Hello sweet reader, want to go slightly overboard this year and create a mille (thousand) crêpes cake with me?  Well maybe not today, unless you’d love a bout of last-minute panic shopping and cooking, but any day of the year can be Pancake Day!  Despite initial doubts about this culinary experiment, it’s a delicious and also really fun sugar-free cake to make with eighteen spelt crêpes interspersed with lovely layers of citrus curd and quark-based cream, all drizzled with maple syrup.  I confess I’ve been munching on it throughout the day, which I can because it’s all pretty healthy!  A thousand-layered cheers!  Hip hip! 🙂

Citrus curd mille-crêpes cake

The citrus curd is made with maple syrup (or sugar), blood oranges and lemon juice but don’t worry if you don’t have everything.  You can use mascarpone, fromage frais or cream instead of Quark, and any citrus fruit you fancy for your curd (or even buy some nice lemon curd!).

And why not invent your own mille-crêpes cake with strawberries and cream, pear and nutella, or minced meat and tomato sauce (ooh… a mille-crêpes lasagna!).  You can see lots of tasty possibilities on Love and olive oil’s post:  crepe cake challenge, which inspired me to create this cake in the first place.  So thank you Love and olive oil!

Ingredients

The crêpes

Make your crêpes using my spelt crêpes recipe here or your own trusty recipe.  You can make them the day before and keep in the fridge.  You should also choose a cake size:

• round full-cake (18 crêpes = 18 layers)
• half-cake (9 crêpes cut in half to make 18 layers) – this is the one I made
• quarter-cake (4 crêpes cut in quarters to make 16 layers)

Quantities for a half-cake

Citrus curd – yes, you can use one or two shop-bought jars of it if you like! 🙂 

• 140g juice of blood oranges (or some other citrus fruit)
• 25g lemon juice
• 2g grated zest of citrus fruit
• 90g maple syrup (or caster sugar)  – taste your curd as you make it to see if it needs more syrup or sugar
• 160g beaten egg (3 medium-sized eggs)
• 1 tablespoon cornflour diluted in 2 teaspoons of water
• 80g softened unsalted butter cut into small cubes

The citrus curd cream

• 180g of the citrus curd you made or bought
• 250g fat-free Quark (or ricotta/mascarpone/cream)

The fruit layers

• around 6 blood oranges or other kinds of fruit

I added fruit to two layers, using segments from 2 blood oranges for each layer.  Then I placed more segments on top to decorate.

Maple syrup to drizzle over the cake or when serving individual slices

Method

Make the citrus curd

Make the citrus curd cream

Now assemble the cake!  Put a crêpe (half) on your serving plate (which ideally fits into a big tupperware container) and spread a thin layer of curd cream on it; cover with next crêpe layer and spread with thin layer of curd.  Alternate till you reach the top, then also insert fruit with the curd or curd cream in some layers near the top.  Decorate the top with fruit or just drizzle with maple syrup.

Taking care of your crêpes cake

Keep your cake in the fridge in an airtight container for one hour then eat!  It can be kept for 2 to 3 days.  I recommend speaking or singing to your cake, preferably when no-one else is around.  And take it to a party – I took mine to What’s Cookin’ Wednesday organised by Buns in My Oven and The Wednesday Roundup organised by LeMoine Family Kitchen.  And we’re going to Fiesta Friday too!  Good times!! 🙂

Citrus curd mille-crêpes cake

So are you inspired to make a mille-crêpes cake too sweet reader?  What would you put in your crêpes cake?

And did you have a lovely Pancake Day?  How many crêpes or pancakes did you eat?!   More festivities coming soon with Chinese New Year!!!  It’s just celebrate, celebrate, celebrate, eat, eat, eat lately!  Yes, it’s just awful.

So wishing you happy festivities with lots of edible goodies!  Happy baking or cooking and see you soon! 🙂