Vanilla crepes * buttercream crepe filling * strawberry buttercream icing * stewing fruit

Vanilla Crepes

1 1/2 c. milk

2 eggs

1 Tbsp vanilla

1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

3 Tbsp powdered sugar

1/2 tsp salt

3 or 4 Tbsp butter, melted

Combine ingredients in a large bowl and mix well, until batter is smooth. Cover and chill for about an hour. Lightly butter a crepe pan or skillet and heat to medium low. Pour about 1/4 cup batter into the skillet, swirl to coat, then cook over low to medium low heat for a few minutes per side. Fill and top with fruit, powdered sugar, buttercream, whipped cream, etc.

Buttercream crepe filling:

4 oz cream cheese

3 Tbsp butter

1/2 c. powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Cream butter and cream cheese together until smooth. Add vanilla and powdered sugar and blend well.

Peach Topping:

2-4 fresh peaches, peeled and sliced

1-2 Tbsp sugar

1/2 to 1 tsp cinnamon

In a small pot, combine peach slices with sugar and cinnamon. If peaches are not very sweet, add a little more sugar. Simmer on medium low, stirring frequently, for about half an hour. Use as topping for crepes or other desserts.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Icing:

1 c. fresh strawberries, hulled and cut up

1 Tbsp sugar

1/2 c. unsalted butter

8 oz cream cheese

1 tsp vanilla

about 2 1/2 c. powdered sugar

In a small pot, mix strawberries, sugar, and a few spoonfuls of water. Simmer on medium low, stirring frequently, for about half an hour. Add more water if it appears dry. Set aside to cool.

Cream the butter and cream cheese together until smooth. Add strawberry mixture and vanilla and blend well. Add powdered sugar slowly while beating until mixture is smooth and of the desired consistency.

Makes enough to ice a two-layer cake.

Welcome to the Real Life Cooking Podcast. I’m Kate Shaw and this week we’re going to learn how to make several delicious things, including vanilla crepes and strawberry buttercream icing. It all fits together, you’ll see.

2020 may be a horrible year in many ways, but the peaches available where I live have been amazing! I’ve made all my peach recipes to take advantage of this happy event, and have also eaten a lot of peaches while standing over the sink, juice dripping down my arm. So earlier this week I decided to use my last two peaches to make a topping for vanilla crepes.

Also earlier this week there was the whole cake meme going around online. If you’re listening to this after July 2020 you probably don’t even remember it, but for the better part of a week everyone online has been doing the whole “cut into an object, reveal it’s a cake inside” thing. Naturally enough, it made me crave cake, so I made one. The cake itself turned out to be kind of disappointing, but the strawberry buttercream icing I made for it is fantastic, plus it’s made almost the same way I make the filling and topping for the crepes. So it makes sense to put all these recipes together in one big episode.

We’ll start with the crepes. I’ve eaten amazing crepes in Paris and I’ve eaten terrible crepes at IHOP, and I think my crepes are closer to the Paris ones than the IHOP ones. They’re also really easy to make.

You’ll need a medium mixing bowl and a skillet. If you happen to have an actual crepe pan, lucky you, but most of us are ordinary people who don’t have room in their kitchen cabinets for specialized pans, so an ordinary skillet will do. A crepe pan mainly just has really shallow sides at an angle that makes it easier to get your spatula under the edges of a crepe without tearing it up.

Mix all the ingredients together in the mixing bowl until it’s as free of lumps as possible. Then stick the bowl in th