Let’s celebrate the delicate flavors of honey and chamomile with a heavenly crepe cake! It’s as stunning as it is delicious. This labor of love is layers of thin chamomile crêpes filled with a rich honey and mascarpone cream, topped with a sprinkle of flowers.
Friends, hello! We’ve officially entered May, my birthday month so naturally – I’ve got cake on the brain.
There are no shortage of cake ideas around here. A classic like, Everybody’s Chocolate Birthday Cake is an obvious choice for birthday dessert, but since there are already several birthday celebrations in the calendar, we’re going to need a lot of cake.
Enter, this mille-crêpe cake. An unlikely birthday cake scented with chamomile and dripping with honey. Layers of paper thin crêpes are filled with a honey mascarpone cream and make for the most satisfying slice of layer cake because well, there’s a million layers.
The thing about this cake is…. we have to make all the layers. While this cake is a labor of love, flipping crêpes at the stovetop – consider us flipping instead of baking.
Whether you make this cake for Mother’s Day or your favorite Taurus or Gemini, I hope you enjoy the process. Heck, if this cake just inspires you to make crêpes for breakfast, I’m good with that too.
Let’s go!
Here are the ingredients you’ll need to make this crepe cake recipe:
• whole milk
• chamomile tea bags
• honey
• heavy cream
• vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
• all-purpose flour
• granulated sugar
• lemon zest
• kosher salt
• six large eggs
• unsalted butter
We’ll start by turning milk into tea. Steam milk in a saucepan before adding two chamomile tea bags to steep. Steep the bags for 15 minutes then whisk in two tablespoons of honey. A subtle and sweet chamomile milk – this cake is already a delight.
While the milk and chamomile steep, whisk together the dry ingredients, adding just a dash of lemon zest for a hint of citrus brightness.
How to make crêpe batter:
Pour the chamomile milk mixture into a blender with eggs, and heavy cream. Blend until well combined, about 30 seconds or so. Add the dry ingredients and blend into a thin and smooth crêpe batter.
Transfer the batter to a bowl, scraping the sides of the blender to get every bit of batter. Cover and allow the batter to chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours before using.
How to cook crêpes:
The French don’t call this a mille-crêpe cake for nothin. This cake comes together crêpe by crêpe. Think of your time standing at the stove flipping crêpes as an active baking time or a meditation.
I used an 8-inch nonstick skillet to make each crêpe. If your pan is a slightly different size, adjust the batter by a tablespoon more or less depending on your pan size. I found that an 8-inch nonstick made for a charming layer cake.
Place the pan over medium heat and brush the bottom and sides with melted butter. Ladle in 1/4 cup of chilled batter into the pan and swirl the batter across the bottom of the pan to spread into an even layer. Bake until just beginning to brown across the bottom – 30-45 seconds.
Flip with a spatula and cook through on the second side. Place on a wire rack to cool. You’ll have about 20 crêpes once they’re all cooled. Offset stack ’em, cover, and chill before stacking and filling.
How to make crêpe cake filling:
While the crepes chill, in a medium bowl with a spatula, gently whisk together a bit of cream, mascarpone, honey and powdered sugar. Using a hand mixer, or in the bowl of a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, whip heavy cream to soft peaks.
Fold together the whipped cream and mascarpone for a lightly sweetened sturdy crepe filling, reserving some of the soft whipped cream for topping the cake.
How to assemble the crêpe cake:
Start with a crêpe on the bottom of a cake plate or small cake stand. Spread with a few tablespoons of mascarpone filling. Add another crêpe, gently spread with filling edge to edge and continue to stack the cake until topping the cake with the last crepe.
The paper-thin crêpes can tear easily if you don’t spread the filling carefully.
I wrap the cake in plastic wrap once the last crêpe is stacked. Chill until it’s time to serve this masterpiece.
Just before serving top the last crêpe with a heap of the remaining soft whipped cream.
Drizzle the cake with honey and sprinkle with dried or fresh chamomile flowers.
The real glory of this cake is in the slice. Layers of chamomile crêpes and honeyed mascarpone! That’s stacks on stacks of creams and carbs, dripping with honey. And all the hard work pays off when a fork runs through the layers for your first bite.
This cake is lovely on its own but it also nice served with strawberries or any other fresh berries.
Leave any questions in the comments below. Rate this crêpe cake recipe if you make it and tag me on Instagram @joythebaker with pics of your crepe cake. Happy Baking, friends! xo
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Honey Chamomile Crepe Cake
- Prep Time: 6 hours
- Cook Time: about 2 minutes per crepe
- Total Time: 6 hours 30 minutes or so
- Yield: 1 8-inch cake 1x
- Category: cake, birthday,
- Method: baking
Description
A delicately flavored layer cake made with thin crêpes and honeyed whipped cream.
