Last month was my mom’s birthday! She and my dad are living here right now, and it’s the first time we’ve been close for her birthday since I was in high school, so it seemed like the perfect time to throw a Surprise party!
When we were talking about the food we really quickly decided on a crepe bar! And then we picked our color scheme (Brown, tan, cream, burgundy!) and everything fell into place!!! I’m sharing half the recipes on my blog (scroll down) and the other half are on Chelsea’s Crepe Party Post
My mom’s favorite is my flourless chocolate cake so I made that for her, dressing it up with stabilized whipped cream and black berries.
We made three crepe flavors, plain, cinnamon and chocolate!!! (the chocolate recipe is below, my plain crepe recipe is here on this post and my sisters plain and cinnamon is here on Chelsea’s post)
For the fillings we had a sweet cream cheese, a TART sour cream/cream cheese and a lemon sour cream filling. For toppings we have the buttermilk syrup, my hot fudge and my berry coulis! (The tart filling is below, the sweet and lemon are on Chelsea’s post, the buttermilk is either here on my post, or my Chelsea’s post. The hot fudge and coulis is down below)
I made stabilized whipped cream, so it could be left out during the party and not all melty… and three berry filling options, strawberries, mixed berries and bananas (bleck).
For those who really love it rich we had vanilla ice cream (also it’s good on the cake!) I printed off two full sheets, pressed them around the container and cut it to fit.
Wash it all down with milk… (we had water too of course). I LOVE my sisters cake plate… I need one (anyone know where I can find something similar?)
We had to create some samples to show off for you guys! Chocolate with tart sour cream/cream cheese, strawberries, coulis and whipped cream… Mmmmmm
Cinnamon crepes with sweet cream cheese filling, banana’s and strawberries, hot fudge and whipped cream (I picked around the banana’s- Ewwww)
Plain crepes with lemon filling, mixed berries, buttermilk syrup and more whipped cream! So so SOOO good!
I am SOOO in love with how the whole table turned out! If your interested in the labels click on them to open them up in flickr and download them. I meant to have a PDF of them for you, BUT my out of date 2003 Office word is NOT working for me right now, Grrrrr!
Chocolate Crepes
3 C milk
6 eggs
4 Tbsp butter melted
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 C flour
3/4 C Cocoa powder
3/4 C chocolate (not chips- bars, semi sweet baking, etc…)
4 Tbsp sugar
pinch of salt
Put everything into a blender and mix until smooth. Refrigerate the batter for an hour to let the bubbles settle and the batter with thicken a bit (I refrigerated mine overnight and it got TOO thick, if that happens to you thin it down with more milk or water to get the texture right).
heat a large flat skillet on med high and once it’s hot pout 3-4 Tbsp of batter, QUICKLY tilt the pan in a circle to cover the bottom. I cook it for about 40 seconds on each side. Use a spatula to loosen the edge and flip the crepe. It depends on how hot your pan is. I LIKE it cooking fast, I can get through the batch faster that way…
serve right away, or let the crepes cool, stack, refrigerate and serve the next day!
Sweet Cream Cheese Crepe Filling
16 oz cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 C powdered sugar
2/3 C sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
Beat the cream cheese then add everything else and blend! Keep extra refrigerated and it will last a few more days!
Hot Fudge Sauce
1/2 C cocoa
1 C sugar
1 C karo lite syrup
3 Tbsp butter
1/2 C canned evaporated milk
1/2 tsp salt
Boil over stove about 2 1/2 min add 1 tsp vanilla
Berry Coulis
12 oz Berries, I like a mix of raspberries, blackberries and Strawberries
1/4 tsp orange zest
1/2 C water
1/4 C lemon juice
1/4 C sugar
In a medium-sized sauce pot over medium heat, combine the berries, orange zest, water, sugar, and lemon juice. Bring to a boil and cook for an additional 8 minutes. Remove from the heat and puree with a blender or handheld mixer. Strain into desired small bowl.
Flourless Chocolate Cake
12 oz bitter-sweet chocolate, broken into small pieces
5 whole eggs
1 1/2 C sugar
1 C unsalted butter, softened
1/2 C water
Preheat the oven to 325F. Line the bottom of an 8 inch pan with parchment paper and the sides with Pam. Heat 2/3 of the sugar (1 Cups) in a small pan with the water until the sugar has completely dissolved to a syrup. Place the chocolate and butter in the hot syrup and stir to combine until the chocolate melts and the mixture is smooth. Remove from heat and cool slightly.
Beat the eggs with a third of the sugar (1/2 Cup) with a whisk until the volume quadruples-this will take around least 10 minutes in an electric mixer. Add warm chocolate mixture to the eggs and continue to beat, more gently, until completely combined- about 20 seconds. Pour into the cake tin and place in a water bath (I just use the next cake pan up). Bake in the oven for at least an hour to an hour and a half. It crusts over on the top, but as we’re going to turn it out it will be on the bottom. Let it cool in the tin about 10 mins before turning out. The cake rises quite a bit when it cooks (expanding egg bubbles), but it does shrink a bit as it cools.
Stabilized Whipped Cream
1 tsp unflavored gelatin powder
1/4 C cold water
2 C whipping cream (regular or heavy–I always use heavy cream)
1/4 C confectioner’s sugar
2 tsp vanilla
sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water and let it bloom for 5 mins. While that’s resting add the sugar and vanilla to the whipping cream (feel free to do more or less to your tastes). Once the gelatin has bloomed microwave it until it’s dissolved. Then, while whipping the cream, slowly add the gelatin to the cream. Beat in a mixer with a whisk until soft or stiff peaks form (your preference) and keep refrigerated!
