Evie's Knight Crepe Cake Recipe

So you saw in my last post the synopsis of Evie's Knight, by Kimberly Krey, and the yumtastic recipe for the crepe cake that Evie makes for Calvin. Thankfully, Krey also shared her recipe for crepes with me. And since I love books, and I love cooking, and I love making cakes for Fedora...

It's Crepe Cake Time!

Recipe for 15 crepes:

• 1½ cup flour
• 6 tbsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1½ cup milk
• 3 tbsp butter, melted
• 6 eggs

1. Melt butter and cool slightly
2. Crack eggs into medium size bowl and whisk till thick.
3. Add milk slowly, then whisk cooled melted butter into milk/egg mixture.
4. Sift flour, sugar, and salt together, then slowly whisk into the wet ingredients until smooth.
5. Spray a medium-sized frying pan with non-stick spray and put on medium heat.
6. Pour in about ¼ cup of batter into pan and quickly turn pan side to side, allowing batter to cover the bottom of the pan.
7. Cook until the top is no longer wet (just a little jiggly) and the bottom is slightly golden (about 18 seconds).
8. Peel from the edge of crepe to turn over and cook on other side for about 15 seconds (you may need to re-spray every few crepes).

Recipe for Crepe Cake:

• 1 cup milk
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 egg yolks
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/6 cup cornstarch
• 1 3/4 Tblsp butter
• 1/2 cup whipping cream (with 1 Tblsp sugar and 1 tsp vanilla added to it)

1. After crepes have cooled to room temperature (or colder), bring the milk almost to a boil (watch it closely).

2. Remove from heat and add vanilla.
3. Fill a large bowl with ice water and set aside.
4. In a medium pot, whisk the egg yolks, sugar, and cornstarch until thick.

5. Slowly add the warm milk to the egg yolk mixture, whisking to keep the eggs from cooking.
6. Over medium-high heat, whisk the milk/egg mixture until thick (about 2 minutes).
7. Add the butter and stir until melted and incorporated.
8. Place hot pan into the ice water bowl (not adding the water to the mixture, just a method to cool it quickly), stirring constantly until it's completely cooled. 

9. Cover pastry cream with plastic wrap (directly onto the cream top, so it doesn't dry out) and chill it in the fridge for an hour or more.
10. Fold the whipping cream into it.
11. Layer each crepe with pastry cream (about 2 Tblsp per crepe) to form a stack of alternating crepe and cream layers.

12. Cover the cake with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Note: I halved the pastry cream recipe from the original. You can find the recipe for the entire thing here.

Clearly, I should never be an architect. 

Also, I halved the custard recipe, but it still came out quite wet, and with more than I bargained for. My solution? Pour the remaining custard over the top and slather the entire stack of crepes in it. Mine isn't pretty, but it's damned tasty- and in the end, taste always trumps appearance!

If I could do this over again:

• I would omit almost all of the whipping cream (I'd likely use 3 Tblsp or so of it, without the added sugar and vanilla), as it made the custard too wet to set.
• I would also DEFINITELY make the caramel sauce and/or berry sauce and/or anything with more flavor. The custard is good, but the amount of breadiness with the crepes begs for more complex flavors in addition to the custard/pastry cream.
• I would make the crepes in a 12" pan instead of a 9" pan, and make the original recipe (the crepes would be much thinner than mine were, and probably make for a prettier cake overall.

Whether or not I make this cake again, those were hands-down amazeballs crepes. I am definitely making those again, and slathering them with everything, sweet or savory.