CREPOCOLYPSE! Sorry, I had to. Zombies really have nothing to do with crepe cakes, but this cake needed some sort of topper and it was either zombies or army men. And since I’ve already used Taylor’s army men, zombies it is. I guess you could call this invasion of the crepe cakes, considering I got a whopping 17 entries! You guys are ambitious and I love you for it. Sure, the prospect of winning one of these amazing Swiss Diamond crepe pans probably encouraged you more than I did (what can I say, it’s an amazing pan, and the 7 of you who I’ll be randomly selecting shortly are going to LOVE it). Be sure to click through to the end of this post see the other amazing crepe creations!
For my own crepe cake I went boozy: bourbon-spiked crepes filled with bourbon caramel chocolate ganache. Surprise! I’m baking with bourbon again. At what point do I need to rename this blog Love & Bourbon, because, really? It’s getting out of hand.
I have to say that I LOVED this Swiss Diamond crepe pan. When I’ve made crepes before I’ve simply used a dinky little nonstick skillet. And sure, it works (any non-stick skillet will, really), but Swiss Diamond is not kidding when they say you don’t need any butter/oil/cooking spray with their nonstick pans. Seriously. I didn’t use a dollop of butter or a drop of oil when making these crepes, and they came out beautifully speckled and golden brown, with crisp, lacy edges… just like I like them.
Can we all agree to acknowledge that the lacy edges are the best part of a crepe? Especially when two dozen are stacked together in a tower-o-crepe, the lacy edges turn into ruffles that give the crepe cake its dazzling appearance. I mean, people spend hours piping buttercream ruffles on fancy layer cakes, and here you have something just as pretty, au-naturale.
The crepes themselves seemed a bit chewier than crepes I’ve made before, with a bit more tooth, possibly due to the high proportion of eggs and egg yolks in this particular recipe. They were nice and sturdy though, perfect for filling and stacking, and beautifully golden yellow in color. But the filling. Oh the filling. I could have eaten this by the spoonful. Why I’d never thought to make a chocolate ganache with warm caramel instead of warm cream, and bourbon-spiked caramel at that, I have no idea. This will be a recipe you’ll most definitely see again.
As a few challenge participants noted, a crepe cake is a great way to practice your technique, just because you’re making so many of them. While I’m proud to say I only tossed one crepe, by the time you’ve made upwards of 20 crepes, let’s just say you’ve got the technique down. And face it, even ugly crepes stack together into a gorgeous cake. And now, the amazing things you guys created for this challenge (I’m so impressed!) And out of these 17 submissions, 7 will be receiving their own Swiss Diamond 9.5″ crepe pan (a $110 value). Stay tuned as I’ll be selecting the winners and emailing you all very shortly. :) Kitchen Challenge will be back in January with another tempting task, stay tuned! Disclosure: This post sponsored by Swiss Diamond. As always, all opinions written are purely our own. We’re incredibly grateful for opportunities like these that allow us to challenge ourselves in the kitchen, so thank you for supporting us and the brands we love.
