Chocolate Crepe Layer Cake

One night awhile ago, Tim and I decided to head up to bed early. We had barely reached the top step when we heard a strange noise coming from downstairs.

“Did we leave the TV on?” I asked him.

“No, I’m certain we turned it off,” he replied as the strange noise came again.

“IIIIIIHHHMEEEE!” the mysterious sound kept repeating, floating up out of the darkness.

“Oh my God, it sounds like someone is downstairs!” We looked at each other while Chloe peered down the stairs.

“IIIMMMEEEEE!” the creepy voice intoned.

Uh oh, could we see hear dead people now? Where was Bruce Willis when we needed him? What horror awaited us at the bottom of the steps? Should we dial 911, lock ourselves in our room, or look for a clove of garlic, silver bullet or container of Morton’s salt? So many questions.

“IIIMMMHEEEE!” Our intruder was getting impatient.

Was the house haunted? Had we awakened the dead by watching too many episodes of Hocus Pocus? Maybe we should call a medium, or the psychic hotline.

“IIIMHEEEE!”

Against my better judgement, I followed Tim as he headed down the stairs, debating whether I should be chanting “Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!”

And then we saw it: a faint, eerie glow coming from the family room.

“IIIHMEEEE!!!”

Holy cow! We had our own, real life poltergeist!!!

“IIIHMEEEE!”

Wait a minute. The voice sounded strangely familiar. And the glow seemed to be coming not from a creepy closet, but from our Alexa.

“IIIHMEEE!”

We moved closer, and there he was, on our Alexa screen…Tim’s brother Tom.

Tom had had throat surgery recently, and his voice was very raspy, strained and muddled. He had “dropped in” on us with Alexa and had been calling, “Timmy!” when he saw the dark room to get our attention.

Apparently, we didn’t need Beetlejuice after all.

Ingredients for Crepes:

2 cups pastry flour (I used whole wheat pastry flour)
4 heaping Tablespoons of arrowroot flour (powder)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup monkfruit (or sugar)
1/2 cup cacao powder
4 Tablespoons melted butter
2 1/2 cups almond milk

Ingredients for filling:

2 (8oz) containers of cream cheese
3/4 -1 cup powdered monkfruit (or sugar)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Heat a non-stick pan (a crepe pan if you have one) over medium heat while you mix the batter.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, arrowroot, salt, monkfruit and cacao. Add the butter and milk and whisk till smooth.
Lightly grease the pan, but don’t let oil or butter pool in the bottom. Lift the pan off the burner and, using a ladle or measuring cup (I have a crepe pan that is fairly large, so I used 2 scoops) pour the batter into the pan while rotating the pan to equally distribute the batter. You are making a super thin pancake here. I used the back of the ladle to help spread it, but applied very light pressure.
Put the pan back on the stove and allow the crepe to cook. You will see some bubbles form, but mostly, you will see the crepe “dry out”. I did not even flip the crepes, just let them cook till there were only a few “wet spots” that finished cooking after I removed the crepe from the pan.
Use a spatula to gently lift the edges of the crepe and loosen it. Slide the crepes out onto wax paper (I just put a strip of it on my counter and lined up the crepes as they came out of the pan) to cool off. This batter made 8 large crepes.
While the crepes cool, whisk or use a mixer to combine the ingredients for the filling.
Place a cooled crepe on a serving dish and carefully spread a thin layer of the cream cheese mixture on top. Place another crepe on top and repeat the process with the cream cheese. Keep repeating the process until you have used all the crepes and all the filling.
For Halloween, I put the top layer of filling into a pastry bag and make circles on the top of the last crepe. Then, using a toothpick, I placed it in the center circle and lightly pulled it straight out to the edge. I repeated this every few inches apart to make a spider web pattern.
Refrigerate after making to allow it to firm up before serving.