The sun is shining, the sky is blue and there is green stuff coming out of Baby Max's nose - which he freely shares with his gramma. I'm at the girl's house helping to chase Baby Max around for a few days...even when he doesn't feel well he's happy and busy - which explains why I collapse into bed at night wishing I had a masseuse on call.
Today I made a wonderful cake - out of crepes in between playing the alphabet game, pushing Max on his new Tonka truck and cleaning fingerprints off the walls/tables/floors/windows...and even with all of that going on, the crepes turned out great. They are actually pretty hard to screw up...although I wouldn't recommend you make them with a two year old tornado nearby. The crepes are layered with a meyer lemon cream...all combined, it's one heckova cake!
Speaking of cake...we celebrated my mom's birthday this past weekend and I was able to get a quick pic of my mom and dad as her cake was served...it was enough for 25 people and all 24 of us lapped it up!
Now, before you look/study the picture of my cake below...I have to offer up a defense: I did not have a crepe pan per se...so I did my best to make the crepes all the same size. I didn't worry about the rough edges and even though I tried to make them pretty, they didn't turn out that way! Martha Stewart's cake (this is a recipe of hers that I adapted) was soooo Martha and I'm sure whichever one of her minions made the cake that was photographed in this months Martha Stewart Living is now drooling happily in a padded cell somewhere...because I have NO IDEA how they got their cake to be SO PERFECT - it must have taken hours and hours and/or an expert in Photoshop! There are a couple of steps to this cake but it is well worth it...we kept half and took half to neighbors...and after we had eaten our half we were almost sorry we'd given half away! Dang good folks...5 dangs worth on the ol' meter.
Meyer Lemon Crepe Cake - Adapted From Martha Stewart Living Magazine 2010
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups whole milk, room temperature
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 tablespoons cold, butter, melted, plus more for the pan
Meyer Lemon Cream:
4 large eggs, plus 6 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
zest of two meyer lemons
juice from 5 to 6 meyer lemons, enough to equal 3/4 cup
6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces
Topping:
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
In a small bowl whisk together flour, sugar, and salt. In another small bowl whisk together milk, eggs, and vanilla. Gradually pour milk mixture into flour mixture, whisking until smooth. Whisk in butter. Pour through a fine sieve into an airtight container; discard lumps. Refrigerate at least one hour.
Lightly coat a 6-inch crepe pan or nonstick skillet with butter. Heat over medium heat until just starting to smoke. Remove from heat; pour about 2 to 3 tablespoons batter into center. Swirl to cover bottom. Reduce heat to medium-low; return pan to heat. Cook until edges are golden and center is dry, about 30 seconds per side. Slide crepe onto an overturned plate. Repeat with remaining batter, coating pan with butter as needed, and stacking crepes. Let cool. (Crepes can be refrigerated at this point for up to one day or frozen for up to one month.)
Make lemon cream: In a heavy-bottomed saucepan whisk together eggs and yolks, sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice. Over medium-high heat, cook, whisking constantly until mixture has thickened, about 8 to 10 minutes. Remove pan from heat and stir in butter, a few pieces at a time, stirring after each piece until smooth. Press a piece of plastic to the top so a skin doesn't form and refrigerate until cool, about 1 1/2 hours. (If not assembling cake right away, lemon mixture can be refrigerated at this point for several hours or overnight.)
In large bowl of an electric mixer, beat heavy cream on high until soft peaks form. Add in powdered sugar and vanilla, continue beating until stiff. Fold all but 1/3 cup of whipped cream into the cooled lemon mixture, mixing until no streaks are left.
To assemble cake: Place one crepe on a flat serving dish; spread about 1/4 cup lemon cream onto crepe. Top with one crepe. Continue layering crepes and lemon cream. (Martha's recipe called for 15 crepes but I was only able to get 12 out of the batter.) End with a crepe on top. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. Top crepe cake with whipped cream. Serves 8.