My novel has some sad and desperate events in it--sorry, that's life--but in the novel there's also a pastry chef who makes delicious desserts. With that in mind, we decided to have cream puffs at our book launch. (That's not my kitchen but the dining room because I needed an 7' table as a work space.)
I decided to fill the puffs with vanilla custard which has to be whisked constantly so that the eggs don't clot in the milk as they cook.
How many eggs? Here are the egg shells drying before I crush them to add to my garden for extra calcium.
I injected the cream puffs with the cooled vanilla custard--but had made so many puffs that I ran out of custard. I ran out to buy cream to whip.
I could have iced them with chocolate but that would have made them even messier to eat and I was intending to bring them to a public place. I drizzled them with caramelized sugar instead because it hardens--and adds crunch to the delicate pastry and rich cream filling.
I wish I had a picture of them at the book launch, but the photographer had put away the camera to eat a few.
Here are some of the pictures he did take. Elise is on the left; I'm on the right. We're talking about our books. The venue was Bar Palco. Charles-Etienne who moved furniture and set up mikes for us was a charm. We had an attentive, friendly, convivial audience. It was fun!
So many smiles!