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Pancake cake with custard

Crêpe Cake with Pastry Cream

Simple, made from everyday ingredients, for any day or a celebration! This crêpe cake with pastry cream is an easy but very tasty dessert, and you don't even need an oven to make it. It comes out wonderfully tender, with a flavor a bit like a Napoleon cake.

Julia M.

Recipe author

Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Flour

Milk

500

Egg

Vegetable oil

Sugar

Salt

Milk

500

Eggs

Sugar

150

Flour

Butter

200

Vanillin

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 11 % 4 g

Fats 37 % 14 g

Carbohydrates 53 % 20 g

226 kcal

GI: 15 / 0 / 85

Cooking method

Step 1:

How do you make a crêpe cake with pastry cream? First, make the crêpes. For the batter, whisk the egg with the sugar, then add the vegetable oil and milk. Whisk in the sifted flour until you have a smooth, fairly thin batter with no lumps. You may need a little more or less flour than listed—go by the consistency of the batter.
Step 2:

On a hot skillet, cook crêpes from all the batter, browning them lightly on both sides. Grease the pan only before the very first crêpe; after that you won't need to, since there's oil in the batter and they won't stick. Stack the finished crêpes on a large plate and cover with a lid—steaming under the lid keeps them soft and stops the edges from drying out.
Step 3:

Make the pastry cream. Pour 400 ml of the milk into a nonstick saucepan (or a heavy-bottomed one) and add the sugar. Set it over the heat and bring to a boil, stirring as it heats so the sugar dissolves completely.
Step 4:

Separately, in a mixing bowl, whisk together the remaining 100 ml of milk, the eggs, flour, and vanillin. Then pour the boiling milk into this mixture in a steady stream, stirring constantly.
Step 5:

Return the whole mixture to the heat and cook, stirring constantly, until thickened. Take the cream off the heat and stir in the butter. Let it melt, then beat with a mixer so the butter blends in smoothly and evenly; the cream will cool as you beat. Use real butter with no vegetable-oil fillers—the quality really shows in the final taste.
Step 6:

Here's what the finished cream looks like—thick and glossy.
Step 7:

Spread the cream over each crêpe, distributing it evenly across the whole surface.
Step 8:

Stack all the crêpes this way, using up all the cream, to build the cake. Refrigerate it for a few hours so it soaks through and the cream sets. Finish the cake with grated chocolate or any berries you like. Enjoy!

You can use any crêpes you like for this cake—your favorite recipe, whether made with milk, with buttermilk, custard-style, or any other. Along with the cream, you can tuck in berries or soft fruit, or sprinkle each crêpe with chopped nuts and chocolate.
Always wash eggs before using them—even a shell that looks clean can carry harmful bacteria. A food-safe wash and a brush work best.
Be sure to sift the flour to aerate it; that's what makes baked goods light and well-risen.
For the differences between vanilla, vanillin, vanilla extract, and vanilla sugar—and how to use and substitute each without throwing off the flavor—see this article.