Black swans

I made these almost a year ago, as an experiment. We had to invent a pâte à choux variation, or maybe it was just a dessert formula... I forgot. It's not important, though. I do remember thinking, "but what if this doesn't work?".

So, chocolate pâte à choux, chocolate pastry cream, and there they are - a fancy version of éclairs. They look good swimming across a blue plate.

Pipe some pâte à choux into "S" shapes, pipe some more with a star tip, just like a normal éclair. Slice in half horizontally, then slice the top piece vertically to make the wings. Pipe in some chocolate pastry cream, place the head and neck (the "S" curve) and press the wings into the pastry cream.

Voilá! Black swans. Maybe if I were a virtuoso pastry bag artiste, I could have somehow given the bird a beak. There has to be a way! Maybe with a mold and some tempered chocolate... but then might as well cast the bird in two pieces and assemble - chocolate would hold really fine detail, right down to feathers.

Now I'm wondering... what about making white swans with meringue, then alternating the black and white swans on a blue platter...