My husband loves creme brulee. So when it comes to his birthday, the thought of making him a creme brulee dessert will come to my mind very naturally. Except I have never made him one! Well, birthday is about cakes. We could do creme brulee some other time. And I decided to go with a creme brulee crepe cake for his birthday this year.

This was not my first time making crepe cake. I’ve tried to make vanilla, coconut and green tea flavours. For this creme brulee crepe cake, what I had to do was just to sprinkle sugar on top of the cake and caramelize it with a kitchen torch. To achieve the perfectly neat and round look of the cake, I used a 5-inch cookie cutter to trim every singe crepe.

I’m not going to lie, making and stacking the crepes takes a long time. Especially this time when I was trying to make each crepe ultra thin. I spent two hours standing by the stove top only to make the crepes. But that’s all it takes, time and patience. And wa-lah! Here we have a creme brulee crepe cake and a happy husband!

Ingredients (5-inch 50-layer cake): 
Crepes
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 1/3 cups milk
6 large eggs
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
Vanilla Pastry Cream
3 cups whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 egg yolks
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
Creme Brulee Topping
3 tablespoons granulated sugar

Directions:
In a food processor, mix butter, milk, eggs, flour, salt and sugar until smooth. Cover the batter with plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour or up to 2 days.
To prepare pastry cream, cook milk, vanilla and salt in a saucepan over medium heat to bring the mixture just to a boil. Stir occasionally.
While the milk is cooking, in a bowl whisk together egg and sugar until the mixture becomes pale. Add cornstarch and flour, mix until smooth.
Slowly add 1/3 of milk mixture to egg mixture, whisking continuously. Pour the milk-egg mixture back to the saucepan. Cook over low heat and whisk continuously until the custard is thickened, about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat.
Pour the custard through the sieve and into a bowl to make it super smooth.
Let cool for 15 minutes. Put a plastic wrap right on top of the cream to prevent skin forming. Refrigerate until cold and set, at least 3 hours or up to 2 days.
To prepare crepes, heat a 6-inch skillet over medium-high heat with a light coating of oil. Scoop batter with a medium cookie scoop and pour into the skillet, swirling it until it evenly coats the bottom. Let it cook undisturbed until the bottom is golden and the top is set, about 30 seconds. Carefully flip to another side and cook for 15 to 20 seconds. Transfer the crepe to a baking sheet to cool. Continue with the remaining batter. It’s fine to stack the crepes to cool completely.
Using a 5-inch cookie cutter, cut out crepe rounds.
To assemble the cake, lay first crepe on the serving plate and spread with 3 tablespoons pastry cream. Repeat with all the crepes until you place the last crepe.
Chill the cake in fridge for 2 hours.
Sprinkle the top with sugar and use a kitchen torch to caramelise the top.
Chill in the refrigerator. Let cake come to room temperature before serving.