I have been wanting to make this specific recipe since May of 2023. But back then, I was still on a two-month sugar fast, and I learned very quickly that May is an exhausting month to try to do anything – between Mother’s Day and my dad’s birthday, there’s already a lot of cakes that need to be made for that month alone, so I did not want to add a mille crepe to my to-bake list when I knew I was already going to be doing a lot (and being tortured from not being able to taste any of the dessert I was making that month). So I kept this recipe on my to-bake list, and kept pushing it off. Until over a year later when I realized I still have not made it and decided to finally get that checked off. I will be honest here, I hated make mille crepes. Mille(meaning “million” in French) crepes are these delicious, delicately layered cakes consisting of usually anywhere from 10 to 20 crepes that are stacked with cream. They were probably made most popular by the bake shop, Lady M, where 90% of their business model centers around these gorgeous mille crepe cakes, each with 20 layers of crepe and 20 layers of a light pastry cream, similar to the one that we will be making in this recipe!

While I love seeing a finished mille crepe with all of those gorgeous layers, making one takes a long time. Unlike with some of my recipes where you have to freeze something for 2-3 hours, a mille crepe is a prolonged, involved process from start to finish. To start, you have to make (a ton of) crepe batter, which then usually needs to rest before you can even cook them – resting is done so that the gluten in the batter has time to relax, so that the crepe batter will spread easier when you cook them, resulting in thinner crepes! Each crepe also usually takes 2-3 minutes to actually cook on the pan. So if you are making 20 crepes, that’s about 60 minutes of just cooking the crepes at the stove. This is not counting time it takes to pour the batter on the pan, spreading the batter into an even circle, flipping the crepes when they are cooked on one side, and removing the crepes from the pan and allowing them to cool before you can even assemble the cake. And then you have to do that times 15 to 20, so yes, very time-consuming and hard to multitask with other processes. Back then, I had just one pan I could use for mille crepes, so whenever I made a mille crepe, it would takes probably 2-3 hours of active work, so it was my personal hell. However, when I used two pans, that effectively cut the active time in half, so it became a lot more manageable. So I cannot stress this enough, use at least two pans when you are making a mille crepe. Hell, use three or four pans – I can imagine with four pans, you can probably have a mille crepe made in 30 minutes!

That whole tirade about my past trauma with mille crepes is not meant to deter you from making one. They are delicious and it is one of the most uniquely satisfying experience to cut through all of the gorgeous layers, and peeling off the crepes, one at a time, to eat. For this specific crepe cake, I went with an Oreo flavored crepe batter. I used crushed Oreos in the batter, but just to up the actual Oreo flavor and color, I used black cacao powder, which is an alkalized/dutch-processed cocoa powder with a rich, dark color and flavor. Black cacao is actually what is used to give Oreos their distinct flavor and color, so it really does reinforce that Oreo aesthetic. For the filling, I went with bismarck cream. Bismarck is a pastry cream based filling that had whipped cream folded through it to give it a lighter texture. It is similar to Bavarian cream, but in the case of my recipes, my Bavarian cream uses gelatin to set it, whereas my Bismarck cream relies on the gelled cornstarch from the pastry cream to give it that silky mouthfeel. I also layered up the crepes and cream with some finely crushed Oreo dust, just to give it that pretty speckled effect throughout every layer of crepe and cream. While it took me a year to get around to making this, as well as a couple hours to actually make this recipe, I will say that this crepe cake turned around my disdain towards making them, and I will happily make another mille crepe when I get the idea to do one!

For the crepe batter:
2oz finely ground Oreos
1oz black cacao powder
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 cup water
6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
4 whole eggs
a pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a blender, puree all of your ingredients together until a smooth, homogenous batter forms. In a nonstick 9-inch pan that was sitting on medium heat for 1-2 minutes, start by pouring roughly 1.5oz of your batter into the middle of the pan, rotating the pan so that the batter spreads in an even, thin circle. Allow the batter to cook on medium heat for 1-2 minutes(the edges of the crepe will start to pull away from the pan as it cooks), then flip the crepe, allowing it to sear on the other side for another 30 seconds. Repeat these steps until you finish using up all of your batter – if you are using just one pan, this can take up to 2 hours, so I recommend using at least 2 pans to expedite this process. Allow the crepes to cool down to room temperature before attempting to assemble with.

For the bismarck cream filling:
3 egg yolks
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3 tbsp cornstarch
1 cup whole milk
a pinch of salt
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup heavy cream, whipped to stiff peaks

In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, and cornstarch. In a pot, heat up the milk with salt. Pour half of the milk into the bowl with the egg yolks while whisking the yolks. Once half of the milk is fully mixed into the egg yolks, pour that back into the pot with the rest of the milk, and begin whisking the contents of the pot on medium-high heat for 2-3 minutes – it should begin to thicken and resemble pudding in consistency. Pass the thickened egg yolk custard through a sieve to remove any lumps and allow that to cool down to room temperature before folding in first the vanilla, and then the whipped cream to form your Bismarck cream. If not using right away, cover with cling wrap and keep in the refrigerator.

For assembly:
2oz Oreos, crushed into a fine powder

Using an offset spatula, spread the 2oz of filling in an even layer on top of a crepe and sprinkle on the crushed Oreo cookies. Place on top of that the next crepe and continuously repeat these steps until you have a cake that is roughly 4 to 5 inches tall.