The wedding planning has begun. Ah, delightful stress. Since it's still early, we're mostly throwing ideas at the wall and seeing what sticks.

Today's idea: croquembouche.

It's the French traditional wedding cake -- not cake at all, but a heap of profiteroles (tiny cream puffs) filled with custard or cream, piled up in a pyramid and decorated with spun sugar. Mostly they look like this.

Has anyone seen one of these locally? Any ideas for potential providers? I'm not sure it's a good idea yet, but it's unusual, and bound to be tasty. I would do it myself if I weren't going to be busy, y'know, bride-ing.

Try giving Kirsten's Cafe a call-- I heard they'll do stuff like this.

In case you haven't already seen it, there was a thread on egullet though it's now a couple of years old.

We had a croquembouche from Patisserie Poupon and it was stellar. They can offer a choice of flavorings of the pastry cream and (subtle) colors for the binding syrup.

Damn, you people are good.

One of my favorite Julia Child viewings was when Martha Stewart had Julia as a guest on her ((Martha's) show, and they made croquembouches side by side.

Martha's was tight, perfectly neat and orderly, and Julia's was chaotic and stacked sort of willy-nilly. But good ol' Julia was high-spirited (probably literally as well as figuratively) and having a great time, while Martha was smug, as usual.