The Succès cake from Lenotre has always fascinated me, as a kid growing up in Paris, my uncle Maurice, has pampered us with this phenomenally rich delight whenever we visited him in Auteuil. He was of the generous type, a one of a kind person who had more fun seeing his loved ones indulging than anything else. To this day I still have dreams about this cake… where I am in Paris, and I just have to get down to Lenotre to get this cake before I leave Paris and there is never enough time… I will leave it to the psychologists in my family to interpret :-). Given that I am no longer living in Paris, I decided to take a stab at making one from scratch. I used Lenotre’s video together with this video as recipes (it’s in French, sorry), I messed it up the first couple of times, but eventually was able to put together a lavish Succès. The challenge with this cake is that it requires almost 1KG (2 lbs) of sugar… I was trying to cut a bit here and there but be careful when doing this, the meringue and the meringue italienne are losing shape without enough sugar… dedicated to the late and beloved Uncle Maurice, the pics show the original and my own creation, could you guess what’s what? 🙂