Croquembouche Cupcakes

Croquembouche is a word that conjures fear in the hearts of many. I've never understood why. Choux pastry is the easiest pastry to make, and toffee is not exactly the most challenging thing to make. Spun sugar can take some getting used to, but it's definitely achievable. 

 If you've never tried one before, here's a mini version to help you ease your way into it.

The first step, of course, is to make your mini-profiteroles. Once they're baked you'll end up with these cute mini profiteroles that will want to roll all over the place. 



The cupcakes themselves are one of my favourite recipes: almond buttercake. If you don't like almond, you could use any of your favourite cupcakes recipes. I just can't get enough of these. The mini profiteroles are a bit too tiny to fill with custard. More to the point, I did not have the patience to fill hundreds of the things. So I decided to fill the cupcakes instead. 




Cover them in profiteroles and spun cugar and ta da!



I added a couple of flowers from the garden for decoration. You can add anything you want, or nothing at all. 



If the thought of spinning sugar, or even filling the cupcakes intimidates you, here's an alternate version. For these I just topped the cupcakes with custard and assembled a tower of profiteroles. Then I drizzled with a little toffee. You'll probably find if you do it this way you'll inadvertantly end up with a little spun sugar from it sticking to the spoon. 



Here's for a little cross-section. 



The cupcakes will keep for a while, but the toffee will soon soften. If you spin sugar, it will dissolve in a matter of hours, so best to do this right before serving.

For the printable version of the recipe, or step-by-step photos of making the cupcakes, pop on over to Cakecrumbs.