Delectables with Dan: Strawberry-Chocolate PANCAKE Cake 🍓🥞🍫

Sometimes you just want to have cake for breakfast, am I right? There are so many different types of cake, the choices can be mindboggling. One night I was stood in the kitchen wondering about what I wanted for dinner. Part of me was screaming "Eat that Cake!" the other part was screaming at me "Eat Pancakes!" Then the little demon inside of me, he's called Phebious, whispered, "What about a cake made of pancakes?" I almost spontaneously combusted. Could I do this? If I attempt to create this will the fibres of the universe split and a hole will rip open, pulling me and my kitchen into another realm? I figured I'd risk it and attempt to make a pancake cake.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED
(I promise a crack won't appear in your kitchen and it won't be sucked through a black hole. Well, for this recipe anyway.)

110g plain flour, sifted

pinch of salt

2 eggs

200ml unsweetened almond milk

50g/2oz butter

1 tsp stevia 

2 tsp lemon juice 

Start by adding your flour, stevia and salt to a medium-sized mixing bowl. Mix together with a baking spoon. Add in your eggs. Mix them together, Ad in the drop of lemon juice, almond milk and melted butter. Mix with an electric mixer on low speed to ensure there are no flour pockets and or bubbles in your mixture. 

Grease with non-stick cooking spray BETWEEN EACH PANCAKE, these little buggers will stick on you and it will turn into a big fucking mess. Once you've sprayed the pan, but it under medium heat and allow it to heat up before you ladle in your batter. You're going to ladle a bit more batter than you usually would for making one of these pancakes. For those in North America reading these pancakes, you know them as "crepes".  

Allow batter to cook on one side until golden brown; batter will be golden brown when you see little bubbles forming on the top side of the pancake. That's when you flip it. Carefully. Caress it almost if you have to even. The recipe should make 12 thick pancakes. You're going to use 8 of them to create the layers. 

While your pancakes are cooking up, take 5-6 large strawberries, stem then and slice them VERTICALLY in thin slices. (Use the picture above if you can't tell vertical from horizontal apart; Believe me, some people still can't and they're almost 30. It's both horrifying and pathetic.)

As you remove your pancakes from heat spread them out on a large plate, you don't want them to stick together. Sticky pancakes are no good. While you are cooking up these, it's time to whip some cream for the cake.

 You will need 
240 ml double cream
1 tsp Splenda or sugar 
1 tsp vanilla essence

In a medium-sized bowl, combine the ingreidents and with an electric hand mixer and whip cream until soft peaks form. This usually takes 2-3 minutes on high speed. As you whip, work the bowl around in your hands, making sure you beat enough air into the cream. It will be thicc and fluffy (like someone I love) by the time you've finished with it.  

Once whipped your cream it's time to start preparing your cake. Layer two pancakes together on a separate plate; they're going to serve as your base. Take a rubber spatula and dollop a small amount of the whipped cream into the centre of the pancakes. Carefully, so you don't tear the pancakes, work the whipped cream around the centre.  Take the strawberry slices and lay them counterclockwise (or clockwise, it doesn't matter your preference) around the outside of the pancake's service.  Layer one more pancake follow with whipped cream, following the same instructions. After you've spread out the whipped cream, for this layer, drizzle a bit of sugar-free chocolate syrup. 

The next layer will be a double pancake, whipped cream strawberries, single pancake, whipped cream with chocolate syrup and strawberries. Double pancake the top layer, it will help give it some stability that we crave (in more ways than one.) Spread the last of the whipped cream over the top of the pancake cake tower, arrange your strawberries and then in a diagonal pattern, squirt the chocolate syrup. It makes for a perfect aesthetic. 

Serve as quickly as possible. Can be refrigerated overnight and consumed in the morning. Eat within a 24 hour period for the best result.