Merveilleux: a cake made of two light meringues sandwiched together with whipped cream, then smothered in more whipped cream and covered in chocolate shavings. Sold yet? Yeah, thought as much. Or you could just refer to them as ‘meringue cream…things’ like me (my French is basic at best).
I would go so far as to say that these ‘meringue cream things’ from Aux Merveilleux de Fred are my favourite patisserie in the whole world. They are just…well, it kind of feels like eating light pillows of cream whilst meringue dissolves in your mouth with a bit of crunch and a bit of chocolate, and come on, it really doesn’t get much better than that.
Whenever I’m in Paris I drag whoever I’m with on a mission to the nearest shop I can find, promptly order at least four mini merveilleux to take away and shove in my mouth at periods varying between ‘immediately’ and ‘the next morning for breakfast’. Truth is, these are best eaten on the day. The shop make them constantly throughout opening hours and it’s all open so you can see them gathering up thousands of chocolate shavings lightly onto the cakes, from tiny bite sized ones to cakes to share, anywhere for between 4 and 24 people. Admittedly, sharing would be a tough ask.
My personal favourites are The Incroyable – meringue, speculoos biscuit and whipped cream covered in shaved white chocolate; and The Merveilleux – meringue and chocolate whipped cream with dark chocolate shavings all over. Also available as minis are the coffee flavour, cherry, caramel and my third runner up, The Magnifique – meringue and praline whipped cream covered in almond chips and caramelized hazelnuts.
If this all doesn’t sound good enough, just wait – Aux Merveilleux de Fred doesn’t just live in Paris, but in Belgium, Geneva, New York and London, too. Now if anyone wants to win me over, they only need pop over to the Old Brompton Road. No excuses, really.
Various locations: Paris (multiple), London, New York, Brussels, Knokke, Geneva