An Anniversary Cake

This week the Man and I celebrated our 4th anniversary.

6 week old pit bull, My gift for the Man on our anniversary.
He's such a cutie, and a huge cuddler!

This is what the cake looks like on the inside. I got a little filling-happy after the first few layers. Sorry, I couldn't get a decent photo of the chocolate shards, but you can get an idea of what it looked like here.

Damn you wal mart! How many times do I have to tell myself NOT to buy from you, especially when it comes to produce..?

I do not like chocolate. I had only chosen to fill and cover this cake with chocolate because it was supposed to be topped with the chocolate covered strawberries, so it all would have fit together.

Needless to say, the very chocolatey crepe cake was still pretty good. I really like the texture of the whipped ganache, it is perfect for filling. I will definitely make another  crepe cake, but using a vanilla filling, possibly creme fraiche, and top it with nothing but a sprinkling of powdered sugar.

The Man loved it, and was impressed by the presentation, which is all that mattered.

Vanilla Crepes-  (I tripled this)

(Adapted from All Recipes)

1 cup flour

2 eggs

½ cup milk

¼ cup water

2 Tbsp. sugar

1 Tbsp. vanilla

¼ tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. butter, melted

Whisk together the eggs, milk, water, sugar, and vanilla. Sift in the flour. Add salt and melted butter; stir until well combined and smooth.

Take a frying pan, or crepe pan, 8"-10", depending how big you want your crepes, and heat it over medium-high heat. Very lightly oil, or spray, the pan before pouring batter in. Take about ¼ cup of batter, pour it into the center of the pan and quickly swirl the pan around to completely cover the bottom. The crepe should start cooking right away, if not turn up the heat. Cook for 2 minutes. Loosen the edges with a small spatula, or butter knife. Using a spatula, I just use my fingers, flip the crepe over and cook for about 1 minute more. Cool completely to assemble cake.

Chocolate Ganache- (I also tripled this)

8 oz. semi-sweet chocolate

1 cup heavy whipping cream

Pour chocolate chips into a bowl; set aside. In a small saucepan, bring cream to a boil over medium heat, scraping the bottom with a rubber spatula to keep it from burning. Once boiled, pour cream over chocolate. Let sit for 10 minutes. Stir until smooth, you may need to use a whisk. Let cool. The longer the ganache cools, the thicker it will get.

To whip the ganache-

Let it cool completely. I stuck mine in the fridge, and stirred it often. Once it was cooled down, I stuck it in the freezer along with a whisk attachment for a few minutes to get everything colder. Using a mixer with the now-cold whisk attachment, whip the ganache on high until it gets fluffy, and lighter in color. This happens pretty fast. Once its whipped, your ready to assemble the cake!

To assemble cake-

On a cake stand (if you're a poor girl like me, you can use a cookie sheet ;)), place down one crepe. Spread a layer of whipped ganache onto the crepe, using as much or as little as you like. Top with another crepe, and continue the process until you have as many layers as you want, being sure to leave the top crepe naked. Take your thin ganache, and slowly pour it over the cake, letting it drip down the sides. You can try to smooth it out if you want. At this point, I just covered mine with chocolate shards.

You can learn how to make chocolate shards here.

Crepe Tips:

   * I tripled the recipe to allow me to make all the crepes needed for the cake.

   * Your pan needs to be heated over medium-high. Once you pour the batter on the pan, the crepe should start to cook right away. If it doesn't, the heat is too low. If the crepe cooks too fast and becomes dry and hard, the heat is too high. It may take a couple practice crepes to find the right temperature.

   * I took some water out of the recipe because I wanted a fluffier crepe. You can increase the water by ¼cup if you want a thinner batter.

  * Be sure to coat the pan with a very thin layer of grease, before cooking every crepe. If the crepes are sticking, use a little more grease. However, there really shouldn't be a problem with crepes sticking because of the amount of butter used in the recipe.

Ganache Tips:

   * I made three batches for my cake. Two were whipped, one was plain.

   * Before attempting to whip the ganache, it must be very cold. Otherwise, you'll just have bubbly ganache.

   * Remember, the longer the ganache sits, the thicker it will get.