Earl Grey Crepe Cake
I’m a big fan of uncommon flavors. I’ve made this earl grey crepe cake in an attempt to extract as much earl grey flavor as possible inside a dessert.
This cake is crepes, sponge cake and earl grey pastry cream layered together.
I admit, it’s not the easiest to make, since there’s some advanced preparation to do, and since it is also recommended for you to be skilled with filling cakes.
Reason is that as the cake becomes taller, it also becomes heavier and starts to wobble due to the thinness of the crepes, which are hardly stable on top of the cream.
Another warm suggestion is to assemble the cake while on the serving plate, and avoid transferring it from one plate to another.
Originally, I piped some melted milk chocolate on top of the cake, but I recommend to skip it, since once it hardens, it keeps the knife from cutting into the cake, squashing it instead… This cake contains a lot of cream, but it is mostly made of milk, so you don’t need to be concerned with high fat contents. However, the most important thing here is that I managed to make the earl grey flavor shine here, and note that the cream needs to be infused with the earl grey for 24 hours.
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Earl Grey Crepe Cake:
Equipment: Cooking Pan, 20cm (d) for large sized crepes
Recipe: A single cake made 11 Large sized crepes, sized 16cm (d)
For the sponge cake:
| Ingredient | Amount (g / units) |
| Vanilla Genoise | Recipe here 3 sheets x 1 cm each Gluten free recipe is here |
For the crepe batter:
| Ingredient | Amount (g / units) |
| Eggs | 150g (3 medium sized eggs) |
| Milk | 240g |
| Vanilla Extract | 1 tsp |
| Melted Unsalted Butter | 45g |
| Cake Flour | 50g For GF version, you may substitute with extra cornstarch at the same amount |
| Cornstarch | 40g |
| Salt | 1/8 tsp |
| White Granulated Sugar | 20g |
For the earl grey pastry cream:
| Ingredient | Amount (g / units) |
| Eggs | 100g (2 medium sized egg) |
| Milk | 500g |
| Cornstarch | 30g |
| White Granulated Sugar | 100g |
| Vanilla Extract | 5g |
| Unsalted Butter | 20g |
| Dried Earl Grey Tea Leaves | 20g |
| Vanilla Instant Pudding Powder | 12g |
| Dutch Processed Cocoa Powder (for adding color, optional) | 1/4 tsp |
| Heavy Whipping Cream (38%), whipped to very stiff peaks | 80g |
For the Earl Grey Syrup (for soaking the sponge cake layers)- mix together all ingredients and set to the side until assembly:
| Ingredient | Amount (g / units) |
| Earl Grey Tea Bag | 1 Tea Bag |
| Boiling Water | 120g |
| White Granulated Sugar | 30g |
For the icing:
| Ingredient | Amount (g / units) |
| Heavy Cream (38%) | 140g |
| White Granulated Sugar | 14g |
Preparation instructions:
For the sponge cake – prepare as per the instructions on this page, and slice it to 3 layers, 1 cm thickness each.
For the earl grey pastry cream (advanced preparation):
- In a large bowl, mix the milk and dried earl grey tea leaves until they are fully moistened, cover with plastic wrap, and let it infuse in the refrigerator for 24 hours.
- After 24 hours: In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs and cornstarch, until smooth and without any lumps.
- Into a saucepan, pass the milk through a strainer to remove the tea leaves, and using the back of a tablespoon, squeeze out any excess milk locked inside the leaves. Add the sugar and cocoa powder, and cook on medium heat until the sugar is dissolved and the milk simmers.
- Gradually temper the eggs mixture with the hot milk by constantly whisking it to avoid cooking the eggs.
- Pour the eggs mixture back into the saucepan through a fine strainer to get rid of any unwanted cooked egg bits.
- Cook on medium heat whisking constantly making sure to scrape the sides of your pan, until you see large and thick bubbles rising to the surface. This should take 2-3 minutes. As soon as you see the bubbles, cook for some 1-2 more minutes.
- Remove from heat and add in the butter and vanilla. Whisk them well to combine.
- Transfer the batter to a clean bowl and cover it with plastic wrap that touches the surface of the custard to prevent a skin forming. Cool down to room temperature, before transferring to the refrigerator for at least 4 hours (you can make this cream one day in advanced).
Pro Tip: When you need to cool down a pastry cream fast, you can wrap a tray with plastic wrap, and pour the cream in an even layer on top of the plastic wrap. Adhere a large piece of plastic wrap to the cream and make sure it is sealed well from all sides. Transfer the tray to the refrigerator and it should be cooled down in less than one hour.
- After the cream has cooled down to a fridge temperature, add in the vanilla pudding powder and using an electric hand mixer, beat it into the cream. Then fold the stiff whipped cream into the cream. Keep refrigerated until assembly.
For the crepes (can be made the day before, and keep refrigerated until the day of assembly):
- Melt the butter in the microwave.
- Personally, I find it very convenient to throw all ingredients into a single container, and blend them together using an immersion blender. This ensures there will not be any dry powder lumps and that the mixture will be uniform. However, if you don’t own an immersion blender, I recommend to first mix all the dry ingredients in a single bowl, then gradually add the milk, whisking, to eliminate all lumps.
- Heat the pan and grease it with a little bit of cooking oil. Using a piece of paper towel, “smear” the oil evenly all over the pan.
- Pour about 1/4 cup of batter each time to the pan. The batter should cover about 75% of the surface area of the pan, then tilt the pan in circles to move the batter across in an even layer.
- Cook for 1.5 minutes on low-medium heat, until you see large, flat bubbles underneath the crepe. This is the sign that it can be flipped, and cook for 1.5 minutes on low-medium heat.
- Repeat steps 4 and 5 with the rest of the batter. Note that the pan should not be greased in between, and cooking should be kept on the lowest heat. You should get 11 crepes.
- Stack the crepes on top of each other, and using a cake ring sized 15cm (d), cut out the edges of the crepes.
Assembly:
- Place a sponge cake layer on a serving plate, and brush it with the syrup.
- Evenly spread 50g of earl grey pastry cream on top of the cake layer, and place one crepe on top of it. Arrange 3 more layers of crepes and 50g cream in between them (total 4 crepes).
- Place another sponge cake layer, brush it with syrup, and repeat step 2 (total 4 crepes).
- Place another sponge cake layer, brush it with syrup, and repeat step 2 (this time, with only 3 crepes in total).
- Ice the cake with the icing cream, and decorate according to your personal preference.
