About a year ago, I was helping a friend clean out the downstairs suite in her house and we found a crêpe pan lodged under the bottom drawer of the stove. Score! She's not a cook, so needless to say, I became the owner of a new-old crêpe pan. I had seen pictures of stunning mille-crêpes, or crêpe cakes in magazines and knew that that was the first thing I was going to make with my new pan. Things got a bit busy and it took me a year, but here we are, my first mille-crêpe cake! A mille-crêpe cake is one that is layered, mille in French means 1000, often with a cream or a compote of fruit (jam like) in between the layers. I think 1000 layers might be a bit too large, so I was happy with 20 crêpes for this cake.
My mom's birthday and mother's day often overlap or are one day apart, so I usually bake a cake or cupcakes on one of the days and something different, like a tart or cheesecake on the other. This year, with a bumper crop of rhubarb sprouting up in the planter bed, I decided to try my hand at a rhubarb crêpe cake.
I also happened to have a bag of dehydrated strawberries from Trader Joe's and was looking for a way to use them in a dessert. I took about 5 strawberries and used my mortar and pestle to turn them into dried strawberry powder. My hope was to add a bit of strawberry flavour to the whip cream, to go with the rhubarb, and to add a hint of pink colour. The flavour was oh so subtle and the colour was but a mere blush. Perfect for my Mama!
Make sure to chill your mille-crêpe cake until you are ready to serve.
Enjoy!
Krista
Straight From The Backyard Rhubarb Strawberry Mille-Feuille
For the crêpes:
Ingredients
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup water
2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
4 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
Method
Beat eggs in a large bowl until frothy. Add the rest of the ingredients. Beat until smooth. Cover and store in the refrigerator overnight or up to 48 hours maximum. When you are ready to cook crêpes, take mixture out of the refrigerator. If mixture has thickened too much, gradually add up to 2 more tbsp of milk as needed.
Pour 2 tbsp (30 mls) of batter onto a greased, hot crepe pan. Rotate pan and twirl batter to spread batter out to make a 6-inch in diameter crêpe. Flip crêpe over when underside begins to brown slightly. Repeat with remaining batter. Makes 24, unless you make crêpes larger. Stack with wax paper squares placed in between each crêpe. You will only need 20 crêpes for this recipe, so you will have 4 extras to eat right away!
Crepes can be made up to 48 hours prior to use, if refrigerated.
For the Rhubarb Compote
Ingredients
6-8 stalks of rhubarb chopped into 1/2" pieces (about 4 cups)
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp butter
lemon zest
Method
In a large bowl, combine the rhubarb and sugar. Allow to sit for a minimum of 15 minutes, so the rhubarb can release it's juices.
Bring a saucepan to medium heat and add butter to melt. Then, add rhubarb and sugar mixture. Gently stir to combine and add zest. Cook, stirring occasionally until rhubarb is tender and starting to lose it's shape, about 10-12 minutes. Using a potato masher or fork, mash mixture until it has a more jammy consistency. Allow mixture to cook and thicken, about another 3-5 minutes.
Place compote into a container and cool.
Compote can be made up to a week prior to using, as long as refrigerated.
*Recipe Notes: reserve a few young rhubarb stalks (thin stalks) to shave for cake topper spiral decorations. Decorating inspiration was taken from here.
For the Whip Cream Filling
Ingredients
1 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp strawberry powder, optional (made from ground dehydrated strawberries, for colour and flavour - food colouring can also be used here to make a very light pink colour)
Method
Pour the heavy cream into a well-chilled bowl of a mixer. Add the sugar and vanilla. Using the whisk attachment, beat the cream until it reaches a soft peak consistency. You want the cream firm enough to hold it's shape and spread, but not firm peaks. Add strawberry powder and gently fold in with a spatula.
Whip cream can be made up to a day ahead if bowl is refrigerated and covered tightly with plastic wrap.
For the Assembly:
On a serving plate or cake stand add 1 crêpe, then top with 1 tbsp of rhubarb compote. Add a second crêpe and top with 2 tbsp of whip cream. Add a third crêpe and top with rhubarb compote, etc. Continue to add crêpes one at a time and alternate between compote and whip cream. Top final crêpe with the remaining whip cream and decorate using crushed dehydrated strawberries and rhubarb curls.
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