Looking for an easier, fancier, and BETTER alternative to spending all day baking a cake? Look no further! This Citrus Crepe Cake with Ricotta Filling fits the bill.
I’ve only made one other type of crepe cake before I made this recipe, and it was AWFUL. The cream was too runny, the chocolate crepes I tried to make were dry, and overall, it was just unpleasant to eat. But I tried again and worked towards perfecting this recipe. Let me say, it’s easy to make, really hard to mess up, and the end result is not only delicious, but also SO impressive as well!
The Crepes:
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Crepes can be hard to make!! They tear easily, often the batter has to sit for a few hours in the fridge, and the swirling technique is just time-consuming and difficult to master. However, I’ve found the easiest way to make DELICIOUS crepes, not only for this specific recipe, but for just crepes in general!
This crepe mix by Josie’s Best is the best crepe batter I’ve ever worked with, and the crepes ALWAYS turn out amazing and professional looking. (You can buy the mix here.) Gluten free crepes can be especially hard to make from scratch. You can’t use a batter with xanthan gum or the crepe will be automatically thick like a pancake, so most of the time the recipes call for making your own gluten free flour blend. I love making and eating crepes, but sometimes they aren’t worth the time and cleanup of having to make my own gum-free flour blend.
I always use this Josie’s Best crepe mix called “The Crepe.” It doesn’t call for any flour mixing or any extra dishes, and the crepes don’t tear as much as homemade crepes usually do! It’s essentially a foolproof solution to making professional French crepes at home.
The crepes are not sweet on their own which is better for this recipe as the cream filling itself is sweet. If you’re interested in buying “The Crepe” mix, you can access the link by clicking down below.
Buy Josie’s Best crepe mix here
Make enough batter for 2 cups of mix following instructions on the back of the bag for Josie’s Best crepe mix (requires egg, milk, and water), PLUS add the zest of one orange which will enhance the orange flavor of the crepes and unite the cake as a whole.
Before making the crepes, here are my tips:
- Put your pan on medium to medium high heat and make sure to add about 1 teaspoon of butter to the pan BEFORE adding batter for each individual crepe. It can get tedious, yes, but it’s the easiest way to ensure the crepes don’t get stuck to the pan.
- Although these crepes don’t rip easily, it is still possible, so be careful when you’re flipping your crepes!
- These can be made the night before you want to assemble the cake if you prefer. If saving, tightly seal them in a plastic baggie or cling wrap so they stay pliable and fresh!
Making the Filling:
Basically, the filling is a ricotta whipped cream with orange and cardamom… and it’s addictive. Seriously, I could eat this filling plain with a spoon. Begin by preparing orange whipped cream using heavy cream, orange juice, cardamom, and powdered sugar. Then the only thing to do is fold in the ricotta. It’s easy to make but so impressive looking! Adding ricotta to your whipped cream is a great way to upgrade your classic homemade whipped cream in general.
The other parts of the filling and topping are the oranges. The filling calls for freshly sliced oranges, whereas the top of the cake is decorated with homemade dehydrated orange slices.
To make the dried oranges, slice them as thinly as you can, and cook them for 3 hours at 200 degrees in the oven. Flip them halfway through so both sides cook evenly. Sprinkle the top of each thin slice with sugar.
To prepare the fresh orange slices, start by slicing the ends off of three oranges. Using a sharp knife, carve down the sides of the orange to remove the pith and the rind. Then, lay the peeled orange on it’s side and slice thinly as shown below.
Notes about the oranges:
- For the freshly sliced oranges in the picture above, try to pat them dry as much as possible. Extra liquid can cause the cream to separate within the layers of the cake.
- I used a mix of Cara Cara oranges and Navel oranges for this recipe, but you could use either alone, blood oranges, or any other kind of orange you have available.
Assembling the cake:
Here’s how I assembled my cake: I prepared 24 fresh orange slices, and made 16 crepes. To assemble, after every 4 layers of crepe, I added a layer of 6 orange slices, and repeated until finished.
The process of assembling: First add a thin layer of cream onto your cake plate. Then begin building up first layer by adding one crepe and then cream, top with second layer of crepe and cream, top again with third layer of crepe and cream. Fourth layer is crepe, cream, and the addition of 6 fresh orange slices.
Continue alternating the layering in this pattern – 3 layers of crepes with cream and 4th layer with the oranges until you are finished. Depending on how many crepes you prepared, and how many orange slices you have, your pattern of layers may be different from mine in terms of spacing, but that’s fine.
When adding the oranges to the cake, make sure they are evenly arranged, like this:
After assembling, cover the top layer with the extra ricotta cream, and finish by placing the dried oranges in a decorative pattern as shown in top photo.
Happy cooking! I hope you enjoy this easy and impressive recipe as much as my family and I do!!
Orange and Ricotta Crepe Cake
Ingredients
For the Crepes
- 2 cups Josie's Best Crepe Mix (The link is in the blog post)
- Zest of 1 orange
- The ingredients called for on the back of the crepe mix bag
- Butter
For the filling
- 1 cup ricotta
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 tsp cardamom
- 2 tbsp powdered sugar
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 3 large oranges (I used cara cara and navel)
For the dehydrated oranges
- 2 large oranges
- 1/2 tsp sugar
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 200 degrees and thinly slice 2 oranges into circles. Lay the slices out on a baking sheet lined with parchment and sprinkle the tops with sugar.
- Bake for 3 hours, flipping halfway through.
- First, make the crepes. Mix all of the crepe ingredients together in a large mixing bowl until smooth.
- In a pan on medium high heat, add about one tsp of butter. When the butter is melted, add about 1/4 cup of crepe batter to the pan and swirl it around until the bottom is evenly coated. When the crepe has solidified, gently flip it using a silicone spatula.
- Pile the completed crepes on a large plate and leave out to cool if immediately assembling the cake. If you plan on assembling the cake the next day, wrap the crepes in cling wrap or in a plastic bag and keep in the fridge.
- Make the whipped cream. In an electric mixer, add the whipping cream, sugar, and cardamom and whisk until it forms soft peaks. Add the orange juice 1/4 cup at a time and whisk until combined
- Add the ricotta to the bowl with the whipped cream. Fold with a spatula until fully combined.
- Now, slice the 3 oranges. Starting by chopping the ends off, then carve away at the pith and rind with a sharp knife.
- Lay the orange on the fattest edge you can find and slice as thin as you can. Directly transfer the orange slices onto a paper towel and pat dry to remove any extra liquid.
- Now, assemble the cake. Add a small amount of cream filling to the bottom of your cake plate and begin piling crepes on top of each other with a layer of cream in between each. Do the math to figure out how many orange slices you have, then divide that number by four and place that number of orange slices after every 4 layers of cream and crepe.
- If the above step in confusing, read the section about assembling the cake in the post above.
- Top with the extra ricotta cream, and arrange dried oranges on top of that.
- Serve immediately!