To make the spiced cream, whip the cream until quite stiff. Sift and stir in the icing sugar with the coffee extract and cardamom. Cover with cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

To prepare the croquembouche, start by making the choux pastry. Cut the butter into cubes and place it in a saucepan, then add the water, sugar (1), and salt (2). Bring everything to a boil over ...

A traditional croquembouche is a tower of custard-filled ... but has a few shortcuts (so you can really focus on the decorating). To make things ever so slightly easier, I used whipped cream ...