The Croquembouche

Croquembouche

What a bouche-full eh?  Croquembouche is a traditional French wedding cake that could really be described as a cream puff topiary.  We started off by making the cream puffs from none other than our classic pate a choux recipe.  We stored them in the freezer as we moved on to the nougatine base.  The nougatine was made from scratch and rolled to about 1/4 of an inch--quite a process!  The nougatine would immediately start to harden so we had to go back and forth in and out of the oven to keep it pliable enough to manipulate.  We cut the nougatine into two 8-inch rounds, a six-inch ring 3 three-inches tall, and 18 rounded triangle ("teeth").  We constructed the base by gluing each piece together with caramelized isomalt.  After the base was constructed, we piped royal icing string-work in between the nougatine teeth.  That afternoon, I spent a little bit of time crafting some marzipan and fondant flowers and leaves.  I also piped some royal icing butterflies and filigree designs for the base.

On the final day of production I attached my filigrees and flowers to the base before starting to build the cream puff tower.  I melted more caramel and attached each pate a choux ball--building a large topiary-like cone.  We actually made cones out of cardboard which we covered with aluminum and used as a guide to for the structure.  After the edible cone was built, we removed the inner cardboard and tinfoil leaving nothing but a hollow cone cream puffs.  I set the pate a choux on top of the nougatine base and used my remaining flowers and butterflies for decoration.

Marzipan and Fondant Flowers and Greens

The Top of the Croquembouche

The Center of the Croquembouche (Royal Icing Butterfly)

Royal Icing String-work

Handcrafted Nougatine Base with Royal Icing Filigree Design