Building a croquembouche tower - HELP

[AltonBFan]

Any good suggestions on planning and building a croquembouche tower. I need to assemble around 225 puffs so it's a tad tricky. Thanks

[sucrechef]

The most useful tip I can give you is to make sure your caramel stays warm without continuing to cook it. You can put smaller amounts of your caramel in microwave safe glass bowls (try pyrex) and then each time it starts to harden, nuke it for a minute or two, and stir.
The best way to plan it is to calculate from the top down...ie the 1 on top sits on a second layer of either 2 or 3, that layer sits on 3 or 4, etc. Make sure your base is solid enough and let the caramel harden while you hold each puff in place and between layers so that you don't risk having the tower fall.
The Wedding Cake Book by Dede Wilson has detailed recipes and instructions (pictures too) and should be available at most bookstores.

[momoreg]

There are molds that you can build around, but it looks a bit tacky when it's being disassembled. Draw a circle on your board to give a basic outline of the shape, and follow it, gradually tapering as you go up.

The biggest prob. with croquembuche is humidity and refrigeration. Fill your puffs with something that isn't going to need refrigeration right away, and make sure you build it as close to the time it's being served as possible.

Cook a few batches of sugar at once, so that if one crystallizes, there's another one right behind it. The darker your caramel, the tastier and more brittle the sugar wil be, which is a good thing. Don't go too heavy on the dipping, though. The sugar is very tough on teeth, and a little dab'll do ya.

Each puff will take about 5 seconds to set, so work quickly with both hands, and use a turntable, if possible.

A much easier alternative is white chocolate. It's tasty, and doesn't react to humidity the way sugar does. It can also stand refrigeration.

Let us know how it goes.

[Frozen Chef]

Building the croquembouche tower is tricky, but I have been successful by purchasing a rubber warning cone, I lined it with a silpat sheet that was rolled up. Using the small cream puffs dipped in hot carmelized sugar start building the tower on the inside of the cone. When you get it as tall as you need it, let it set up, place sometype of a base on it and flip it right side up. Carfully balance it, desorate with spun sugar or drizzle hot caramel down the sides. Be careful when putting the puffs into the cone, because that carmelized sugar is really hot. Good luck.