Saint-Honoré

The 6th-century saint Honoratus, Bishop of Amiens, is the patron of bakers, an honour given him after his old nursemaid was told of his election to the bishopric while baking bread: ‘Ha!’ she remarked. ‘I’ll believe that when my baking peel sprouts roots and grows into a tree.’

Which of course her peel duly did, making it the item that St Honouratus often holds in images of the saint.

The cake invented in his honour has a puff pastry base, with profiteroles stuck to the side with melted sugar, filled with crème chiboust and topped with more of the same. Bakeries often make small individual pastries, too.