Croquem What?

Oh em gee, do I have a treat for you guys today. And by "treat" I mean a few crappy iPhone pics of amateur holiday creations I was super jazzed about.

For my last class of the semester, the chef wanted us to make a croquembouche. And then no one in class wanted to ask the question I know everyone was thinking: da fuck is a croquembouche? So I bit the bullet and graciously asked and he pulled up some pictures for us. It's basically a French dessert compiled of dozens of cream puffs, stacked in the shape of a Christmas tree and decorated w/ sugar and candy and the like. 

vs.

Betcha can't guess which the professional one is. 

Our original aspiration was to make a 5 foot tall croquembouche to put in the dining hall. Then we were short about 1000 cream puffs and had to step on the gas in the decorations department. See that star on top? (in the first pic, which was ours, in case you couldn't tell from the quality of the picture) My partner and I boiled the sugar for that gem. And she was way more skilled than I was and did pretty much everything. But the tree wouldn't have been complete w/out these little guys, which I played an integral part in.

oh hey, adorbs meringue 'shroomie

Then I came home full of the Christmas spirit and got right to work making cookies. Tell me these don't add some holly and jolly to your day.