birthday croquembouche

A's birthday today. She is 12, and continues to be her brilliant, beautiful self. Determined, smart, gutsy. Today we head to the archery range for some shooting with her friends before returning to the farm for a pool party and cake.

I say 'cake' loosely. We have an unofficial setup in our house whereby the kids choose the type of cake, but execution is up to me :) I get to be creative, and get to surprise them a bit. This year A wanted cream puffs. I showed her a photo of a croquembouche and she loved it. So, that was the plan.

- The Mixer gets to work whipping the cream (top) ... and looking good doing it!;

filled cream puffs (bottom) -

Oh, you French desserts, I do love you. A whole dessert made from basic ingredients: flour, eggs, butter, water, sugar, cream. Cream puffs piped full of sweetened whipped cream, then stacked into a pyramid (glued together with homemade caramel) and covered with a lacework of spun sugar. Some rolled fondant cut into stars and coated with glittery sugar completed the look.

- mmm ... sugary stringy goodness... -

She loved it. I was pretty impressed with it, too.

- my first pièce montée! -