how to make a tower of spun gold... sans pixie dust

when Siren School contacted me about featuring my new blog on their FB page i was totally excited...
at first

but now the page admin, Joy, is making demands
"People love your fairy cakes. How about a recipe?"

...........huh?
lady, i am an URBAN fairy
i am the cliche whose idea of making dinner is 'making reservations'
i don't make my own coffee
no, i do better than that
i help the economy by keeping the local coffee bar in business and giving my barista job security

but since cake is a subject so near and dear to my fae heart, i acquiesced.
the confectionerily unschooled should understand that there are many kinds of cake
two of my favorite specialty subgenres are petit fours and croquembouches.
since Siren School is featuring Paris this week, i'm opting for the French version of the wedding cake -- le croquembouche

here are a few pics of the more memorable ones our cook made.. and yes, there is a recipe included somewhere in here too.  evidently one needs a 'stove' and all sorts of other things i've never heard of in order to make it

le Recipe 
[source: the Food Network.. whatever that is]

Ingredients
2 cups water
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons granulated sugar
2 cups flour
8 to 10 eggs


Filling, recipe follows
Caramel, recipe follows

Filling:
4 cups whole, 2 percent fat, or 1 percent fat milk
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
12 egg yolks
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Caramel:
2 1/2 cups sugar
2/3 cup water

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. In a large saucepan, bring the water, butter, salt, and sugar to a rolling boilover medium-high heat. When it boils, immediately take the pan off the heat. Stirring with a wooden spoon, add all the flour at once and stir hard until all the flour is incorporated, 30 to 60 seconds. Return the pan to the heat and cook, stirring, 30 seconds to evaporate some of the moisture.

Scrape the mixture into a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or use a hand mixer). Mix at medium speed. With the mixer running, and working 1 egg at a time, add 6 of the eggs, stopping after each addition to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Mix until the dough is smooth and glossy and the eggs are completely incorporated. The dough should be thick, but should fall slowly and steadily from the beaters when you lift them out of the bowl. If the dough is still clinging to the beaters, add 1 or 2 more eggs, and mix until incorporated.

Using a pastry bag fitted with a large plain tip, pipe the dough in big kisses onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Whisk 2 eggs with 3 teaspoons of water. Brush the surface of the dough with the egg wash to knock down the points (do not use all the egg wash.) Bake 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 375-degrees and bake until puffed up and light golden brown, about 20 minutes more. Try not to open the oven door too often during the baking. Let cool on the baking sheet. The recipe can be made up to this point and frozen in plastic bags. Filling: In a medium saucepan, heat the milk and vanilla bean to a boil over medium heat. Immediately turn off the heat and set aside to infuse for 10 to 15 minutes. In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the cornstarch and whisk vigorously until no lumps remain. Whisk in 1/4 cup of the hot milk mixture until incorporated. Whisk in the remaining hot milk mixture, reserving the empty saucepan.

Pour the mixture through a strainer back into the saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat, whisking constantly, until thickened and slowly boiling. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter and any flavorings if you want to make a different flavor like chocolate or coffee. Let cool slightly. Cover with plastic wrap, lightly pressing the plastic against the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Chill at least 2 hours or until ready to serve. The custard can be made up to 24 hours in advance. Poke a hole with a plain pastry tip in the bottom of each cream puff and pipe it full of the custard. Caramel: Dissolve the sugar in a saucepan with the water, making an "X" through the sugar with your finger to allow the water to slowly soak into the sugar. Boil to make a light golden caramel then dip the bottom of the pan in an ice bath to stop the cooking. Dip the sides of the puffs in the caramel and stick them together (approximately 20 cream puffs) in a circle, tops facing out. Make a second row on top of the first but a bit smaller to draw the circle in and create a tower of cream puffs. Check it from all sides occasionally to make sure it's straight. When it's finished, drizzle it with caramel all over. You can also stick on decorative elements with the caramel in the crevices, like candied violets, gold balls, gum paste flowers, sugar covered almonds, etc.

and here is my personal fave

"i want pink... with a bow"

..... that was the entire directive i gave my mum regarding one of my birthdays as a pipsqueak.  in my family we started with the cake... everything else was incidental  


our family was out of the country at the time.  dad was an ambassador and we got caught up in a civil war and were advised not to leave our flat, as foreigners were in moderate danger.  i couldn't even invite any of the neighbor kids to celebrate my birthday


my mum felt bad for me and arranged for a couturier to come to the house so that i could pick out a pretty pink dress 'with a bow' to wear at our family's birthday dinner.  when i couldn't decide, she said "well you will have to decide on one before you birthday dinner, but for now...."


...and she instructed the dress-maker to leave ALL of the dresses, knowing that i was a pink party dress junkie... maybe it's because of that birthday that i still am

here were the top contenders

  

and here was the winner

here are the shoes i asked for

and here are the ones i got... sigh

this was a dress my mom bought for my doll who was my closest confidante at the time 

 

this hot little number was tania's dress.... sigh 2 

this classic dress was mum's

here is what mum told my dad he would have to wear

but in reality she simply gave him this to wear.... with his suit i might add... he didn't just wear a bow tie and nothing else.... ewww

and this is what my pup butch wore

looking back i suppose it was a difficult time, but we never realized it while we were going through it.  mum always made everything lovely... just like that birthday... just like her ❤