Raspberry Sugar Free Crepe Cake

Birthday cake time! This time it's for my wonderful friend Anna. She recently quit sugar. Yes – crazy but I’m so proud of her for doing so. But you can't not eat cake for your birthday! Right? So I bring you sugarfree crepe cake. This was loved by all who ate it. 

Admittedly it does have Stevia, but only a little bit. This recipe, you'll need to taste as you go to get the right level of “sweetness” and flavour.  I’m sure you could add other flavours – including bananas, cocoa, cherries, coconut, cinnamon. I know Anna loves her berries, I stuck with raspberries.

I adapted this recipe from mainly two blogs: 1. Cream Puffs in Venice 2. I Breathe… I’m Hungry. Unlike Cream Puffs in Venice, I didn't really refrigerate the batter overnight – only briefly (2 hours). But you're better off refrigerating overnight for smoother batter. However I was a little disorganised and short on time. Woops!

As you make these, you can either make all the crepes them build the cake or build as you go. If you decide the latter – ensure the crepe is cooled before layering the cream.

Ingredients
Crepe
85g butter
3 cups milk
6 eggs
1 1/2 cups plain flour
10 x 3g stevia sachets
1/2 tspn vegetable oil for frying

Cream
200g raspberries, frozen
6 to 10 x 3g stevia sachets
1/2 tspn raspberry essence (optional)
1 tbpsn butter
250g cream cheese
300ml double cream
1 tspn vanilla essence

3/4 cup almond meal

Method
Crepe
1. For the batter, melt and brown the butter in a small pan until brown like hazelnuts. It will boil rapidly to get to this stage. Set aside.

2. In another small pan, heat the milk until steaming; allow to cool for about 10 minutes.

3. In a mixer on medium-low speed, beat together the eggs, flour and stevia. While mixer is still going on low speed – slowly add the hot milk and browned butter. Mix until just combined.

4. Cover bowl and refrigerate overnight (or a couple of hours if you're short on time like me).

5. To make the crepes, bring the batter to room temperature. Place a nonstick 9-inch crepe pan (or ordinary fry pan is fine) over medium heat. Swab the surface very lightly with the oil. Using a laddle, add batter and swirl to cover the surface. Approximately 1/3 of a cup.

6. Cook until the bottom just begins to brown, about 1 to 2 minutes, then carefully lift an edge and flip the crepe. Cook on the other side until golden. Flip crepe onto a cooling rack, trivet or clean tea towel lined plate until cooled, then stack on another plate. Repeat from step #5 with remaining batter. This should make approximately 20 crepes. 

Note: As mentioned earlier, you can either make all the crepes then build the cake or build as you go. If you decide the latter – ensure the crepe is cooled before spread the cream.

Cream
1. In a small saucepan, under medium heat gently bring to boil raspberries, raspberry essence and ~3 stevia sachets. Strain mixture through a sieve. Set aside and allow to cool.

2. Combine the cream cheese, butter, vanilla and cream in a mixing bowl and mix on medium-low speed until creamy. Ensure not to over mix. Mix in strained raspberry syrup.

3. Add stevia a sachet at a time and gently mix in on low speed to ensure not to over beat and splitting the cream cheese. Add enough to desired taste.

Assembling cake
1. Place a crepe on a serving plate. Spread about a heaped tablespoon of cream over crepe to cover surface. Sprinkle with almond meal. Place next crepe on top and repeat for remaining crepe layers. Ensure to finish with your best looking crepe.

2. Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate overnight until ready to serve.
Tip: I used a springform cake tin to refrigerate to give the vessel some rigidity.

3. Serve on its own, some whipped cream, berry coulis or fresh fruit.