250ml/1 cupblood orange juice or regular orangefreshly squeezed
200g/1 cupwhite sugar
For the Almond Crepes
210g/1 ½ cupall-purpose flour
3tbspsugar
½tspbaking powder
¼tspsalt
3eggs
560ml/2 ¼cupsmilk or soy milk
½tspvanilla extract
½tspalmond extract
For the Blood Orange Ricotta Cream
500g/2 cupsricotta
4tbspblood orange syrup
250ml/1 cupheavy whipping/double cream
30g/1/4 cuppowdered/icing sugar
1tsporange blossom wateroptional
1blood orangesliced thinly
powdered sugar
Instructions
For the blood orange syrup
Juice the blood oranges and combine the juice with sugar in a saucepan, bring to a boil, let it bubble away for 5 minutes on medium heat.
Remove from the heat and let it cool completely. When cooled strain into a jar or a bottle.
For the crepes
In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Crack eggs into the mixture and pour in 1 cup of milk. Mix everything with a whisk, then add remaining milk, vanilla and almond flavourings, mix well. Let it sit for 30 minutes.
Heat the frying pan on medium heat. (Read the tips on making better crepes in the post!!) Rub the frying pan with a little bit of oil and pour ⅓ cup of crepe batter in the pan, tilt the pan to let the batter run to the edges.
Cook each crepe until the surface looks dry, approximately 1 minute, then flip with a thin-edged spatula and cook for 20-30 seconds on the other side. Repeat until all better is gone. You will have 12 crepes if using an 9 inch/23 cm frying pan.
Stack crepes on top of each other and let them cool completely.
For the Blood Orange Ricotta Cream
Combine ricotta and blood orange syrup in a food processor and pulse for a few seconds for a smoother texture.
To a medium bowl add heavy/double cream with powdered sugar and orange blossom water if using, whip until stiff peaks form with an electric mixer.
Gently fold half of whipped cream into ricotta with a spatula, then fold in another half.
To assemble the crepe cake
Choose a pretty plate or a cake stand and place the first crepe on it, spread approximately ¼ cup of the blood orange ricotta cream with a spatula, drizzle with 1 tbsp of blood orange syrup. Repeat until all crepes are gone.
Drizzle the top of the crepe cake with additional blood orange syrup, decorate with blood orange slices and refrigerate for at least 1 hour for the cream to firm up and for the cake to soak up all the flavours.
Dust with more powdered sugar right before serving if desired.
Notes
Orange Blossom water is NOT the same as orange essence. It adds a beautiful flavour and fragrance to the crepe cake.