Cake
Description
The pastry is simple and quick to prepare. This French cake is assembled into a pyramid using choux pastry puffs held together with caramel. Each puff is filled with custard, whipped cream, or even buttercream. My family prefers buttercream. The pastry is ready. Serve it at the table.
Instructions
- 1
Step 1
1. Prepare the dough in a wide saucepan or even in a deep frying pan. Melt one of the three packs of butter with half a liter of water over high heat.
- 2
Step 2
2. Turn off the boiling "broth," and directly on the warm stove, add flour into the pot, stirring carefully.
- 3
Step 3
3. The resulting dough easily comes away from the sides of the saucepan. It is homogeneous, but not yet elastic. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition.
- 4
Step 4
4. The dough turns out tender, holds its shape, and doesn't stick to hands, but it's still better to place it onto the baking sheet using spoons, which should be dipped in water after forming each ball.
- 5
Step 5
5. Bake the balls at 200 degrees for about half an hour. The balls double in diameter, so it's important to leave space between them from the start.
- 6
Step 6
6. Now let's prepare the cream. I make a butter cream by beating two packs of softened butter with a can of condensed milk. It's easier than making a custard cream, and tastier. Using a pastry syringe or the corner of a plastic bag, fill the balls with this cream.
- 7
Step 7
7. To achieve a Christmas tree shape, make a cone out of cardboard and wrap it with foil. We'll arrange the balls around this cone. I make such a cone from the plastic of a five-liter bottle and don't need to wrap it in foil.
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Step 8
8. The most dangerous stage is making the caramel. It is much hotter than water, so you need to be very careful when preparing it, but it's essential since we need to glue the balls together and create fluffy tinsel for the Christmas tree—or frost. Take a small saucepan, add sugar, and moisten it slightly with water. The sugar will quickly melt and begin to boil. As soon as it turns yellow, turn off the heat and squeeze in the juice of half a lemon. This is our caramel. Let it cool down, then use it as a binding agent.
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Step 9
9. Layer the cream-filled balls around the cone, brushing them with the resulting caramel using a pastry brush. The finished Christmas tree can be decorated with colorful candies and berries, but it looks delicious even on its own.