The art of eating millefeuille

This branch of the family-run bakery is conveniently located on my route to work. The caramel colour of the icing (instead of the usual white) called out to me from the display cabinet and I just couldn’t resist the millefeuille.

But I know I’m not the only one who this happens to every now and then. Whenever I see a dessert like this one, I always think of one of my mum’s best friends from work. She’s an obsessive healthy eater and is always on the move. When she’s not travelling around the world, she’s climbing a mountain somewhere in Switzerland or cycling for miles at a time. But as fit and health-conscious as she is, she was never able to resist a cream slice – there was something about the combination of flaky pastry, cream filling and icing.

Whenever my sister and I went on a long walk with my mum’s friend, she always treated herself to a slice. Of course, we wanted to try one of these creamy desserts that even a health freak couldn’t say no to. At some point, she realised we were also getting hooked and tried to steer us back towards healthy eating with some homemade oat cookies.

But even though I enjoy eating healthier biscuits now, at the time my sister and I were not impressed by the greyish oatmeal lumps. We weren’t even fooled when she desperately embellished them with colourful sprinkles – the decoration slid off the alleged ‘cookies’ and made them look even less appealing.

The cream slices weren’t the only thing that left an impression on us as children. How many people do you know who manage to eat a millefeuille elegantly? Once you’ve cut into the pastry on top, the dessert soon becomes massacred on the plate and, in the worst cases, the vanilla cream ends up on the table instead of in your mouth. There’s a reason why a Swiss inventor developed a special cream slice cutter and even unveiled it on television.

My mum’s friend’s trick? She expertly laid the cream slice on its side and then cut through it. She enjoyed her afternoon treat so gracefully! Her fork cut through the layers of flaky pastry and vanilla cream again and again, with just enough icing that its sweetness didn’t detract from the other flavours. In her honour, I got myself a cream slice from Stocker today. After all, they are much smaller than usual – you could almost call it a healthy option. How did it taste? Just as sweet as I remember from when I was a child.