After last week’s aebleskiver/takoyaki experiments, I was out of ideas as to what to tackle next. Usually I let my stomach do the steering, but lately It’s been stuck in a culinary cut-de-sac, driving around the same six or seven food staples–ramen noodles, bbq pork, rice, chicken, sourdough bread, SPAM, and baby boy choy–though I did throw homemade pizza into the mix last weekend. While writing this blog, and all the cooking and baking that goes along with the process, has kept me afloat spiritually and mentally during the pandemic, it’s nevertheless a constant struggle to come up with ideas to motivate me to get off my butt.

This week was no exception. I was still coming up empty when Karen reminded me (on Tuesday) that Bastille Day was upon us, maybe I should do something with crepes? Another East-West mash-up perhaps? Maybe matcha crepe cake? She’d surprised me with a lovely one for my birthday a couple years ago and I haven’t had a crepe cake, matcha or otherwise, since. Hmm, not a bad idea. Since crepes played a big role in my introduction to “European” cuisine and was the second specialty item I learned how to make, after cream puffs, it’d be fun to revisit them.

As I mentioned in my post about the flying saucer sandwiches, my first introduction to crepes was The Magic Pan, a chain of restaurants which brought that most iconic of French dishes to the American masses back in the 70’s and 80’s. The precision of their automated 10-pan crepe maker never failed to mesmerize me as a kid. I loved watching it churn out batch after batch of perfect crepes as I waited for my chicken divan to arrive. My family had become so enamored with crepes they (aka Mom) encouraged me to try making them at home. I’d already “mastered” cream puffs. How hard could crepes be? If I got good at it we could save the expense of a trip to The Magic Pan.

There wasn’t a recipe for crepes in my trusty Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook (though surprisingly there was one for creme brûlée), so I ended up using one out of a softcover cookbook on “French” cuisine mom received as a gift with purchase for opening a bank account. Remember when banks still did stuff like that? I think it was part of a series published by Sunset Magazine, which by now became one of Mom’s go-to resources, along with Good Housekeeping–cue the 70’s Jell-O molds. Anyway, I was clearly under the impression the Sunset recipe would somehow be more “authentic” (no doubt because the word “French” was in the book’s title) and therefore more reliable than anything I could find in Good Housekeeping.

As I recall it took quite a few tries before got the pan swirl down. My crepes weren’t as even as the ones from the restaurant, where the molds were uniformly dipped in batter, then inverted. I had to figure how to maneuver a 12″ teflon-coated frying pan to quickly distribute the thin batter to coat the entire bottom surface of the pan before it completely set, then flip the crepe without destroying it. I’m sure those early crepes were probably on the thick side, though once filled with the requisite Cool Whip and strawberries, and dusted with powdered sugar, no one noticed.

Crepes fell out of my repertoire for many years, only occasionally making an appearance on one-off dessert menus, like cinnamon-apple beggar’s purses or Crepe’s Suzette. Crepe making was a skill I acquired but not one I used very often. Like many of my chef friends, I preferred having mine in restaurants or creperies such as the now-defunct Ti Couz. It was one of my favorite neighborhood joints when I lived in the Mission. My roommates and I regularly racked up healthy tabs on their famous savory-filled buckwheat crepes, charcuterie and cheese platters, French onion soup, pitchers of hard cider, and sweet Nutella and banana-filled dessert crepes topped with whipped cream and vanilla ice cream, washed down with a big bowl of cafe au lait. Oh those carefree pre-Lactaid days!

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Wrapping and filling a crepe isn’t much of a challenge. Constructing a forty-plus layer crepe cake, on the other hand, is a worthy of pursuit And, to make it even more interesting I decided to make two different flavors–Ube Coconut Creme and Vanilla Strawberry “Cheesecake”–another East meets West theme. My biggest challenge here was actually finding a usable non-stick pan, which proved to be harder than I thought. I’d gotten rid of all my dinged up, scratch up sauté pans when I moved, but what I had left weren’t exactly ship shape either, and certainly not suitable for making crepes. I’d meant find replacements before the shutdowns–just never got around to it. Now I found myself digging through Mom’s kitchen searching for something to use. Let me tell you, her collection wasn’t so great either. However, I did find one 10″ non-stick sauté pan in reasonable condition.

I made two different crepe batters, from two recipes with slight variations. The first recipe, which I adapted from Cooking With Kurt, called for a fairly high proportion of eggs, butter, and milk to cake flour which produced a very loose batter and paper thin crepes. According to Kurt that is the hallmark of a Lady M.-style crepe cake–Lady M. being the fashionable premier crepe cake bakery of the moment. I substituted about 1/4 c. buttermilk for whole milk and added some vanilla extract I thought the flavor and texture of the crepe was lovely but a bit too delicate to handle.

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The second recipe I adapted was from M. Patisserie, which called for less eggs and milk in proportion to cake flour. Unlike the previous recipe it did not require an overnight rest in the fridge, but it also didn’t use brown butter, which was what I loved about Kurt’s version. Consequently, I replace the melted plain butter with brown butter, subbed out a little buttermilk for whole milk, and added ube extract in addition to the vanilla. The intense deep dark purple of the ube extract gave the batter and crepes a gorgeous violet hue.

