The French wedding dessert made as a tower of cream-filled pastry balls bound with caramel is called a croquembouche.
A croquembouche is built from profiteroles, which are small choux pastry puffs filled with pastry cream, whipped cream, or another filling. The puffs are stacked into a cone and held together with threads or layers of caramel. Its name comes from the French phrase meaning “crunches in the mouth.”
The dessert is especially associated with French weddings, baptisms, and other major celebrations. Decorations can include spun sugar, chocolate, flowers, sugared almonds, and ribbons. Although it resembles a tall cake, its structure and ingredients make it different from a conventional layered wedding cake.
Croquembouche is sometimes called a pièce montée, but that term is broader. Pièce montée means an assembled or mounted centerpiece and can describe several elaborate constructions, while croquembouche specifically identifies the profiterole tower.