Brown sugar boba mille crepe cake? Say what? This idea came about when I was eating a mille crepe cake while enjoying a brown sugar boba tea. I thought to myself, why not both? So I took my favourite mille crepe cake recipe and added my favourite brown sugar boba tea recipe to create… *magic*.
What is a Boba Mille Crepe Cake?
A mille crepe cake is a French cake made of multiple layers. The word “mille” means “a thousand”, so it is implying the many layers of the cake. The cake is formed by layering individual layers of crepe with cream continuously until it’s formed. It’s then set in the fridge until ready to be eaten. Then we add on fresh, delicious, chewy brown sugar boba (bubble tea) pearls.
Brown Sugar Boba Pearls?
Boba pearls are tapioca flour balls that are rolled together and then cooked in boiling water until translucent and chewy! We will be making our homemade version at home that uses only 3 ingredients- brown sugar, water, and tapioca flour. We will then roll them individually into tiny boba pearls and cook them in a brown sugar syrup. It’s sticky, sweet, chewy, and absolutely delicious.
Milk Tea Infused Creme?
We will be creating a milk tea infused whipped creme using loose leaf black tea and my favourite instant milk tea packet- Lipton Milk Tea. We start off by steeping our black tea for 2-3 minutes to develop that deep tea flavour. Next we will be using a hand mixer with the whisk attachment to whip up our whipping cream until it has soft peaks. Adding in 2 tbsp of cornstarch helps to stabilize the whipped cream. You can also use 1:1 ratio for Gelatin to water to also help stabilize the cream (1 tsp). We then combine our steeped tea and icing sugar and continue to whisk until heavy peaks form.
Brown Sugar Boba Mille Crepe Cake
Equipment
- 6" cake pan
- 6" nonstick pan
- Blender
- Hand Mixer
Ingredients
Brown Sugar Boba
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/3 cup water
- 3/4 cup + more for dusting tapioca flour
Brown Sugar Boba Syrup
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 3 tbsp water
- 1 tbsp molasses
Crepe Cake
- 1 cup oat milk almond milk
- 1/2 cup warm water
- 4 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup oil/butter
- 1 cup flour
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1/8 tsp salt
Tea-infused Whipped Cream
- 2-3 packets black tea, loose leaf earl gray
- 1/8 cup hot water
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream
- 2 packets Lipton milk tea instant packets opt
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- 1/2 cup icing sugar adjust for sweetness, I would put it in 1/4 cup increments
Instructions
Boba Pearls Dough
- Using a sauce pan, heat up 1/3 cup brown sugar + 1/3 cup water. Once it boils, turn off the heat and mix together. Carefully add in 1 tbsp of tapioca flour at a time, whisk together until smooth. Continue adding 1 tbsp at a time until you have added in the rest of the tapioca flour.
- Lightly dust your counter surface. Remove the mixture from the sauce pan onto your dusted surface. Knead the dough together until smooth.
- Cut into 8 pieces. Take 1 piece out and roll into 1 cm logs and cut into 1 cm pieces. Roll the pieces into a circular ball boba shape. Cover the other pieces with dampened paper towel to prevent the dough from drying out. Continue the process with the other 7 pieces. Once you've rolled into boba circular pieces, dust with tapioca flour to prevent it from sticking.
Cooking Boba Pearls
- Heat up 3 cups of water in a pot, once boiled carefully add in your boba pearls. Once the pot boils, simmer for 30-45 minutes until the boba pearl is translucent and cooked through. Mix every 15 minutes to prevent the boba pearl from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
- Once the boba pearls are cooked through, remove from stove and drain.
Brown Sugar Syrup
- Add in brown sugar and water into the pot. Once boiled add in molasses and your cooked boba pearls.
Mille Crepe Cake
- Using a food processor or blender, carefully blend all the ingredients together for 30 seconds until smooth.
- Using a 6" non stick frying pan, heat up 1 tbsp of butter. Once the pan is heated, carefully add in 1/4 of mixture into the pan while swirling the pan in a 360° motion to spread the crepe mixture to the rest of the pan. Cook for 30 seconds - 1 minute until lightly browned. Flip over and cook for an additional 30 seconds.
- Once cooked through, remove from the pan onto a cooling plate. Repeat the process until all the batter is completed. Should make roughly 27-30 crepes.
Tea-infused Cream
- Heat up 1/8 cup of boiling water in a small sauce pan. Cut open the 2-3 packets of your choice of black tea and pour the loose leaf tea into the sauce pan. Boil for 2-3 minutes. Drain the tea leaves. Let the steeped tea cool down to room temperature.
- Using a mixer with the whisk attachment, whisk together 2 cups of heavy whipping cream, 2 packets of Lipton Milk Tea Packet (you can substitute for any other milk tea product) and corn starch until soft peaks develop. Carefully add in icing sugar 1/4 cup at a time and your steeped tea. Continue to whisk and taste until optimal sweetness and heavy peaks form.
- Once heavy peaks form and the mixture is smooth, pour the whipped cream into a piping bag. Set aside in the fridge until you assemble.
Assembly
- Using a 6" cake pan, layer the pan with a parchment paper fitted to the pan. Layer in 1 of the crepes, pipe the whipped cream and spread it evenly. Continue doing so until all the layers are added in. Finish the top layer with whipped cream.
- Once finished, set in the cake for 15-30 minutes until ready to serve.
- When you're ready to serve it. Carefully remove the cake from the cake pan. Top with the boba pearls. Drizzle the brown sugar syrup on top.
Let me know how you enjoy this recipe in the comments below! Stay tuned for more recipes!
xx, CWC
