Chocolate eclairs are, by a long, long way the best cream cake to exist. Delicious choux pastry, chantilly cream and chocolate all in an easy to eat bundle. What’s not to love?

These are much easier to make than they look, so if you haven’t baked them yet, you should really give them a try. Choux pastry has a reputation for being tricky, but as long as you use your oven timer, you won’t have any problems. I used my new favourite book ‘The Great British Bakeoff’ by Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood, which has not failed me yet! I used chantilly cream in mine instead of their suggested coffee pastry cream.

Makes 12 eclairs:

Choux Pastry

• 100g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 75g unsalted butter, diced
• 3 eggs at room temperature, beaten

1. Sift the flour onto a sheet of greaseproof paper. Put the salt, butter and 15ml of water into a medium-sized pan and heat gently until the butter has completely melted – don’t let the water boil and begin to evaporate. Quickly bring the mixture just to the boil and tip all of the flour in.
2. Remove the pan from the heat and beat furiously with a wooden spoon. The mixture will look a mess at first, but as you beat it it will turn into a smooth, heavy dough. Put the pan back on the heat and beat for 2 minutes to slightly cook the dough until it comes away from the sides of the pan in a smooth, glossy ball.
3. Tip the dough into a large mixing bowl and leave to cool until barely warm. Using an electric mixer (a wooden spoon won’t give the same result), gradually beat the eggs into the dough, beating well after each addition.
4. Add enough egg to make a shiny and paste-like dough that falls from the wooden spoon when lightly shaken. You may not need the last tablespoon or so of egg. The dough must be stiff enough to pipe or spoon into shapes – if the dough is too wet it will spread out in the oven rather than puff up.
5. The dough is now ready. Use immediately or cover tightly and use within 4 hours. Preheat the oven to 200c/400f/gas6. Spoon the pastry into a piping bag and pipe into 10cm lengths on a lined baking sheet – leaving enough room for spreading and rising. Bake in batches if necessary.
6. Bake for 15 minutes without opening the oven door, then reduce the oven temperature to 180c/350f/gas4. Quickly open and close the oven door to let out the steam and then bake for a further 15-20 minutes, until the choux fingers are puffed, golden and crisp.
7. Remove from the oven and make a small hole at one end of each finger to allow the steam to escape. Return them to the oven to bake for a final 5 minutes, to ensure that there is no more uncooked dough inside, which would cause the pastry to collapse as it cools. The pastry will be cooked long before the insides are fully dried out. Cool on a wire rack.
8. Meanwhile, make the filling. Whip the cream with the sugar and vanilla just stiff enough to hold a peak.
9. When ready to assemble, split open the pastry fingers lengthways and spoon in the filling. To make the topping, put the chocolate and cream into a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of hot water. Melt gently, then remove the bowl from the pan and stir until smooth. Spread on top of the filled eclairs with a knife. Eat the same day.