The name “croquembouche” comes from the French phrase croque en bouche, meaning “[something that] crunches in the mouth”.

It’s an iconic French dessert consisting of choux pastry puffs piled into a cone and bound with threads of caramel (spun sugar). In Italy and France, it is often served at weddings, baptisms and First Communions.

The invention of the croquembouche is often attributed to Antonin Carême, who includes it in his 1815 cookbook Le Pâtissier royal parisien,

Carême was born in Paris to a poor family and, when still a child, worked in a cheap restaurant. Later he became an apprentice to a leading Parisian pâtissier and quickly became known for his patisserie skills. He was deeply interested in architecture and was famous for his large pièces montées – table decorations sculpted in sugar, depicting classical buildings.

Careme believed that architecture and pastry were closely tied, even inseparable, and that the art of pastry making was the highest form of architecture, which was displayed in choux pastry balls being turned into creations resembling Persian pavilions, Turkish mosques, Gothic towers, and many other creations. Apparently, mosque designs were very popular, but the classic cone shape held on into the 20th and 21st centuries: the pastry chef’s nightmare and pride and joy at the same time.

The tower of choux pastry – aka profiteroles – filled with custard or sweet cream (vanilla is classic) gets placed on a base of nougatine (almond and caramel made into a circle) and covered with strands of spun sugar. It may sound simple, but it’s not. It’s a process you cannot make a mistake completing: the choux pastry must be firm enough, but not dry; cream that doesn’t drip out; caramel that has to get hard just at the right time; and then it has to be made into a proportionately beautiful tower that doesn’t tip one way or the other.

Check out this video of someone who calls himself the ANTI-CHEF trying to make a croquembouche for the very first time.

And it wouldn’t be a classic desert without someone trying to break some kind of record with it. On 6 March 2009, alumni of the Pune-based Maharashtra State Institute of Hotel Management and Catering Technology entered the Limca Book of Records after creating India's biggest croquembouche. It was recorded as 4.5 metres (15 feet) tall. That's a lot of crunching in a lot of mouths.
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References

wikipedia.org/wiki/Croquembouche
storyaboutfood.com/story-about-food/2018/12/8/9xv6n4z9ftkk211vatx8nz4fo80bfe

Images

1. Croquembouche
2. Portrait of Antonin Carême by Charles de Steuben (1785–1856)
3. Choux mixture portioned onto the baking mat
4. Choux puffs out of the oven
5. Video: "Julia Child's Towering Croquembouche" ANTI-CHEF, 2022
6. India's biggest croquembouche, LIMCA Book of World Records, 6 March 2009