Ping Gai Chicken - Laotian "Grilled Chicken Chicken"

Using this simple “crepe cake” technique, you can turn any of your favorite cake fillings into visually stunning, multilayered masterpieces. By the way, I said this is simple, not fast, as it does take a little bit of time to make and stack all those crepes, but once you get rolling, it goes pretty quick.

I was going for a very light dessert here, in both taste and texture, but this technique really shines if you use a more traditional cake filling like buttercream. Since that gets nice and firm when chilled, you’ll get even more gorgeously defined layers. Chocolate ganache is also a great choice, especially layered alternately with pastry cream, which would create a sort of Boston cream pie.

The ingredient amounts below are just a guide, since it really depends on the size of your crepes, and how much filling you spread on. You’ll probably have a few more crepes than you need, which isn’t really a problem, and you can try to go even higher than I did. I also increased the cream filling ingredients below, since I had to make another half batch during my construction. 

Speaking of filling, I probably could’ve just folded the strawberry jam into the whipped cream mixture to save time when assembling. I though it would be nice to have streaks of fruit in the cream, but once sliced, it really wasn’t that noticeable. Of course fresh fruit would also work, just be aware of the extra moisture that might add. Regardless of how you fill yours, or how high you stack, I really do hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!

For the crepes:

5 large eggs

3 1/4 cups milk

2 1/2 cups flour

2 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 tablespoons white sugar

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

For the cream filling:

3/4 cup mascarpone

1 1/2 cup heavy cream

3 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

For the fruit mixture:

10 ounce jar of strawberry jam

2 tablespoons water

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