OMG - It's a Gateau St Honoré...who knew...not the baker!

Talk about dejà vu!  Our cake sponsor brought in his partner's latest creation to store in an office.  Upon being seen it was OMG I haven't seen one of those in years.  This prompted some surprise as the person who made it just made a cake based upon having see one with cream puffs on the top. Little did she realize that there is a particular cake that is exactly that. They used to be made by Rebecca's bakery in Boston and we used to get them on various occasions many years ago.  It's been a long time however and familiar as it was we couldn't remember what it was called.

A classic Gateau St. Honoré

Our own homeade version!

In a situation like this when you are at a loss to remember something it's good to know that memory does not totally fail.  Indeed upon further concentration it was remembered that the name was French and began with gateau (mais, bien sûr) and then suddenly the second word St. came to mind. Of course at that point Google filled in the rest and we realized we had a Gateau St. Honoré!! This is indeed a cake, usually whipped cream based, that is decorated with cream puffs on the top and frequently on the sides also.  The classic cake is then decorated with a hard caramelized sugar in some random pattern on the top and sides. Some people make the caramel part a little more elaborate.

Aerial view of the Gatuea

Sliced almonds for the final touch

Cake and cream puffs make a great combo

The one we were treated to was slightly different as the baker did not realize she was making anything classic.  As was said she saw a cake with cream puffs on top so came up with one of her own.  This one had the whipped cream base and the cream puffs on top. The cake itself was coffee flavored - nice touch. And the final decoration was with chocolate syrup instead of the caramelized sugar.  In the center on the to top she added sliced almonds.

Moist, coffee flavored cake. An inspirational treat!

Now I know what a Gateau St. Honoré is.

The cake was good and moist, the chocolate syrup was a nice touch and the cream puffs on top were the frosting on the cake as it were.  So it may not have been the classic but great job coming up with the cake and reintroducing an old favorite.  One of our colleagues was so inspired that she got the recipe and made one herself. Check it out. The Gateau St. Honoré rules!

Inspired by cake hour - another Gateau success!