A decadent cake made with layers of tender crepes topped with sweet vanilla pastry cream dripping with rich chocolate ganache. A fun twist on Boston Cream Pie.
My sweet friend Tiffany, Food Finery, invited me to her house to make crepe cakes. I thought about making the winning recipe, Truffle Crepe Cake, from the Utah’s Own Recipe Contest, but I’ve had Boston Cream Pie on my mind lately and decided it would be a fabulous flavor combination for a crepe cake.
If you haven’t made crepes before, they’re easy. I posted a picture tutorial earlier this week in my Strawberry Crepes post. You’ll want to make the pastry cream ahead of time so it has plenty of time to set up. The crepes will be more tender if you make the batter ahead of time too. Ideally, the night before you want to serve your crepe cake.
Tiffany made a luscious Hazelnut Pralines and Cream Crepe Cake with smaller crepes and more layers, so hers was taller. If you want a taller crepe cake, make 6″ crepes or make more crepe batter and pastry cream to create more layers.
I cut my Boston Cream Crepe Cake in to 12 pieces. It’s sinfully rich and a small slice is perfect. This crepe cake keeps well overnight in the refrigerator. It was irresistible the next morning for breakfast. 
Ingredients
- 4 large eggs
- 4 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled slightly
- 4 cups milk
- 2 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 tablespoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups milk
- 3 egg yolks, beaten
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup whipping cream
- 6 oz. milk chocolate, finely chopped
- 3/4 cup cream
Directions
- The day before serving the cake, make the crepe batter and the pastry cream.
- Add ingredients to blender jar in the order listed, cover and blend until smooth. Refrigerate overnight or for 1 hour prior to cooking. (Or if you’d rather, you can strain out any lumps and use immediately.)
- Heat an 8-inch skillet or crepe pan over medium heat and lightly coat with butter or cooking spray. For each crepe, pour 1/4 cup batter into the center of the skillet and immediately rotate the pan until the batter covers the bottom of the skillet in a thin layer. Cook until light brown and the top begins to dry out, approximately 1 minute. Flip and cook an additional 30 seconds.
- Repeating with remaining batter. Stack completed crepes on a plate. (If your crepes are sticking together, put wax paper between the crepes.)
- In a medium saucepan combine the sugar, flour and salt. Gradually whisk in milk. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture starts to boil. Cook for 2 minutes until thickened.
- Remove from stove. Whisk 1/4 cup of the hot mixture into the beaten egg yolks, and immediately add egg yolk mixture to the hot mixture in the saucepan. Cook for 2 more minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla. Transfer pudding mixture to a medium bowl. Cover with plastic; refrigerate until well chilled, about 1 hour or overnight.
- When pudding is chilled, whip cream to form soft peaks and gentle fold in to pudding. Keep covered and chilled until ready to use.
- Place one crepe on a large cake plate. Spread with 1/4 cup pastry cream. Top with another crepe. Continue layering with filling and crepes, using about 24 crepes and ending with a crepe on top. Refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour.
- Place half of the chocolate in a small mixing bowl. Heat heavy cream on medium high heat until it comes to a boil. Remove from heat and immediately pour cream over chocolate and stir until chocolate is completely melted. Add remain chocolate and stir until chocolate is completely melted. Cool until ganache is thickened but still thin enough to drip down the sides of the cake.
- Spoon chocolate ganache on top of the cake, spreading to edges and letting the ganache drip down the sides. Refrigerate until ganache is set, about 20 minutes.
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I love to bake, especially cookies, cakes, and pies. I’ll post my adventures in the kitchen, my favorite new recipes, as well as our family favorites.
Oh my goodness, how delicious! When I first was learning how to bake and cook as a preteen, Boston Creme Pie was one of the first things I attempted. Love that creamy goodness. This is such a beautiful variation.
A wonderful idea! That crepe cake must be divine.
Cheers,
Rosa
This is so pretty, and I can only imagine how good it tastes!!
Oh goodness…you have me craving for some Boston Cream Crepe Cake now! Your cake is gorgeous. I love the chocolate ganache dripping all over the sides of the cake.
Gorgeous photos!
Wow, what an amazing cake! That cream must be delicious, add the fluffy crepes and the chocolate and you’re in heaven! I think you got me obsessed with this cake for the rest of the day
Holy Moley! This is incredible!
Hello Barbara, quel délice cette superposition de gourmandise, je suis en mode light perte de kilos alors très difficile pour moi de voir ça
Bises
Valérie.
What a beautiful cake, Wish I ha been sitting at the table with ya all!
WOW Barbara, that looks so decadent and delicious! I adore Boston Cream Pie, the flavors are out of this world, so this must be outstanding!
The cake look wonderful.
My mom used to make us crepe cake, but not anywhere as pretty as yours. Haven’t had some in years since I’m not a big fan of making crepes, I just love eating them, yum!
Boston Cream Pie is one of my favorite desserts..and to turn into a crepe cake is amazing. I’m in love with this, Barbara! Pinned!
Whoa. This cake sounds insanely delicious! Awesome idea!
Oh my goodness, a slice for breakfast! The Boston Cream Crepe Cake would certainly be an overwhelming success for a celebration brunch! A magnificent recipe!
I absolutely love the crepe cake idea! Gorgeous clicks, Barbara.
My son’s favorite cheesecake is Boston creme I bet he owuld love the crepe cake, I better get to work he is heading back to campus mid month!
I love Boston Cream Pie so I’m sure I would love this. What a clever idea!
Boston Cream Pie has always been a favorite of mine – never even thought of trying this format. Must try!
Love the idea of a crepe cake and your flavour combination is a winning one. I will so have to try this at some point! It would be great for a dinner party.
Oh Barbara! This crepe cake looks so amazing! I love the whole pastry cream layered thing! I have to make this ASAP!
And there goes my diet!
holy cow! what an amazing idea, it looks so soft, sweet and decadent. well done!
I’m always amazed about the wonderful things that can be done with crepes. I have a family get together coming up in a couple of weeks and think this will be a perfect dessert. Very creative and beautiful, Barbara. And I can imagine how delicious it is.
gorgeous!!!!
BIG, BIG LIKE!!!!
Wow Barbara – such a creative idea. Your cake looks picture perfect and almost (just almost) too good to cut into.
I have yet to make a crepe cake. I think I had an aversion to them after a crepe cake beat your delicious baked french toast at that contest. But as a huge Boston Cream Pie fan I must say this looks delicious!
Oh Barbara, I’m totally hypnotized by your crepe cakes! Not only do they look gorgeous, they sound absolutely delicious!
Oh, my! This looks fabulous!!! A great twist on both traditional crepes and Boston Cream Pie !! Love it!
I need this in my life. Gosh, you should have made it for me to eat on the way to park city
Oh man Barbara! You are killing me with this one. That looks SO GOOD!
Oh my…. oh my, Barbara I am speechless. I want a slice of this now! Wowee! Just beautiful to look at and I can just imagine the sweet smoothness of this. Maybe even better than the original cake?
Hi barbara!
first time here and I am having a nice time. =)
your crepes looks tempting, such wonderful pictures. I wish u could send me some over ^.^
cheers
I made this today. The only problem I had is that after I assembled the layers, they began to slip off. I simply stuck a couple of toothpicks into the cake to keep it together while it set.
Great recipe, Thanks!
Hi Clint – thanks for sharing your toothpick trick. Great idea. My pastry cream set up overnight so I didn’t have that problem, but with a softer pastry cream, I can see how it could be a problem. So glad you enjoyed the recipe. Thanks for taking the time to let me know!