Ingredients
For the Chamomile Crêpes:
- 2 cups whole milk
- 3 chamomile tea bags
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
- 1 1/2 cups (190 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon dry chamomile tea (take from the tea bag)
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 6 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted plus more for the pan
For the Honey Filling:
- 1 (8-ounce) container mascarpone cheese
- 2 1/4 cups heavy cream, divided
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar, divided
- 3 tablespoons honey, plus more for topping
- Fresh chamomile flowers for decoration (optional but lovely)
Instructions
- To start the crêpes, in a small saucepan, steam milk. That is – heat it over medium-low heat until stream starts to rise from the top of the milk, just before it begins to boil around the edges. Remove from heat, sink in the three tea bags and cover for 15 minutes to steep. After steeping, squeeze the tea bags into the milk mixture before discarding. Stir in the honey.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, dried chamomile tea, and lemon zest. Place eggs, chamomile milk, heavy cream, and vanilla in a blender and whirl until well combined, about 30 seconds. Add flour mixture to the egg mixture; process until smooth and frothy, about 1 minute, stopping to scrape down sides of blender as needed. Transfer batter to a container with a tight-fitting lid. Seal and chill at least 4 hours, though I think overnight is best.
- When you’re ready to make the crepes, remove batter from refrigerator and gently whisk to combine any separated layers.
- Brush an 8-inch nonstick skillet with some of the melted butter, evenly coating bottom of skillet. Warm melted butter over medium or medium-low until butter is hot, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Using a 1/4-cup measuring cup, immediately add a scant 1/4 cup batter to one side of skillet for the 8-inch cake. Swirl skillet to spread batter in a thin, even layer.
- Return skillet to heat; cook over medium until crêpe edges are light golden and set, about 1 minute. Using a small offset spatula, gently lift one edge of the crêpe; using your fingertips, quickly flip crêpe. Cook until other side of crêpe is pale golden and a few spots begin to appear on bottom, 30 to 45 seconds. Transfer crêpe to a wire rack set over a rimmed baking sheet to cool; cover with a clean, dry lightweight towel.
- Repeat steps 3 and 4 with remaining butter and batter, wiping skillet clean and lightly brushing with butter every few crêpes, or as needed. (You should have 20 crêpes to use for cake.) Chill crêpes, covered, until ready to use.
- To make the mascarpone filling, combine mascarpone, 1/4 cup heavy cream, 2 tablespoons powdered sugar, and honey in bowl; gently whisk by hand until incorporated.
- In a medium bowl place remaining 2 cups heavy cream and 2 tablespoons powdered sugar and use an electric hand beater to start to whip into soft but stiff peaks. Stir 2/3rds of the whipped cream into the mascarpone mixture. Stir until thoroughly combined but still fluffy. Reserve the remaining whipped cream to top the cake.
- To assemble, remove crêpes from refrigerator. Place 1 crêpe on a cake platter or flat serving dish. Using a small offset spatula, gently spread a thin layer of mascarpone filling. Top with 1 crêpe and again spread with mascarpone filling. Repeat process with remaining 18 crêpes. Cover and chill cake at least 1 hour and up to 8 hours. Refrigerate the remaining whipped cream as well. Just before serving, dollop the remaining whipped cream over the top of the cake, drizzle lightly with honey, and dot with fresh chamomile flowers and greens.
Keywords: crepe cake, whipped cream, chamomile, honey, birthday cake, layer cake
things to do
First time I’ve seen a chamomile cake, this looks so pretty!! Thank you for sharing!
Camila Wilson
This recipe is absolutely delicious and definitely one of my new favorite dishes! Thank you for sharing this amazing recipe, I will definitely be making it again and again. Keep up the good work!
★★★★★
sylvie campeau
We are not a fan of HONEY …sorry could i substitute with maple syrup ???
Joy the Baker
Yes absolutely! That would be lovely!
KelseyB
The cooking crêpe smell was so enticing. Almost like a Graham cracker. It was hard not to eat them right away. The cake turned out well, but the flavor was like sweet butter. I left out one Tablespoon of honey in the batter and one in the filling. Maybe that made the difference. I’ll try making a honey chamomile simple syrup as drizzle to bring out the flavors.
Also, the salt seems to have been left out of the directions. I added it with the dry mix.
★★★★
Sara
This looks amazing! Do you think the layers could be assembled the night before or would it get soggy? Would love to make this as a brunch dessert!
Sabrina
well pre-Happy Birthday! Love this, texture alone is really nice and mascarpone-honey filling definitely approved by my taste buds, a very fun and unique cake, thank you!
★★★★★
Teddi Carbonneau
I just wanted to wish you a very happy birthday month full of friends, family, great food and lovely weather. Do some special “me” things and enjoy yourself.