Black Sesame Crepe Cake

Started off trying to use a crepe maker that I borrowed from a friend. I thought it’d expidite the process. NOPE. At least not that particular one..it only caused me to waste batter since the griddle was too hot, so I switched over to a frying pan. My batter requires the temp to be around 250F, low heat. Overall, I was pretty pleased with it, but making this reminded me why I hate making them. lol. They take forever!

updated 9/5/20 increased proportion of the diplomat cream to have sufficient filling. Added some extra tips. Can see a matcha black sesame iteration here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CFhhT3AHPdU/

1. Black Sesame Crepes:

• 650 g milk, at least room temperature!
• 240 g flour
• 40 g black sesame powder
• 90 g sugar
• 4 eggs
• 50 g butter, melted
  

1. If milk isn’t at room temperature, put into a medium saucepan and heat briefly.
2. Sift flour into a large bowl.
3. Add sugar and black sesame powder and whisk briefly.
4. Add in eggs and mix. The batter is a bit thick at this point.
   • If you want to reduce the yellowness of the eggs, you can first mix the egg yolks separately with the sugar, then add that + egg whites to the flour.
5. Now add the milk to the batter, slowly at a time. Once about half the milk is added, take time to mix thoroughly. Add the rest of the milk and mix.
6. Add melted butter and mix fully. I added a drop of black food coloring since it was a dingy grey/ yellow color.
7. Pour mixture through a sieve. The batter will be a runny consistency.
8. Cling wrap and throw into fridge for at least 30 minutes. Longer is better.
9. Use two pans, it’ll help. For this batter, you want to make sure your pan is always greased before adding batter. For my greaser, I use a spatula wrapped in a napkin that’s taped on top and dip it into melted butter.
10. On low heat, allow pan to warm up, grease, and add some butter and add a small amount of batter. I use a 1/3 cup scooper and fill it 2/3 of the way up (so 2/9 cup). It takes some trial and error to figure out the right amount to cover your pan. Between crepes, I take the pan off an place it only a wet kitchen towel, so that when I add the crepe batter, it’s able to spread a bit before cooking.
11. When the edges of the crepe become dry (a minute or so), flip over and cook for a short while longer (<1 minute).
12. Repeat.
13. To get a consistent size, you can place a bowl or something circular over the crepe and cut off excess scraps.
    
14. Let crepes cool completely before assembling.

2. Black Sesame Vanilla Diplomat Cream:

• 5 large egg yolks
• 45 g cornstarch
• 425 g milk
• 100 g sugar
• 50ish g black sesame powder
• 350 g heavy cream
• 15 g powdered sugar

1. You need to make a custard and a whipped cream. Take your large bowl and whisk that you’re going to make the whipped cream with and throw that into the fridge before you begin. You want it cold.
2. First prepare the custard component. In a large bowl, combine egg yolks and sugar. The longer you beat them, the less yellow your mixture will be (which is good). Add in cornstarch and mix.
3. In a saucepan, high heat, combine milk and black sesame powder.
4. Bring to boil and remove from heat.
5. While whisking constantly, slowly add to bowl with yolks, sugar, and cornstarch. You are tempering the egg yolks so that they won’t scramble.
6. Return the mixture to the saucepan on high heat.
7. Bring to rolling boil, while whisking/ mixing constantly. I use a stick blender to get any lumps that may form at the bottom of the saucepan. The mixture will become custard like and coat a dipped spoon easily.
8. Sieve into a bowl and cover the bowl with cling wrap. Since I use the blender, I don’t have any clumps and have started skipping this step. You can add some black food coloring if it’s too dingey grey :p.
9. Chill (and whisk every 10 minutes to make sure it’s actually starting to chill)
10. Now prepare the whipped cream component. Take out the chilled bowl, whisk, and cream. 
11. Add cream and powdered sugar and whisk until firm peaks. Adding black sesame powder into the a noncooked component will add graininess, so if you want that, you can also add some here (I usually just like to pack the custard full of it, but if you find your custard is lacking, you could add additional powder here).
12. Take out the custard and whisk a bit to loosen it up. Add up to a third of the whipped cream to lighten the mixture even more.
    1. NOTE: this is a common technique whenever you want to preserve airiness and are combining a thick and liqht mixture (like mousses or cakes). You mix a little bit of the light into the heavy so you can lighten up the overall mixture before you finish off slowly combinng the rest.
            
13. Slowly fold in the rest of the whipped cream, making sure not to overfold (will deflate the cream). I’ve found that for this, whisking to get rid of clumps is fine and even if it deflates, it’s not bad.

Black Sesame Ganache:

• 60 g heavy whipping cream
• 40-50 g white chocolate
• 10ish g black sesame powder

1. If you can, it makes it easier for the white chocolate to melt if it’s been chopped up. Add that to a bowl.
2. Heat the cream and black sesame powder together until it just starts to simmer.
3. Add this to the bowl of white chocolate and let sit for a few mintutes then stir together to incorporate. If the mixture is too runny, melt some white chocolate in the microwave (about 2x 25s for 5-10 g) and add this in. If too thick, add some more cream.

Assembly:

1. Assemble the cake on whatever you want it to be served on. A cake board works nicely.
   
2. I started using a turntable for decorating these and it makes your life way easier. Lay down a crepe and then add some diplomat cream. Spread out an even amount of diplomat (I use an ice cream scoop and it works perfectly [note this is an update. I started using a the scoop shortly after this cake and since then they were more even!]). A turntable is very helpful here.
3. Add another crepe. Then some more diplomat cream.
4. Repeat.
5. Every few crepes, monitor how dome shaped the cake is becoming. If it’s doming, use something that’s flat to press down onto the cake to help even it  out. The edge of the cake will inevitably have less diplomat cream cream than the center. A turn table and a nice offset spatula helps with spreading.
6. Once assembled, refrigerate for a few hours (will make it so much easier to cut into).
   1. *Note: if you don’t have a few hours, throw into the freezer or something to try rapid cooling. If the cream hasn’t cold set, it’ll be a bit sad when you cut into it!
7. I rubbed some black sesame powder on the top of the cake first. Then added some course black sesame powder and white chocolate dust/ chunks to the center. Before serving, I added some black sesame ganache and finished it off with some more black sesame powder and white chocolate shavings/ chunks.

Enjoy!
-Mario