A Wake & Bake Birthday Storie
When it's your birthday, you can crepe if you want to.
It’s 10:30pm and here I sit, drawing tongue in cheek comparisons between Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations and the intimate adventure we had in the kitchen last weekend. I will spare you the silly six degrees of separation between a cake and an 19th century novel, but prepare yourselves for more proclamations of ooey gooey love for what we’ve created here.
I turned 32 last week, but before I could even think about what life goals or wishes I’d make for myself, I knew one thing was certain: I required a big, fat, chocolatey crepe cake and a mountain of cream puffs to properly celebrate. I showed up to Caitlin’s house with nervous anticipation. I’d never entertained such ambitious ideas prior to wrapping myself up in Wake & Bake, but I was met with armfuls of gifts from the babes (and pieces of leftover croissant dough, fried to a crispy golden brown, rolled in cinnamon/sugar, because that's how we roll) and suddenly I had the unbridled confidence to go forth and make a mess! That’s just one of the many beautiful effects these ladies have on me.
Creme puffs + crepe cake. A perfect birthday treat duo and/or sugar coma.
Behold! The inside scoop.
Now, I know most of our readers might be thinking, “How the hell does an inexperienced, clumsy baker like Storie end up making the 26 chocolate crepes necessary for such a cake?!” and if you’re thinking this--you’re absolutely right! You see, Caitlin was our dark horse throughout this performance. Her rounded experience from Hannah’s to Cups n’ Crepes [RIP] bolstered our cool and carried us to victory on all fronts. She even taught ME how to make the perfect crepe with her coveted wrist technique and her ever present fearlessness. It might have taken me 5 or 6 tries, but hey, that’s the beauty of the crepe cake! All those layers leave some room for error.
Get the insider crepe cake recipe fresh from the W&B kitchen here!
Second item on our decadent birthday agenda were these King Arthur cream puffs! I am a total fiend for anything stuffed with some sort of creamy surprise. The plain, buttery choux pastry hits your tongue and you’re like, “Hmm ok..where are we going with this?” and then BAM! Mouth full of delicious, freshly whipped cream or a silky smooth pastry custard, etc. It’s one of my favorite delights in the pastry world.
The cream puffs dreams are made of.
We made a HUGE batch of these puffs so we could prepare two different flavors. One was filled with fresh whipped cream and topped with dark chocolate ganache, the other was filled with this incredible Talenti Coffee Chocolate Chip gelato. (Don't ever let anyone tell you that you can't have ice cream filled cream puffs for breakfast.) I’d be remiss on this joyous holiday if I didn’t encourage you to puff puff pass around these tasty little treats!
So far, all of our Wake & Bake sessions in the kitchen have brought forth a sense of togetherness and inspiration, but something about building a 26 layer crepe cake and stuffing our faces with cream puffs just really made me feel that our realities were finally rising to meet our crepe expectations.
written by Storie Cunningham, edited by courtney marie