A decadent cake made with layers of tender crepes topped with sweet vanilla pastry cream dripping with rich chocolate ganache. A fun twist on Boston Cream Pie.
My sweet friend Tiffany, Food Finery, invited me to her house to make crepe cakes. I thought about making the winning recipe, Truffle Crepe Cake, from the Utah’s Own Recipe Contest, but I’ve had Boston Cream Pie on my mind lately and decided it would be a fabulous flavor combination for a crepe cake.
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If you haven’t made crepes before, they’re easy. I posted a picture tutorial earlier this week in my Strawberry Crepes post. You’ll want to make the pastry cream ahead of time so it has plenty of time to set up. The crepes will be more tender if you make the batter ahead of time too. Ideally, the night before you want to serve your crepe cake.
Tiffany made a luscious Hazelnut Pralines and Cream Crepe Cake with smaller crepes and more layers, so hers was taller. If you want a taller crepe cake, make 6″ crepes or make more crepe batter and pastry cream to create more layers.
I cut my Boston Cream Crepe Cake in to 12 pieces. It’s sinfully rich and a small slice is perfect. This crepe cake keeps well overnight in the refrigerator. It was irresistible the next morning for breakfast. 🙂
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Boston Cream Crepe Cake
Ingredients
Crepe Batter
- 4 large eggs
- 4 tablespoons butter melted and cooled slightly
- 4 cups milk
- 2 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 tablespoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 cups all purpose flour
Pastry Cream
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups milk
- 3 egg yolks beaten
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- ½ cup whipping cream
Chocolate Ganache
- 12 oz. milk chocolate finely chopped
- ¾ cup cream
Instructions
- The day before serving the cake, make the crepe batter and the pastry cream.
- Crepe Batter
- Add ingredients to blender jar in the order listed, cover and blend until smooth. Refrigerate overnight or for 1 hour prior to cooking. (Or if you’d rather, you can strain out any lumps and use immediately.)
- Heat an 8-inch skillet or crepe pan over medium heat and lightly coat with butter or cooking spray. For each crepe, pour ¼ cup batter into the center of the skillet and immediately rotate the pan until the batter covers the bottom of the skillet in a thin layer.
- Cook until light brown and the top begins to dry out, approximately 1 minute. Flip and cook an additional 30 seconds.
- Repeating with remaining batter. Stack completed crepes on a plate. (If your crepes are sticking together, put wax paper between the crepes.)
- Pastry Cream
- In a medium saucepan combine the sugar, flour and salt. Gradually whisk in milk. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture starts to boil. Cook for 2 minutes until thickened.
- Remove from stove. Whisk ¼ cup of the hot mixture into the beaten egg yolks, and immediately add egg yolk mixture to the hot mixture in the saucepan. Cook for 2 more minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla. Transfer pudding mixture to a medium bowl. Cover with plastic; refrigerate until well chilled, about 1 hour or overnight.
- When pudding is chilled, whip cream to form soft peaks and gentle fold in to pudding. Keep covered and chilled until ready to use.
- Assemble Crepe Cake
- Place one crepe on a large cake plate. Spread with ¼ cup pastry cream. Top with another crepe.
- Continue layering with filling and crepes, using about 24 crepes and ending with a crepe on top. Refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour.
- Chocolate Ganache
- Place half of the chocolate in a small mixing bowl. Heat heavy cream on medium high heat until it comes to a boil. Remove from heat and immediately pour cream over chocolate and stir until chocolate is completely melted.
- Add remain chocolate and stir until chocolate is completely melted. Cool until ganache is thickened but still thin enough to drip down the sides of the cake.
- Spoon chocolate ganache on top of the cake, spreading to edges and letting the ganache drip down the sides. Refrigerate until ganache is set, about 20 minutes.
Karie
So…….. I did everything as per the recipe. The crepes are AMAZING !!!!
The filling was runny, even when I folded the whipped cream in it didn’t fold well, but also tasted amazing. So much effort. In anycase I built it. I’m not sure if it just didn’t set well ?? All in all the appearance is beautiful. I am serving it tomorrow. I hope that I don’t have an issues cutting it.
I would make it again but would have to figure out how to thicken the filling.
Cheers !
Clint
I made this today. The only problem I had is that after I assembled the layers, they began to slip off. I simply stuck a couple of toothpicks into the cake to keep it together while it set.
Great recipe, Thanks!
Barbara
Hi Clint – thanks for sharing your toothpick trick. Great idea. My pastry cream set up overnight so I didn’t have that problem, but with a softer pastry cream, I can see how it could be a problem. So glad you enjoyed the recipe. Thanks for taking the time to let me know!
Helene Dsouza I Masala Herb
Hi barbara!
first time here and I am having a nice time. =)
your crepes looks tempting, such wonderful pictures. I wish u could send me some over ^.^
cheers
Jamie
Oh my…. oh my, Barbara I am speechless. I want a slice of this now! Wowee! Just beautiful to look at and I can just imagine the sweet smoothness of this. Maybe even better than the original cake?
Laura
Oh man Barbara! You are killing me with this one. That looks SO GOOD!
carrian
I need this in my life. Gosh, you should have made it for me to eat on the way to park city 😉
BellingtonFarm
Oh, my! This looks fabulous!!! A great twist on both traditional crepes and Boston Cream Pie !! Love it!
Renata
Oh Barbara, I’m totally hypnotized by your crepe cakes! Not only do they look gorgeous, they sound absolutely delicious!
Becky
I have yet to make a crepe cake. I think I had an aversion to them after a crepe cake beat your delicious baked french toast at that contest. But as a huge Boston Cream Pie fan I must say this looks delicious!
Eliana
Wow Barbara – such a creative idea. Your cake looks picture perfect and almost (just almost) too good to cut into.
Sorina
gorgeous!!!!
BIG, BIG LIKE!!!!
Cathy at Wives with Knives
I’m always amazed about the wonderful things that can be done with crepes. I have a family get together coming up in a couple of weeks and think this will be a perfect dessert. Very creative and beautiful, Barbara. And I can imagine how delicious it is.
teresa
holy cow! what an amazing idea, it looks so soft, sweet and decadent. well done!
Marina
And there goes my diet!