1st post of 2014

Hello everybody!
Time really passes by in a zoom, its already been 15 days since the start of the new year!
Still in a its-as-if-New-year-was-just-yesterday mood!

Not been really blogging, as I was seriously slacking my way past New Year and having some serious ‘me’ therapy. And my ‘me’ therapy involves around running, watching Korean dramas (OMGOSH DON’T LET ME START ON MASTER’S SUN. GONG HYO JIN IS SO PRETTY. THE MORE I LOOK AT HER, THE MORE I FIND HER SO PRETTY. AND SO JI SUB, DAMN COMICAL.I JUST ENDED THIS DRAMA, AND I WANNA WATCH ITS LAST EPISODE AGAIN!!!!!!!) , reading ( One Hundred Names by Cecelia Ahern), practicing piano and preparing for my start of a new school term (new degree, new friends, new modules and hopefully a new belief that I can do it). There’s just SO much that I can do at home!

Of course, I can’t possibly be ranting about what I did since the start of 2014 right! But I think this post should be dedicated to what I have achieved thus far, and I’m proud to announce that I succeeded in making a crepe cake.

Crepe cakes, also known as mille cake are getting more and more popular in SG, and many stores such as Lady M ( which is well-known in US has opened in SG. Tried it, and its costly- 8++ per piece. Don’t really recommend, as it doesn’t taste as impactful as I think it will be.)  The best that I’ve tried: Sunset Way Classic Cakes Mille Crepe. But be prepared for a not-that-good service, and costs $7.50 per piece.  

Back to my crepe cake! Not the best yet, but at least I succeeded! Its actually my 2nd attempt cause the 1st attempt failed, and it looked horrid.

I mean who would want to eat this?

Yup, this was my 1st attempt making crepe cake which failed terribly! :X I actually found this Nutella Mille Crepe Cake recipe from Youtube, and the Japanese woman who was doing this made it looked super easy!

Shall not post the Youtube video, cause I FAILED. 😦 I guess I spread too much Nutella in between, and should have known how Nutella is such a thick spread which causes the cake to collapse.

So I decided to find another recipe, and this time I decided to do an original mille cake recipe, with the crepe layer done by scratch. The previous one was just adding eggs and sugar together.

This was the recipe that I got!

http://willcookforsmiles.com/2013/08/boston-cream-crepe-cake.html

But gotta mention about some stuff in BOLD that I actually did/ things to look out for.

P.S. Please do the custard first, as it needs time to cool the custard to room temperature, before placing it inside the fridge for an hour. 

Custard:

• 1 cup of whole milk ( Its best to use those that are non-chilled so that you do not need to wait for it to be under room temperature. For this, I used Emborg Full-Cream Whole Milk.)
• 2/3 cup of heavy cream ( heavy cream is also known as whipping cream. For this, I used Emborg Whipping Cream avail in NTUC. If the NTUC near my house has it, I believe everywhere has it, cos my house is a little ulu.)
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 4 large egg yolks
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until completely combined.

2. Add flour, whisk very well and set aside while heating the milk.

3. Heat milk, heavy cream, butter and salt until simmering. Slowly add the heated milk mixture into the egg yolk mixture stirring constantly. Whisk well, slowly.

4. Return the mixture into the pot and bring to simmer stirring constantly. The mixture will thicken within 30-45 seconds. Take off heat! (This is the trickiest part cos it was due to this part that made me redo the custard cream again, as I heated it too long, and resulting in coagulation! Monitor the heat once the custard is placed inside the pot, and ensure that it become a thick smooth cream, instead of becoming chunks.)

5. Whisk in the vanilla, set aside to cool to room temperature. ( I placed the custard inside the fridge to allow it to cool down further, for easier assemble of the cake.

Crepes:

• 2 cups flour
• 3 eggs
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1/4 cup veggie oil
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 4 tbs sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 to 3 1/2 cups of boiling water (Consistency should be like melted ice cream!!) – For this I didn’t put so much water, as once I put 1 cup of boiling water, the consistency was already like melted ice cream. If I added more, it would become over-diluted. 

1. Preheat a non-stick pan on medium high heat.

2. Combine flour, eggs, milk, oil, salt, sugar and baking soda. Whisk all well.

3. Slowly, start adding 1/4 cup of the hot water at a time to the batter. Whisking constantly until the batter reaches the consistency of melted ice cream.

4. Pour about a ladle-full into the hot pan and swirl slowly. ( Its easier to use those small pan types instead of a big pan, as the crepe should be around the size of your pan.)

5. Cook for a few seconds on each side, until golden.

Assembling the cake:

Super happy me cos it succeeded! It didn’t collapse after it was being assembled, so I was sure that it is successful!

1. Spread a somewhat thin layer of custard on each crepe as you stack them of top of each other.

2. Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight to let the cake set.

So this is it, my own version of the crepe cake. I didn’t follow it totally, and didn’t pour the ganache too, as I was temporarily afraid of chocolate/ nutella stuff to add them into/on my cake! :X

I guessed I need to improve on the texture of the crepes as it doesn’t cut as smoothly as the ones from Lady M/ Classic Cakes. Maybe due to the fact that I actually decided to wait for it to become golden brown before turning each side.

But I shall try my best to do it again, till I achieve my desired texture! 🙂