Mille-Feuille

The sun came out yesterday in southern England and to celebrate its appearance a few of us had cream tea in the garden of a traditional English tea room at Clare in Suffolk. There was a good selection of cakes and scones, but I was seduced by the look of this cake, a strawberry mille-feuille. Unlike its common cousin the custard slice, the mille-feuille has more layers of puff pastry, the translation of mille-feuille is thousand sheets.

This is one of several cakes that are impossible to eat with any dignity. The moment I bite down on the pastry, the cream is squeezed sideways, smearing my face, hands and shirt and giving me the expression of a circus clown. This would be an excellent cake to serve should you ever want to humiliate a someone or to gain a psychological advantage.

You can use a fork to cut it up, but the pastry doesn't break up easily and you end up with an ugly mess. The best  way to enjoy this cake is in the privacy of your own home, wearing your oldest clothes, but if you are eating in a public place at least choose a table with some privacy.