Other Wedding Cakes

French weddings are traditionally celebrated with a croquembouche (literally “crunch in the mouth”), a conical construction of choux balls on a nougatine base filled with whipped cream, held together with caramel and decorated with rosettes of whipped cream, candied fruits, sugared almonds, and spun sugar. See caramel and croquembouche. Croquembouche is a descendant of the pièce montée, a large, ornamental item of patisserie that had its heyday in the nineteenth century when the great French chef Carême reigned supreme. See carême, marie-antoine and sugar sculpture.