Crepe Cake

I have been looking at these different varieties of crepe cake that are all over the internet.

I just had to make one that involved chocolate!

Since banana and Nutella is my favorite combo for a crepe, that was in for sure…I added caramel sauce between the layers and covered the whole thing with rich and dark chocolate ganache.

It was D E L I C I O U S!

This can totally be just one cake instead of individual cakes…I made individuals because Bankim (my husband) doesn’t like bananas- in any form, so I made one without bananas for him.

Making individual mini crepes was a little tricky and time consuming. I first approached it by making regular crepes and cutting small rounds out of it using a cookie cutter. I was wasting a lot of crepe (sides) by this method, so I placed the cookie cutter on the pan and poured the crepe batter in it. It was very time consuming but I landed up with perfect sized crepes without wasting a single drop of the crepe batter.

The caramel sauce that I made was a recipe by one of my favorite bloggers Helene Dujardin of Tartelette.

To compliment the sauce I cooked the bananas in some butter till it turned golden on both the sides.

For the ganache- it is very important to use really good quality chocolate. Since ganache is just a mixture of cream and chocolate, the flavor comes from the chocolate you put in it. I used a dark (85%) Lindt chocolate bar.

Ganache is actually very versatile- you can use it for frosting, as a fondue (melted), add hot milk and make hot chocolate etc. I made some finger licking truffles out of the leftover ganache.

I knew Bankim would be eating it with a spoon anyway…so I added some Nutella to it, made truffles and dusted it with some good quality cocoa powder.

Serving 5 individual cakes

Cooking time varies

Things you will need:

For the Crepes

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup whole milk

3 eggs

1/4 cup sugar

1 tbs vanilla extract

a pinch of salt

Mix the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. In a blender mix milk, eggs and vanilla. Slowly pour the milk mixture into the flour while whisking it at the same time. Mix till it form a smooth batter. Refrigerate in an airtight container for 2 hours. Strain before making the crepes.

For the Caramel Sauce

1 1/4 cup (250 gr) granulated sugar

80 ml water

1 stick (115gr) salted butter at room temperature, cut into small pieces

150 ml heavy whipping cream

In a saucepan set over low heat, combine the sugar and water. Cook until the sugar is dissolved. Add the butter and let it come to a boil. Cook until it reaches a golden caramel color. Remove from the heat and add the cream. Whisk will everything is well combined and put back on the heat. Let it come to a boil again over low heat and cook until you reach a sauce like consistency. Pour it in a jar and refrigerate till you are ready to use it.

For the Ganache

1 1/4 cup heavy cream

1 1/4 cup dark chocolate, chopped

1/4 cup sugar (skip sugar if using semisweet chocolate)

1 tsp vanilla extract

In a heavy saucepan, add sugar to the cream and bring the mixture to a simmer. Turn the heat off and add chocolate, let it sit for 30 seconds. Whisk to combine and add vanilla. Mix till it turns into a smooth mixture.

For caramelized bananas

Cut ripe bananas into rounds. In a pan cook them with some butter on medium high…till they turn a beautiful golden on both the sides.

You will also need Nutella.

For Assembling the cake

Alternate the layers of caramel, bananas and Nutella (between about 5 small crepes). Finally cover it all up with the ganache and place 1 caramelized banana round on the top for garnish.

Cool Tip: I added 2 tbs of Nutella to my leftover ganache and froze it for an hour. After that using a small ice cream scoop I made truffles and dusted them with dark cocoa.