Croquembouche History

Croquembouche History
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(02, June, 2011)
Croquembouche History
Historically, cakes have been known to play an important role in most of the special occasion in this world. These cakes are always seen in weddings, anniversaries, baby showers, housewarming parties, baptisms, family gatherings, birthdays and many big occasions of which a cake can’t miss and if it does so, then people will consider it not to be an occasion other than a normal meeting (Smith, 2003). A cake has to symbolize a given occasion. Croquembouche which means “crunch in the mouth” is such one cake which is most people holding such events of occasion prefer to be baked for them. This kind of the cake from the dessert family which is also known as pieces monteės or mounted pieces, has managed to find its wings from France to other countries globally. Its origin is known to have a fanciful, edible architectural structure which was always displayed on the medieval table of the French loyalty and nobility. It is known to be a French desert cake whose procedure of making it is by stacking cream puffs in a conical shape and cementing them together with caramel or the mixture of spun sugar or toffee. The ornament of the desert normally takes place in the outer layer of the ‘cheveux d’ange’ (spun sugar), chocolate, sugared nuts or other ingredients (Schnebel, 2006). Its shape and design is made in such a way that after chilling it can be displayed as the centerpiece of a table. Note, this kind of cake should not be allowed to be kept in a warm place since with time, the sugar that is used to cook it always doe melt. Occasions such as most of the French weddings, christening and celebrations for centuries it is a rare thing to miss the Croquembouche cake and at times it is served outside of France to add a French flair to most of the evening events.
Looking at the origin of Croquembouche, Antoine careme (1783-1833), the most famous French pastry chef of his generation, was behind the invention of the Croquembouche cake in the late 1700s of which the Croquembouche cake became popularly known as a wedding cake (Schnebel, 2006). This chef, who studied architecture at one point referred to the piece montee by saying that, “architecture was the most noble of the arts and that pastry was the highest form of architecture”. He was the man behind Turkish Mosques, Persian Pavilions, Gothic Towers and other pieces montees from the choux puffs. Despite the Turkish fez being popular during that period, by the 20th century, the conical structure by the name Croquembouche was taking over as a winning supervisor.
Some of the components used in that cake to make it a success in the world and be admired in most occasions carries also a long history in them. For instance the cream puffs, goes all the way back to 1547 when Catherine de Medici brought some chefs from Italy to France in her marriage to King Henry II (Smith, 2003). The chef for Catherine de Medici who was called Panterelli came up with his own dough recipe which was later known as pate a choux which meant pastry for cabbages. Reasons for that name were because the puffs were seen to resemble little cabbages and they were later called as choux buns of which they were served with all kinds of fillings, both sweet and savory (Schnebel, 2006).
Then in 1760, an invention of profiteroles came up. This was discovered by the French pastry chef whose name was Avice. Avice f...