Banana Bread Crepe Cake (and 100,000 views!)
Holy Moly! Today this little blog here reached 100,000 views! I know that in the big grand scheme of things there are many blogs that probably get this amount of traffic in a day but this is not one of those blogs so for me this is a pretty big deal. Also, in 8 days Honeycomb will be 3 years old. Back when I had a single solitary post, I was still at the beginning stages of really getting into cooking and knew next to nothing about how to photograph food. This was nothing more than a summer project that I was certain would diminish once school started back up again. But here we still are, 80 posts later and, did I mention, 100,000 views later!
It may be nothing more than my little pet project. It doesn’t consume me and I don’t really ever want it to. It’s meant to be just for fun. But still it has helped me grow immensely as a cook and a photographer and it means so much to me whenever I find out that a friend of family member read a post or cooked a recipe from it. So thanks for helping Honeycomb get this far! I think you deserve a cake!
This here is a banana bread crepe cake. The recipe is from Deb Perelman’s Smitten Kitchen, the blog that really spurred my initial interest in blogging and the one that I go to for inspiration almost every single day. So, it really makes sense that it’s making an appearance on this monumental day. But back to the cake. Crepe cakes are kind of my new favorite thing. Make a bunch of crepes, layer them with a nice sweet filling of some sort and you’ve got a cake. No oven needs to be turned on, there’s no worry about perfectly applied icing. They are impressive in appearance but dead simple. Trust me, make one and watch how impressed everyone is when you slice into the multilayered goodness.
I originally made this cake for a Lumberjack themed housewarming party my roommates and I had. The original thought was that you can’t have a lumberjack party without flapjacks but them I realized that the last thing I wanted to do was flip pancakes while trying to host a party. Solution: Pancake cake! But after making it, falling in love with it, and watching it disappear within 30 minutes, I realized that this is a cake for the ages, not just for lumberjack themed parties. I made it again for my mom on Mother’s Day and she enjoyed it so much she made it for her mom a few weeks later. What’s nice is you can prepare it a day in advance too. It’s actually better this way because the overnight rest in the fridge lets the crepes and the filling meld into one cohesive, creamy cake and produces clean cuts that show off all the layers.
It is light on sweetness with a subtle banana flavor and a pleasant tang from the yogurt cream cheese filling. I can see it being a great addition to a spring or summer brunch, topped with fresh fruit and maple syrup or for a festive 4th of July picnic, and, of course, for parties celebrating our favorite burly, wood-chopping fellows. But, it’s also perfect for a celebration of the simple things, like 100,000 views and 3 years strong. Thanks and here’s to 100,000 more!
Banana Bread Crepe Cake
Adapted very slightly from Smitten Kitchen
Ingredients
For the Crepes
4 Tbs Butter, melted then cooled slightly
1 large ripe banana
1 cup milk
¾ cup all-purpose flour
4 eggs
2 Tbs. light brown sugar
½ tsp. vanilla extract
¼ tsp. salt
½ tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp, freshly grated nutmeg
For the Filling
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1½ cups plain greek yogurt, preferably 2% or full-fat
1/3 cup granulated sugar
½ tsp. vanilla extract
Maple syrup, for serving
Begin by making the crepes. Place the banana in a blender and pulse until smooth. Add the butter and blend again. Add the rest of the crepe ingredients and blend until frothy and completely smooth, scraping the sides if needed to combine any stray flour clumps. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate for at least and hour, preferably longer. Can stay refrigerated for up to 2 days.
While the batter rests, make the filling. Whip the cream cheese using a stand mixer or handheld mixer until fluffy and smooth. Add in the yogurt, 1/3 at a time, until well incorporated. Add the sugar and vanilla and continue to whip for another minute. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate until ready to use.
Make your crepes. Heat a medium-sized skilled over medium heat. Melt about 2 Tbs. of butter in a small dish. Using a pastry brush, lightly coat the skillet with the butter before cooking each crepe. Pour ¼ cup of the batter into the pan and swirl the pan around until it is evenly coated with the batter. Cook until the bottom is golden, the top has small bubbles and begins to look dry, and the crepe easily moves around the pan if you shake it slightly, about 2 minutes. Flip (see original recipe post for Deb’s flipping method – it works great) the crepe and cook on the other side for about 20 seconds. Slide the crepe onto a plate and continue making them until the batter runs out. Note that you can stack the crepes on top of one another on the plate and they, for some reason, will never stick to each other. It’s magic.
Once the crepes are cool, place one on the bottom of a cake stand or a large, flat plate. Use an offset spatula or a knife to spread ¼ cup of the filling evenly over the crepe. Top with another crepe. Repeat this process, ending with the last layer of filling on the top of the cake. Refrigerate until ready to serve and drizzle a healthy amount of maple syrup overtop right before serving. Top with fruit, if desired. Will keep for 3-4 days.