Chocolate Hazelnut Crepe Cake

How to make a crepe cake.

1.  Be unable to resist a challenge sent in the form of a "this would make a cool birthday present" email.

2.  Buy a strainer and make an impulse purchase of a smiley spoon.  Cool, right?

3.  Gather all of your ingredients.  Run out of counter space.

4.  Melt 1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter into 1T of water.  Add 8 oz of semi-sweet chocolate.  

5.  Combine 1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour, 1/3 c. sugar, and 1/2 t. salt.  In a separate bowl mix 2 1/2 c. of room temperature whole milk with 6 (!!) eggs and 1T of vanilla.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry, then add the chocolate. 

 6.  Using your new, fancy pants strainer, strain the batter to remove any chunks or clumps.  I used semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of baking chocolate, so I had some chocolate/wax residue as well as flour clumps.  Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to overnight.

7.  While you are waiting, combine 2 1/2 c. heavy whipping cream with 1/3 c. confectioner's sugar.  Whip until you have soft peaks and then add 1/4 c. of hazelnut spread (Nutella).  Be sure to lick the Nutella spoon when finished.  Refrigerate.  (This step is my creation- perhaps add more Nutella and less sugar next time?)

8.  Boil 1 1/4 c. heavy cream with 1 T corn starch.  Remove from heat and add 10 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped (don't cut corners by using chips!).  Do not stir!  Wait 5 minutes and then mix together.  Set aside.

9.  Drink a much-needed caffeine boost thanks to the extra trip you had to take to the store to get forgotten ingredients.  Can you tell I used to work at Starbucks?  I can sure fill up a cup with specific requests- Iced Grande 1/2 caff vanilla non-fat latte.  Yum!

10.  Take out your mom's super-cool 1970's crepe maker.  Seriously, they don't make them like they used to!

11.  Make 5 gazillion chocolate crepes.  The first 5 are usually a bust for me.  I had about 30 extras even so.  That was a LOT of crepe making.  Stack them all on a plate.

12.  On a wire rack, layer a crepe with 2-3T of hazelnut filling.  Repeat 30ish times.  I meant to keep track, but I lost count.  This cake was somewhere between 30-40 crepes high.

13.  Refrigerate 15 minutes to set.

14.  Add chocolate ganache.  Refrigerate 15 minutes or more to set.  Re-plate and add toasted hazelnuts to garnish.

15.  Deliver to your friend's birthday party and bring a sharp knife and a big sweet tooth!

Thanks to Martha Stewart for her inspiration and crepe/ganache recipes.  I was not quite up to the task of her filling or candied hazelnuts.  Another project perhaps on another day.

Hopefully by now you are sufficiently hungry.