Floral Chouxnuts

Pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees & prepare two baking trays with parchment paper.

In a pan, heat the water, sugar, salt & butter until completely melted. Add the flour & beat well on the heat for 4-5mins until dough comes away from edges of the pan.

Transfer the dough into a bowl, leave to cool for 2-3mins. Slowly add the egg, bit-by-bit, beating well until the choux is the right consistency. It should be stiff, but easily drop off the spoon.

Put the choux paste into a piping bag. Draw around a circular cutter onto the parchment, flip the paper over & pipe the choux circles

Place the trays in the over, spray some water onto the base of the oven and shut the door. Bake for 25-35mins, don’t open the oven door until at least 25mins or they’ll collapse.

To make the creme diplomat, beat the egg yolks and sugar with the flours until pale & thickened. Heat the milk in a pan until just boiling, whisk the milk into the egg mix and pour back into the pan. Heat the mixture, stir continuously until thick & boiling.

Take off the heat, pour onto a tray & cover with cling film – make sure the cling film is touching the creme patisserie to stop a skin forming.

Once the creme patisserie has cooled, whisk 300ml of double cream with vanilla to soft peak stage. Gently mix the creme patisserie into the cream until smooth.

Poke a hole in the base of your chouxnuts, then pipe in the cream until you can feel that they’re full. Leave the chouxnuts to one side and make the fondant.

Add water to the fondant icing sugar, 1tsp at a time until it’s thick – you can add colour if you want to. Using a piping bag, pipe a ring of fondant onto the chouxnuts then decorate with edible flowers.