croquembuche

By a bizzare coincidence, on the same day I read the Krispy Kreme thread below, my fiancee was reading a book on wedding cakes and found a picture of a croquembuche. It looks fantastic and we'd like to have one. What's the deal with them?

Does a regular or French bakery do something like this?

Has anyone here had one at their wedding? Is it as good an idea as it seems or is it a collossal pain in the neck?

A friend and I were discussing the episode of Julia & Martha & the croquembuche yesterday. Just wondering if anyone has found a video of this.

if you're in the l.a. area, la conversation in west hollywood makes a wonderful croquembouche. they throw a bastille day party for regulars every year and it's the centerpiece to their patisserie buffet. guests just help themselves. very impressive, great texture and delicious.

la conversation
638 n. doheny dr.
west hollywood, ca
310-858-0950

Here's a link on where to order one on the San Francisco Peninsula. You can follow the links to the original discussion.

It seemed to me that it was very easy to serve starting from the tip of the cone and working down. Each guest got one or two puffs. The caterer also offered a variety of other sweet treats.

Link: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/...

I also loved seeing Martha and Julia working together on that croquenbuche. Did you notice that after the commercial break, Julia's lopsided effort was miraculously as upright as martha's?

This subject matter inevitably brings the memory of a tv show a few years back, where Martha Stewart and Julia Child were assembling side-by-side croquembouches-it was absolutely hilarious. Martha's was compulsively neat and controlled, while Julia's was chaotic and lopsided. They conducted an instructional dialogue while working on them--I would love to have a videotape of the sequence.

Our daughter had one at her wedding. It was pretty enough, I guess, but not very tasty. I guess it depends on how important novelty is to you.

Pat G.

I made a croquembuche for Christmas dinner last year. It was absolutely delicious, and it made a stunning presentation--but it was a mess to serve.

I agree that they look great, and can taste good, but that they are difficult to serve. Maybe have one for decoration and another cake for serving to people?

Why not have a croquembouche for the bachelorette party when decorum isn't of the essence?

Thr trickiest bit is that, like all thin-shelled structures of caramelized sugar, they can loose their solidity fairly quickly, so they can't hang about for long once they're made. As for mailing pieces to absent friends . . .