Daring Bakers May Challenge - Gateau Saint Honore

For this month’s Daring Bakers challenge, Helene of Tartelette and Anita from Dessert First asked us to dust off our rolling pins to make a Gateau St. Honore. This decadent confection consists of a puff pastry base topped with Saint Honore Cream (Diplomat’s Cream) and finished off with caramel-topped cream puffs and swirls of whipped cream. Wow, this was French baking at its best. The recipe was long but not complicated and, as long as I gave myself enough time, I would be able to pull this off.

The puff pastry component could be made one of two ways; either store–bought or homemade. I opted for the store made version because I had some in my freezer already. The rest of the recipe required me to do it all myself. I had never made choux pastry before and it wasn’t difficult to do. I think I made my puffs a little too small but they came out okay nonetheless. The Diplomat cream was also straightforward although I ended up with a slightly runny product; something some fellow Daring Bakers also experienced. For this reason, I was unable to fill the cream puffs with the cream though I made a bit of a mess trying. The final product looked impressive and it tasted nice.

Even though the recipe didn’t come 100% perfect I’m really glad I put in the effort to try it. This is the major appeal of the Daring Bakers for me – to make new desserts that I would probably never had made on my own. And the camaraderie of the other bakers is just icing on the cake. To check out all the other creations just click on the sidebar to the right.