This cake is probably the easiest layered cake that you’ll ever come across, but seeing that this is the first solo-cake post on this blog, why not start small?* You’ll probably argue that this technically isn’t an actual layered cake, just a pancake stack, but this in fact is a type of a cake, a crepe cake. It basically consists of about 10-20 crepes that are stacked on top of each other with a delicious filling sandwiching all the layers together. It’s basically like a mille feuille except that there are crepes rather than puff pastry. This particular cake is a mini version with lemon crepes with a mango whipped cream and I topped it off with some fresh mango and pistachios; really fresh, really simple. I really like how the uneven crepes create a "ruffle" on side. 

Now I originally wanted to make a strawberry mille crepe back in March, but I kept fussing about the filling so before I could even say “strawberry”, what do you know: the strawberry season is gone. So the only fruit in season now that I can use in this cake is mangoes. I still wasn’t sure about my filling but I decided not to fret too much before even the mangoes are gone. Truthfully, I have a lot of dishes with mango in mind but I decided to use them here anyways; I’ve waited too long! 

The huge deal about this was the actual number of crepes I needed to make a reasonable size, not to mention the amount of cream for my filling. 12-15 full size crepes mean at least about 1 ½ cups of cream, but this is a mini version! *Now I may take back my first ever sentence, this isn’t really that easy, with making so many crepes but this is easy in terms of the number of components you have to nail!

Mango Mille Crêpe

Crêpes:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 ¼ cups milk
• 1 egg
• A pinch of salt
• Zest of 1 lemon
• Unsalted butter, melted

Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and whisk in the milk and egg until completely smooth. Combine the lemon zest. Cover and set aside for 30 minutes. Heat a not stick frying pan and lightly brush with the melted butter. Pour a little batter in the pan and gently spread it around with the back of a spoon so that it's about 5'' in diameter. Pour out the excess batter back into the bowl. Cook for about 15-20 seconds or until the edges start curling, then flip the crepe and lightly brown the other side. Remove from the pan and cover with a towel. Repeat with the remaining batter. This batter makes about 13-15 crepes.

Mango whipped cream:

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 2-3 tbsp. granulated sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• ¼ cup mango puree

Whip the heavy cream in a large, COLD bowl to stiff peaks while gradually adding the sugar and vanilla.  Once whipped, gently fold in the mango puree.

Assembly:

• Mango wedges and cubes
• Pistachios
• Flower petals, for garnish

Start by placing a crepe onto a large plate. Top it with a thin layer of the mango cream. Alternate between the crepe and cream layers. For the last crepe, smoothly cover with the remaining cream. Place the mango wedges and cubes along the edge followed by the pistachios. Garnish with flower petals.

Voila!