Mille crepe cake is a Japanese dessert made from stacks of ultra thin pancakes layered with deliciously sweet fillings like cream and fruits. It’s light and soft with every bite melting in the mouth as the evenly balanced layers of crepe and filling blend seamlessly together. Only simple ingredients are needed to make this delicious crepe cake and the flavour, toppings, and fillings can be easily modified to suit you!
Table of contents
What is Mille Crepe Cake?
As the name suggests, Mille crepe cake consists of many layers of thin crepes stacked together with sweet fillings like custard or fresh whipped cream. The name comes from the word “mille” meaning 1000 in French and is inspired by thin French crepe pancakes, however, “Mille crêpe cake” was actually invented by a Japanese pastry chef in Tokyo.
Japanese mille crêpe is one of those “Yōgashi” (western style confectionaries) which has foreign roots but was created in Japan, such as Castella. This mille crepe cake is another example of over the top innovation. If you’re familiar with the Japanese Extra Thick and Fluffy Pancakes then you’ll know Japanese people go to both extreme ends creating either extra thick or extra thin. And it always turns out delicious. This crepe cake is also soft and delicate so it’s perfect for anyone who doesn’t love overly heavy or decadent desserts.
What Do You Need?
This crepe cake is simple. You only need a few ingredients that you probably already have in your fridge and pantry.
For the crepe batter:
Eggs – large eggs each weighing about 50g
Milk – I used whole milk
Plain flour and sugar
Melted butter – you can use the microwave melting function to melt unsalted butter
For fillings
In this recipe I used fresh cream and fruit to fill but you can be adventurous and there are many other filling and topping options.
Cream – fat percentage over 35% cream.
Fruits – strawberries, banana, and kiwi are great options. I also used red currants from our orchard in Tasmania for decoration.
Other popular fillings-
– Matcha (Japanese green tea) – matcha powder can be mixed with cream for the filling and mixed into the batter to create a matcha mille crepe cake.
– cream cheese
– lemon curd
– Nutella
– custard cream
– cocoa powder – this can be dusted on top of the crepe cake and mixed into the batter to make it chocolate flavoured.
– caramel
How to Make Mille Crepe Cake
- Whisk the eggs in a large bowl.
- Add milk to the large bowl and combine.
- Sift in the flour and sugar.
- Add melted butter and mix together.
- Strain the mixture and refrigerate for at least one hour.
- After one hour, heat a frying pan or crepe skillet over low heat to medium heat and pour 1 ladle (I used 1/3 cup) of the mixture and spread thinly and evenly to make paper-thin crepes.
- When bubbles appear, turn it over and fry it briefly. The turned side should be golden brown.
- Repeat the process until all the mixture is used.
- Place the crepes on a sheet of parchment paper and cover to allow each crepe to cool before stacking with fillings.
- Prepare the toppings you wish to use. Cut the fruit and whip the fresh cream with sugar till soft peaks form.
- Spread the whipped cream using an offset spatula on one crepe and place fruit pieces. Stack the next crepe and spread cream over and repeat the process.
- Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.
- Top with more fruit to serve.
Tips for Making Mille Crepe Cake
Making the batter texture very smooth is the key to making mille crepe cake successfully. The following are my tips to make smooth textured crepe batter:
- Strain the batter mixture. This step makes the mixture smoother without lumps.
- Rest the mixture in the refrigerator for about an hour. This allows the gluten in freshly mixed batter to settle and makes it less strong, making it easier to make thin crepes.
How to Whip Fresh Cream for Mille Crepe Cake?
There are many types of cream to whip. Choose one with a fat percentage above 35%. It is considered a low fat type and when it is whipped, it contains a lot of air in it making the whipped cream light and fluffy. Whip until soft-medium peaks form. When whipping the cream, pay attention to the temperature by placing the whipping bowl over a bowl of ice water. Also whisk halfway with a an electric hand or stand mixer, then switch to a manual whisk in order to prevent over whisking.
How to Cut the Cake Clean?
We want the cake to be beautifully presented and show all the nice layers of crepes when the cake is cut. So we need to cut it clean and nicely. How to do it?
- Warm the knife so that the cream melts lightly.
- Wipe off the cream on the knife after every cut.
- Insert the knife diagonally from the tip of the knife and use the weight of the knife to let the knife slide.
FAQ
A : Mille crepe is a cake made from many layers of crepes stacked together.
A : Delicious! It’s the taste of thin pancakes with sweet fillings.
A : Yes.
A : It will last about a week in the fridge. You can also freeze it too, which will last 3 weeks. When you are going to eat it, defrost it slowly in the fridge.
Mille crepe ミルクレープ
Ingredients
Crepe Batter
- 3 eggs
- 375 ml milk
- 150 g plain flour
- 2 tbs sugar
- a pinch of salt
- 30 g unsalted butter (melted)
Filling
- 250 ml fresh cream
- 20 g sugar
- 1 punnet of strawberries
- 2 kiwis
- 1 banana
Instructions
- Whisk the eggs in a large bowl.
- Add milk to the large bowl and combine.
- Sift in the flour,sugar and salt.
- Add melted butter and mix together.
- Strain the mixture and refrigerate for at least one hour.
- After one hour, heat a frying pan or crepe skillet over low heat to medium heat and pour 1 ladle(I used ⅓ cup) of the mixture and spread thinly and evenly to make paper-thin crepes.
- When bubbles appear, turn it over and fry it briefly. The turned side should be golden brown.
- Repeat the process until all the mixture is used.
- Place the crepes on a sheet of parchment paper and cover to allow each crepe to cool before stacking with fillings.
- Prepare the toppings you wish to use. Cut the fruit and whip the fresh cream with sugar till soft peaks form.
- Spread the whipped cream using a n offset spatula on one crepe and place fruit pieces. Stack the next crepe and spread cream over and repeat the process.
- Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.
- Top with more fruit to serve.
This is excellent! I appreciate your thorough explanations. Your expertise is evident. Thank you for sharing practical strategies. Excited to implement these tips. Well done!
One for me as well.
What have you made! It looks heavenly.
This deliciousness has blessed my feed.
Makes me crave even more.
Where is the flour listed??
Hi Jo Thank you for reminding me to fix the recipe.
i want to know what kind of pan that i need to use bcause i have so many that i’m confuss about it
Hi Red rose 😀 if you have a crepe pan, that will be great, but if you don’t, you can use large and shallow frying pan.
wow i have to try this soon !
I hope you enjoy making it 😀
Hi, how much of flour in your recipe?
Hi Natalie, Thank you for letting me know. You need 150g of flour. I fixed the recipe card. Thank you.
Hi, i realized you didnt put how much flour to use in the recipe … how much floyr should we use?
Hi Diana, Thank you for bringing my attention to the recipe. I am updating recipe one by one with step by step photos and videos. I will update this shortly too.
how come no mention of the amount of flour in your recipe?
HI, Thank you for visiting. I just fixed it. Thank you 😀
may I ask for the amount of flour for the recipe?
Hi Alyana 😀 Thank you so much for letting me know. I add flour in the ingredients list. Thank you.