Croquembouche

This week we have one big challenge: the Croquembouche. It's a traditional French wedding cake and is composed of nougatine topped by layers of chocolate cream-filled choux held together by loads of crunchy caramel. Croquembouche translates to "crunch in mouth", and does it ever!

We started with a 5-hour demo from Chef C. He made everything seem so easy; the tower of choux almost made itself. For decoration, he created a beautiful pulled sugar flower and added some royal icing flourishes.

When it came our turn, we discovered just how frustrating this cake can be. You have to work the nougatine base when it is still piping hot and malleable. Half of us were yelping with pain as we worked it.

The choux assembly came without too many hick-ups. While baking, the front choux looked pretty cooked so I got nervous and opened the oven to check the rest of them. Half of them were uncooked and Chef C yelled out to close the door. I think all of us are sufficiently fearful of opening the oven door too soon with choux, for risk of collapsing.

Next issue was the caramel. With Chef H we are used to cooking caramel a little darker, but Chef C likes it lighter. My first batch was way too dark, but I fixed it by cooking the second batch a lot light and combining them to make an even caramel.

I have to say that creating the tower is probably the hardest part of this cake, though. Dipping the tiny choux in caramel brings your fingers dangerously close to piping hot sugar and I'm sure everyone suffered minor burns. We were warned not to angle them inwards too much, so both Jess and I started off slowly. Too slowly, according to Chef C. He insisted that we turn them upside down because we were moving outwards and not inwards. The result is a slightly pregnant-looking Croquembouche - I'd say maybe 2-3 months? It's just starting to show.

I didn't put enough caramel on the top choux, so the top spire started to sag and lean. I covered it overnight and left it on the counter, but it was way too humid that night. When I woke up, the tower had collapsed and was just a mountain of choux. Still tasted pretty good, though.