Knackered

Exhausted beyond belief. Just got back from the 'circus'. Long day in kitchen. Here are some snaps.

This is the St. Honoré whose unassembled bits one can see here. On the base is a fine layer o kirsch crème pâtisseière and on top is an elaborate display of piped crème Chantilly (although traditionally this is crème Chiboust). Mine got a little bashed in the fridge so I chose to whack on the spun sugar decor to 'cacher la misère' as they say out here. All around the edge are mini choux the size of a nun's head. Each one is filled with kirsch crème pâtissière and they are stuck on with caramel. To help them adhere the top of the choux ring on the base was first glazed with caramel and left to cool. What the photo does not clearly show is that each choux is glazed with a layer of caramel on top, too.

These are individual St. Honorés. Pretty much the same except the even smaller choux are not worth filling with cream and it's easier to stick them on before piping the Chantilly.

The St. Honoré was invented by Chiboust in 1846 when he was installed on Rue St. Honoré in Paris. St. Honoré is the patron saint of boulanger-pâtissiers.

This is a cake. It's made with that funny butterless sponge I mentioned which has spent several days in the fridge and a weekend in the freezer. The sponge was cut in half and each half doused in kirsch syrup. Then the French meringue disk we made the other day was inserted in the middle and mortared in place with crème à beurre. Then the whole shebang was covered in crème à beurre so the roasted, sugared almonds could be applied in a pebble-dash fashion. The green band is pâte d'amandes. It may seem rather odd to write 'succulent' on your own cake but that is in fact its name. I tried a slice of the prof's and it was really rather good considering the ordeal the sponges suffered.