Birthday Crepe Cake

7.19.17

**Special shoutout to Ben from Ramshackle Pantry! Have you tried to comment on any of my posts and it blocked you?? Well if so, I’m so sorry, I had no idea!  Ben brought this to my attention and it should be all fixed now! And make sure to check out his blog!!**

Now to the business at hand, summer birthdays. It must be nice to be a grown-up with a summer birthday.  All through school I remember friends who wouldn’t get to bring cupcakes to class, or have a party easily attended by all the kids because it fell between June and the beginning of September.  What. A. Bummer. But once we all lose summer break as adults, birthdays are fair game, and as a summer baby you can make up for lost time ten fold. You win at birthday time of year. There are birthdays at outdoor movies, beach day, patio bar crawl, or what this cake was made for, a picnic! My friend Alice is one of the coolest Brooklyn chicks I know, so of course she decided a picnic with plenty of friends and a table with food and drinks for miles would be the way to go. I wanted to make her a cake, but it’s summer, it’s hot, I’d prefer to not have to turn on the oven. Plus with a busy schedule, being able to make part of the cake beforehand was ideal.  Well pastry cream and fruit curd can check those boxes so after playing around with some flavor combos, I created this ooey gooey delicious crepe cake.

I adapted the pastry cream from one of my go-to sites for basic recipes, King Arthur’s Flour, here, and the curd from a great blog, Fab Food 4 All, here.

The curd was delicious but, I wanted it to be thicker, so it didn’t ooze out quite so much. I feel like a little cornstarch or an extra egg yolk or two would be helpful for next time. Also if you don’t have a box that fits, and it’s hot out, this cake is a little tricky to transport. It got pretty slidey on its trip from Harlem to Greenpoint, Brooklyn. But if you’re eating it at home, or it’s secure in your car with AC, you should be fine. And even slanted over, it still tasted great! The herbaceous essence of the cream is really nice with the rich blackberry. 

And I’m sure on all your minds is the very important question, “But in this sticky, hot weather, what did I wear to this outdoor birthday party?” OMG, you’re so lucky, I’m going to show you later this week, because it’s quickly taken over as my summer uniform.

 

Ciao for now, b(i)atches!

 

Blackberry & Thyme Crepe Cake

Ingredients

For the Blackberry Curd

• 1 pint blackberries
• Juice from 1 lemon
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 6 Tbsp unsalted butter, cubed
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 egg yolk

For the Pastry Cream

• 1 1/2 cups whole milk
• 1/4 cup sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1/2 Tbsp flour
• 2 large egg yolks
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup heavy cream, whipped to soft peaks
• 1 bunch fresh thyme

For the Crepes

• 4 cups AP flour
• 8 large eggs
• 2 cups milk
• 2 cups water
• 1 tsp salt
• 8 Tbsp melted butter

Instructions

For the Curd

• In a small saucepan over low-medium heat mix together blackberries and lemon juice and allow it to simmer 10 minutes to break down
• Push mixture through a sieve into a medium saucepan, pressing all the juice through with a wooden spoon
• Add butter and sugar into medium saucepan over low heat and allow to melt into blackberry juice
• Turn up the heat a touch so it just starts to simmer and add in eggs and yolk, whisking constantly
• Allow the mixture to thicken and then remove from heat, allow to cool, then pour into bowl and place plastic wrap over bowl, directly onto curd to avoid creating a skin, keep chilled until use

For the Pastry Cream

• In a medium saucepan, stir together 1 1/4 cups of the milk, sugar, salt, and thyme. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the cornstarch, flour, and egg yolks with the remaining 1/4 cup milk.
• Whisk some of the hot milk mixture with the egg yolk mixture to temper it
• Pour the egg/milk mixture back into the remaining simmering milk
• Whisking constantly, bring to boil and allow to thicken
• Remove from the heat and strain through a fine sieve to remove lumps and thyme leaves
• Stir in the butter and vanilla extract
• Rub a piece of butter over the surface of the cream to avoid a skin, press plastic wrap against top of cream and allow to cool completely
• Once cooled, fold the whipped cream into pastry cream

For the Crepes

• In a large bowl, whisk together eggs and flour
• Add milk and water, whisk together, then add salt and melted butter, and whisk until smooth
• Spray crepe pan with cooking spray and in 1/4 cup increments, scoop batter into pan,
• Make sure batter is spread evenly on pan and allow about two minutes per side (until it starts to lightly brown)
• Place wax paper or foil in between crepes to prevent sticking while crepes cool

To Assemble

• Using the rim of a bowl around 6-7″ as a guide, cut the crepes into a uniform size
• In order, layer crepe, curd, crepe pastry cream; spreading curd and pastry cream thinly on top of crepe, allowing a clean boarder to give them room to spread
• Continue the order of these layers until desired height is reached, I think around 16-18 crepe layers is enough
• Top with confectioners sugar, extra pastry cream, or fresh blackberries if desired

P.S.

**This crepe recipe should make about 24, since a few will turn out lame or not cooked all the way, it provides plenty of leeway to pick the best of the bunch