Chocolate pancake cake recipe

Ingredients 

Chocolate pancakes (it will make 10-12 pancakes, for the cake, you will need 25-30 pancakes)

50g Anchor butter 

325g whole milk 

100g plain flour 

50g coco powder 

50g caster sugar 

3 medium free-range eggs 

Raspberry mascarpone filling (for 10-12 pancakes)

200g mascarpone 

75g double cream 

150g raspberry jam 

Chocolate ganache (optional)

100g dark chocolate 

100g double cream

Decoration 

1 punnet of fresh raspberries

Method 

Make the pancakes 

1. In a saucepan heat butter and milk together. Bring it to boil, then take it off the heat and let it cool slightly. 
2. In a large mixing bowl, add flour, coco, and sugar. Mix them well using a balloon whisk. 
3. Add one egg and whisk. Add a splash of milk to loosen slightly. Then alternate between egg and a bit of milk till all the eggs are incorporated evenly in the batter. Finally add rest of the milk and butter mix and whisk together. 
4. Cover with clingfilm and let the batter sit for at least 30mins. 
5. Place a non-stick pan on medium heat. I used a 24cm non-stick pan. As there is enough butter in the batter, you would not need any extra oil for frying the pancakes. 
6. Once the pan is heated, pour a ladle full of the batter on the frying pan. Slowly rotate the frying pan to spread the batter. Keep rotating till there is not loose batter in the pan left. 
7. Place it on the medium heat to cool for 1-2mins. You will see the pancakes bubbling up in the middle and sides getting crisp. 
8. Use a spatula to slightly loose the sides of the pancake, and then slide the spatula under the pancake. Flip it carefully with the help of the spatula. Cook the other side of the pancake for about a min. Then take it off the pan place on a plate. If you feel brave, try to do the infamous pancake flip, good luck! 
9. Keep making pancakes with the rest of the batter and stack them up on the plate. 
10. Once all of them are cooked, let it cool down before you start the stacking process. 

Raspberry mascarpone filling 

11. In a large mixing bowl add all the ingredients for filling. Whisk them using an electric whisk till it is medium to stiff peaks and the filling is holding its shape. 
12. Spoon a couple of tbsp of the filling in a piping bag fitted with star nozzle to be used later for decoration. Keep the rest of the filling chilled. 

Chocolate ganache (this coating is optional)

13. Heat the double cream in a saucepan till it just about to boil. Place the chopped chocolate on a heat proof bowl. 
14. Pour the hot cream on top of the chocolate and let it seat for about 5mins. Then mix them well. Cover and place in the fridge to set to touch. 
15. Then, take the ganache out of the fridge and whip till light and fluffy. This will be used to coat the cake. 

Assemble

16. Once the pancakes are cooled start assembling. 
17. Use a 15-18cm cake tin as a template to cut the sides of the pancakes. It will give an almost uniform thickness to all the layers of the cakes. 
18. Place a cake board on the turn table. Secure the first pancake on top of the cake board using a bit of the filling. Spoon a tbsp of filling on top and spread using a palette knife. 
19. Top it with the second pancake. Repeat the process till you stacked all the pancakes with the raspberry mascarpone filling. 
20. Coat the sides and top of the cake with rest of the filling. 
21. Place it in the freezer for 30-40mins to set. 
22. After that take the cake out of the freezer and coat with the whipped ganache. 
23. Smooth the sides with a pallet knife or cake scraper. 
24. Pipe kisses of the filling along the top edge of the cake alternating with raspberries. 
25. Use rest of the raspberries to decorate the bottom edge of the cake. Place it in the cake at least couple of hours to set. 
26. Keep the cake chilled till serving.