Candy Cane Chocolate Crepe Cake

Impress your guests this holiday with a unique looking Candy Cane Chocolate Crepe Cake with a chewy soft texture, candy canes to give it a nice satisfying crunchy sweetness topped with a dark chocolate ganache.

Crepe cakes look spectacular and I find you always can manage a ‘wow’ when it’s the first time you have ever whipped one up for a party or a dinner. The best part is, if you’re not a baker like me then this dessert will be right up your alley because there’s no baking involved – but be warned, making 25 layers of crepes can also be quite tedious! 😉

This chocolate crepe cake is quite versatile. You can pour the chocolate over the chocolate crepe cake at the very end like a frosting (like I did) or you can spread it onto each layer, along with the cream and candy cakes to give it a more rustic raw look as well. Keep in mind though, you will have extra chocolate sauce – I like to eat it with a spoon.

This chocolate crepe cake is also not limited to just candy canes and chocolate. Be creative with it! I have made a lemon sugar crepe with this exact recipe. I substituted lemon zest and sugar for the candy cakes and omitted the chocolate and it was delicious and light!

 

 

INGREDIENTS

There are 3 sections of ingredients for this cake: the crepe ingredients, the cream filling ingredients and the frosting ingredients.

I made eggnog an optional ingredient for the frosting and for the crepe. You can substitute it heavy cream for the frosting or milk for the crepe. It actually doesn’t alter the flavour and consistency at all.

 

 

MAKING THE CHOCOLATE CREPE

This is a standard crepe recipe, with 2 options:

• Option 1 : Milk – Use 3/4 cup of milk with 1/2 cup of water.
• Option 2 : Eggnog – 3/4 cup of eggnog with 3/4 cup of water

To make the chocolate crepes, I used a small non-stick frying pan and swirled 1/4 cup of batter around in a thin circle and let it cook for about 1-2 mins a side.  I opted for a smaller pan to make a taller crepe cake, but you can use a larger pan if you want a larger (but shorter) crepe cake. You will know the crepe is done when the edges look like they are about to dry out and curl.

I won’t lie, making crepes will be the most tedious and longest part of the whole process of this cake – stick with it. It’s worth it.

 

 

THE FILLINGS

For the whipping cream filling, I kept it simple.

I used 1/4 cup of candy cane as a sweetener and beat it for a few minutes until it forms firm peaks. Make sure the cream is whipped to be thick enough to form stiff peaks on the mixer attachment else it won’t stay put in the cake and the cake filling will be runny

For the sugar filling, it’s just plain ol’ candy canes. 🙂 Unwrap the candies and pulse it in a food processor.

Pulse the candy cane for a more grittier and chunkier texture for some crunch in the cake, else it becomes too fine and powdery.

 

 

BUILDING THE CHOCOLATE CREPE CAKE

This step is quite easy. Just stack layers of chocolate crepe, cream and candy cane!

I stacked the layers in this order: crepe, cream, crushed candy canes – repeat until done!

There is no rule for how much candy cane you want to sprinkle on. If you like a sweeter cake, then you can put candy cane on every layer, if you are like me and prefer a less sweet cake then layer on the candy cane every other layer or every 3 layers.

See how pretty it looks? Honestly, you can even serve it as it is without the dark chocolate frosting if you like!

Once you have completed the layers, keep the crepe cake in the fridge and let it cool before adding the warm chocolate frosting on it. (This is so the cream won’t melt and become runny from the heat from the chocolate sauce.)

 

 

CHOCOLATE FROSTING (GANACHE) LAYER

In a small pot, heat up the cream until it is hot but not boiling. Turn off the heat, and pour in the chocolate chips and stir! If you find the frosting still clumpy, you can turn on the stove on low and keep stirring it until it is smooth. Let the chocolate ganache cool  a bit before you pour it on the chocolate crepe cake!

It is VERY IMPORTANT that you let your cake cool in the fridge before pouring the chocolate ganache over it. When the crepe cake has not fully cooled, the cream layers are not set and warm frosting will melt the cream layers and it will produce a gobbly mess of a cake. (Of course with my crappy patience, I didn’t wait for the cake to cool and learned this the hard way.)

Don’t worry if the sides of the cake are not fully covered by just pouring the ganache over the cake, so you will need to take  spoon to ladle it onto the sides.

Put the crepe cake in the fridge to set before transferring it to another plate or adding toppings on it.

…and voila! A interesting looking chocolate candy cake crepe cake that tastes very chocolatey and minty! Perfect for the holiday seasons and if you decide to make this for parties and family gatherings, your guest will be very impressed well because…it kinda looks fascinating with all the layers!

Enjoy!

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