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Per instructions, I laid out the finished crepes on a parchment-lined sheet pan staggered so they’d to be easier to separate. This worked fine with the Ube crepes but I found the vanilla crepes still stuck a little due to their thin, delicate texture. Fortunately, I had enough of the vanilla batter to make more crepes than I needed.

For the vanilla crepes, I made a “cheesecake” filling by whipping softened cream cheese with heavy cream, powdered sugar, and a touch of vanilla extract. To give it good strawberry flavor, I whipped in some homemade strawberry jam, along with about 2 T. ground freeze-dried strawberry.

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The hardest part of assembling this crepe cake was separating the vanilla crepes without tearing them. I portioned out the filling with a .75 oz scooper to ensure even distribution among the layer. I layered in some thinly sliced fresh strawberries about every 5 layers for added texture and color. Taking Kurt’s advice, I saved the nicest looking crepe for the top layer.

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The Ube crepe cake was considerably easier to assemble. Every crepe remained intact. For the filing, I made a coconut milk pastry cream and folded in very lightly sweetened whipped cream flavored with vanilla and coconut extracts. Again I used the same scooper to potion out the filling for each layer.

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I wrapped both cakes well in cling film and let them set up overnight in the fridge. I dusted the vanilla strawberry cake with a generous coating of powdered sugar mixed with ground freeze-dried strawberries, and finished off the ube coconut cake with a simple dusting of powdered sugar to offset the dramatic crepe color.

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Both cakes came out beautifully, with dramatic alternating layers of crepe and filling. Resting overnight allowed the components to meld together, resulting in a tender, creamy melt-in-your-mouth texture that’s unlike any traditional cake you’ll probably encounter. And that’s a cake worth making!

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The recipe below is an amalgamation of Kurt’s and M. Patisserie, with a few of my own modifications. I find that using a hand blender works best to smoothly incorporate all the ingredients. I suggest making whatever fillings you choose to layer with the crepes way in advance, before you start crepe production.

Crepe Cake Batter

Yield: enough for one 9″ crepe cake (about 22-24 crepes)

• 5 large eggs, room temperature
• 80 g sugar
• 1/4 t. sea salt
• 100 g cake flour
• 450 ml warmed whole milk
• 50 ml buttermilk
• 1 t. vanilla extract or vanilla paste
• 1 t. ube extract (for ube crepes)
• 50 g unsalted butter, browned and cooled to room temperature
• additional melted butter or oil to grease pan

1. Whisk or blender together eggs, sugar and salt.
2. Sift in cake flour, then whisk or blender to incorporate.
3. Combine milks and extracts, then whisk or blend into the above.
4. Whisk or blend in brown butter. Strain batter, cover and let it rest for about 20 mins. before using. *If you make the batter in advance, take it out of the refrigerator about 30 mins. before you plan to use it. Whisk the batter before using.
5. Heat a 10″ non-stick sauté pan on medium heat. Brush on a light coating of melted butter or oil.
6. Pour about 2 oz. or 1/4 c. batter into the hot pan and immediately swirl to completely coat the surface as evenly as possible. *Periodically give the batter a stir to keep it from separating.
7. Wait until the large bubbles form across the surface and edges begin to slightly color before loosening the edges with a thin spatula and inverting the pan over a parchment-lined sheet pan to release the crepe.
8. Lay the finished crepes flat, staggered on top of each other.
9. Keep the stacked crepes covered loosely with plastic wrap or kitchen bowl until ready to assemble cake.
10. To assemble the crepe cake, spread a little less than 1/4 c. filling on each crepe. Use a small offset spatula to spread filling out evenly, leaving a 1/4″ border from the edge. Save the best looking crepe for the very top layer.
11. Wrap and refrigerate the assembled cake for at least 4 hrs. or overnight before far garnishing, cutting and serving.

Strawberry “Cheesecake” Filling

• 12 oz. soften cream cheese
• 1/2 c. powdered sugar
• 2 t. lemon juice
• 1 t. vanilla extract
• 3 1/2 c. cold heavy cream
• 1/2 c. strawberry preserves
• 2 T. ground freeze-dried strawberries

1. Beat together cream cheese, powdered sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla extract until smooth.
2. Gradually whip in heavy cream. Whip mixture until stiff and fluffy.
3. Fold in jam and ground freeze-dried strawberry to combine.

Coconut Custard Creme Filling

• 3 large egg yolks
• 3 T. cake flour
• 1/3 c. sugar
• pinch of sea salt
• 1 (14oz) can full fat coconut milk
• 1/2 c. whole milk
• 1 t. vanilla extract
• 1 T. dark rum (optional)
• 1 t. coconut extract
• 2 T cold water
• 2 t. gelatin powder
• 3 c. cold heavy cream
• 3 T. powdered sugar

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together yolks, sugar, cake flour, and salt until smooth.
2. In a medium heavy bottom pot, bring milks just to a boil.
3. While the milks are heating, sprinkle gelatin over cold water. Stir to combine and set aside.
4. Temper the egg mixture with half of the hot milk then return everything to the pot.
5. Cook the custard on medium heat, whisking constantly, until mixture thickens and comes to a simmer. Continue cooking and whisking for another full minute.
6. Transfer custard to a bowl and whisk in soften gelatin. Press a layer of plastic wrap onto the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.
7. Whip the cream and sugar to medium firm peaks, then gently fold into the chilled custard to combine.