French ruler Napoleon apparently hated cake but was politically savvy enough to know that his wedding guests loved it. So he employed a pastry chef Marie Antoine Careme (a young man who had been abandoned by his family at just 10-years-old during the French revolution) to design him a truly remarkable wedding cake.

Careme is also widely credited as having invented the Croquembouche. I hope you enjoy the latest in my series of 200-year-old recipes :)