Croquembouche Birthday Cake

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Instead of a regular old cake for Tomiko’s 30th birthday, I made a towering croquembouche! Last year I made her a white chocolate raspberry cake, but I wanted to create something special this year. I have loved profiteroles (aka cream puffs) since first trying them when I was about 14, and so I eventually learned how to make them. Instead of just serving a couple profiteroles on a plate with chocolate sauce, I wanted to make a show-stopper. Hence, the  croquembouche, which is a bunch of baked choux pastry puffs, piped with a cream filling, then stacked into a tower and secured with caramel. To top it all off, the caramel is then spun around the finished masterpiece.

For her birthday, Tomiko hosted a backyard party; we cleared out the cars and set up groups of chairs, a drink station in the garage, and a table full of food. I gave Tomiko a set of bocce balls for her birthday, so we left those in the driveway for those who wanted to play. After drinks and finger food, I brought out the croquembouche, stuck it full of sparklers, and lit them. I recommend getting longer sparklers than the ones that I used, since the first ones already went out by the time I finished lighting the last sparkler!

Various members of our family did the cooking, including: Colombian arepas and plantains, meatballs, chicken wings, sausages, hummus, veggie sticks, deviled eggs, fruit salad, tiramisu, spinach dip, cream cheese with sweet pepper relish, and barbecued eggplant dip.

For those that wanted something a bit less creamy, Tomiko made some lemon cupcakes topped with sprinkles and dried roses. Even the butterflies enjoyed them!

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Croquembouche Birthday Cake

Course Dessert

Cuisine French

Prep Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 3 hours hours

Author Kiku Corner

Ingredients

For the Choux Pastry:

• 100 g salted butter
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 6 eggs

For the Cream Filling:

• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 egg yolks
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 Tbsp flour
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream

For Assembly:

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup water

Instructions

For the Choux Pastry:

• Preheat oven to 415 F.
• In a large, heavy based saucepan, heat the butter and water over medium heat until butter is melted and mixture is boiling.
• Remove from the heat and beat in the flour with a wooden spoon.
• Return the pot to the heat and beat until the mixture comes together into a ball and leaves the side of the pan. Remove again from the heat and let cool slightly.
• Beat the mixture to release any more heat - you don't want to cook the eggs!
• Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. The mixture will be slippery at first, so just continue beating until the egg is well incorporated before adding the next.
• Beat the mixture until it is thick and glossy - a wooden spoon should be able to stand up in the batter.
• Spoon the mixture onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Make about 8 Tablespoon-sized puffs (these will be for the base of the croquembouche). Use up the rest of the batter for smaller puffs, each the size of 1 or 2 teaspoons of dough.
• Bake for 20-30 minutes, depending on the size of the puffs, until golden brown and hollow sounding when the base is tapped. Let cool on a wire rack.

For the Cream Filling:

• Put the milk and vanilla in the top of a double boiler. Heat gently over medium heat until lukewarm.
• Meanwhile, in a medium bowl whisk the yolks, sugar, and flour until thick and pale.
• Gradually add the warm milk to the egg mixture and whisk. Return the mixture to the double boiler and stir over medium heat until the custard boils and thickens.
• Remove from the heat and pour into a medium bowl. Cover the surface of the custard with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming. Let custard cool completely.
• When the custard is cool, whip the cream into stiff peaks and fold into the custard.
• Put the cream filling mixture into a piping bag with a small nozzle. Poke a small hole (we used a chopstick) into the base of the cooled puffs, and fill with cream. Set aside.

To Assemble:

• To make the caramel, put the sugar and water in a heavy pan. Cook over medium heat until sugar dissolves, then simmer until it is golden. Remove from the heat and plunge the base of the pan into cold water.
• To assemble the croquembouche, begin with the large puffs. Dip the bases in some caramel and arrange in a large circle on your serving platter, with the sides touching to form a ring. We built our croquembouche around an empty metal tea canister, but you can use with some other cone-shaped vessel; I've seen some recipes that used clean, upside-down flower pots!
• Using gradually smaller puffs, build up into a cone shape.
• To decorate, dip the tines of two forks into the caramel mixture and drizzle over the croquembouche to make a spun-sugar 'netting.'
• Serve immediately.