Crêpes:
4 eggs
400ml of milk
400ml of sparkling water (regular water works, too!)
4 tbsp vegetable oil
4 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
400 grams of flour
Mix all of the ingredients until combined. Strain through a fine mesh sieve, cover and let the batter rest for 2 hours in the fridge. Use a soup ladle or a cup to scoop equal amounts of batter into a pan, I do one soup ladle per crepe and this recipe usually yields 18-20 crepes! Make sure to add a drop of oil to the pan before frying each crepe.
Pastry cream:
400 ml milk
100 grams sugar
50 grams cornstarch
1 & 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract
150 grams of butter
Place 200 ml of the milk into a smaller saucepan over medium high heat. While it warms up, whisk together the remaining 200 ml of milk, sugar, cornstarch and vanilla. When the milk starts to come to a boil, pour in the cornstarch mix and whisk for a few minutes until the custard thickens up. Remove from heat and whisk in the butter.
Pour the custard into a bowl and immediately cover the surface with plastic wrap, making sure the plastic wrap is touching the whole surface (it won’t melt!). Let the custard cool down to room temperature and then let it chill in the fridge for 4 hours, until it’s completely chilled. Before using it, make sure you whisk it with a hand mixer for a few minutes until it has a medium stiff, fluffly texture.
Strawberry filling:
350 grams of cleaned, halved strawberries
100 ml of water
-blend it together until smooth
Pour the blended strawberries into a saucepan, add in 200 grams of sugar and the juice of half a lemon. Let it simmer on medium high heat. In a separate cup, mix together 150 ml of water and 3 tbsp cornstarch into a slurry, once the strawberry mixture starts bubbling, whisk in the slurry and continue mixing until it thickens.
Remove from heat once it thickens up, add in 100 grams of butter, mix, cover and let it cool all the way to room temp., don’t put it in the fridge. No need to whip it up before using, just stir it with a spoon to loosen it up a bit.
Whipped cream:
200 ml whipping cream
3 tbsp powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Whip it up until stiff peaks form.
Once you have your crepes (make sure they’ve cooled down), pastry cream, strawberry filling, whipped cream – it’s time to assemble the crepes. I did crepe – custard – crepe – whipped cream – crepe – strawberry filling & repeat.
Optional; sprinkle freshly diced strawberries on top of the strawberry filling, I’ll definitely do it next time I make this because I think I’d prefer it texturally if I could have small bites of fresh fruit in there!
ETA: Can’t believe I forgot to write this, but definitely chill the cake overnight. Cover it in cling wrap and let it chill!
