Start by grating 1 lemon. cover and set aside. You’ll be adding this to the curd once it’s finished cooking.
Peel rest of lemons with a zesting tool like this. It will give you thin strips. Alternatively, you can cut by hand, but you’ll have to do it after you’ve juiced. This tool is from pampered chef.
After you have zested lemons, juice them. You should have a little over 2/3 cup juice.
Beat butter & sugar in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add one egg at a time and beat in between additions. Beat for a minute. Add lemon juice slowly and mix until incorporated. It will look curdled at this point. No worries. Place mixture into a thick bottomed pan and heat on low, stirring, until the mixture is smooth.
Increase heat to medium and cook, stirring constantly until mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon. Don’t let it boil. It is now curd! Add zest, mix in. Cover directly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cool. It will store in fridge for a week or you can freeze for a few months.
Optional-Blueberry/lemon curd
Instead of adding just lemon juice, add 2 cups blueberry sauce and 1/4 cup lemon juice.
To make blueberry sauce, simmer fresh or frozen blueberries in a pan for 5-7 minutes until soft. Mash and strain.
Candied Lemon Peel/zest:
Place zested lemon peel into a pan of water, just covering and bring to a boil. Let it boil hard for 30 seconds. drain peel in a colander. Place back in pan, again cover with water and bring to a boil, hard for 30 seconds. Drain. This process removes any bitterness in the lemon.
Pour 2 cups of water into same pan and add 1 1/2 cups sugar. Heat until sugar dissolves. Add lemon peel and bring to a hard boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes (If you use the tool I recommend above, you’ll have thin pieces of lemon and it doesn’t take long to cook. To make sure, remove one and bite it, if it’s easy to bite, they are done. If you are using larger pieces of peel, you’ll want to cook a little longer.
Drain from pan (you can save the liquid, it’s like lemon syrup) and place lemon peel on a piece of parchment and cool for 10-15 minutes. It should feel a bit tacky. Toss into some super fine sugar to coat. Place back on parchment and let dry for several hours.
Nutella and Banana Crepe Cake
20+ Crepes
8 cups stabilized whipped cream (see recipe link above)
1 3/4 cups Nutella divided
1/2 cup heavy cream + 2 Tbsp
1 tsp kosher salt
6 bananas
8-12 Ferrero Rocher Hazelnut chocolates
Make crepes (see recipe above) and store in fridge or layer between parchment or wax paper and store in freezer for up to 3 months.
Place 1 cup nutella in microwave on low temp for 20-30 seconds. Keep checking as you don’t want it warm at all, just loosened up a bit. Fold into 1 cup of stabilized whipped cream. Fold another cup of whipped cream into Nutella mixture. Finish by folding rest of whipped cream for mousse. Cover and put in fridge until ready to use.
Lay one crepe on serving dish and place about 1/2 cup Nutella mousse in center. Use a metal spatula to spread mousse all over surface and pushing out towards edges.
Slice a banana thinly (do this one at a time, otherwise bananas will brown.
Cover top of mousse with one layer of sliced bananas. Place another crepe on top and repeat with more mousse. Continue alternating between just mousse and mousse & banana slices until you run out, finish with a crepe on top. As you are layering, make sure the cake is laying even. Press down gently on the side that is uneven if necessary. Cover lightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate 6 hours or overnight (preferable)
Once ready to serve, place rest of Nutella (1/2 cup heavy cream + 2 Tbsp) in a bowl. Place 1/2 cup heavy cream in a pot and heat (but not boil). Pour over Nutella and mix until smooth. Mix in salt.
Check consistency of ganache. It should drop from a spoon smoothly (no gaps), but not runny. Start by pouring onto center top of cake. It should naturally move towards edges of cake and drip down. You might need to move it in this direction if your ganache is tight. That’s ok! It takes a bit of practice to know the right consistency.
Use the rest of the stabilized whipped cream to pipe rosettes on top of the cake (as many as you wish slices). Unwrap Ferrero Rocher chocolates and tuck one & a thick slice of banana into the center of each rosette. Optionally sprinkle Chocolate sprinkles over top of cake. A friend had given me a box of De Ruijter Belgium sprinkles…they are actually use this on toast! My kind of toast!
Visit Sue’s website at www.sueneal.blogspot.com.
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