However, architecture, not cooking, was Carême's first love. Whenever he had a little free time from his first apprenticeship, Antonin would take his sketchbook and sketch all of the major architectural landmarks in Paris with exceptional detail. After he began a new apprenticeship to Sylvain Bailly, a famous pâtissier with a shop near the Palais-Royal,
Carême was able to apply his architectural skills to the elaborate cakes am pastries that became one of his trademarks and still survives today in the croquembouche (from the French 'Croque en bouche' meaning 'crunch in the mouth'), a popular wedding cake made with a high cone of profiteroles (choux puffs filled with pastry cream) bound with caramel, and usually decorated with threads of caramel, sugared almonds, chocolate, flowers, or ribbons. It was Carême's architectural pastry masterpieces that brought him to the attention of Talleyrand who hired him as his personal pastry chef where Carême studied cooking under Talleyrand's head chef Boucher after which the pupil became the master