Cream Puff Cake

So I made this for our home fellowship tonight. It's from the latest Taste of Home, Aug/Sept 2010. They had a picture of this cake by the recipe and it looked so so good. I have tried making cream puffs before, with a degree of success. They weren't quite as good as I wanted them to be. But this you then cover with pudding and Cool Whip, so what could go wrong?

Cream Puff Cake
1 cup water
1/2 cup butter, cubed
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 eggs
Filling:
1 pkg (8oz) cream cheese, softened
2 1/2 cups milk
3 pkg (3.3 oz each) instant white chocolate pudding or vanilla pudding mix (I wanted to use white chocolate but they didn't have instant at Walmart, only cook and serve...so I used vanilla)
8 oz carton cool whip, thawed

In a large saucepan, bring water and butter to a boil. Add flour all at once and stir until a smooth ball forms. Continue beating until smooth and shiny. Remove from the heat; let stand for 5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Transfer to a greased 13x9 inch baking dish. Bake @ 400 for 22-26 minutes or until puffed and golden brown. Cool completely on a wire rack. For filling, in a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, milk, and pudding mixes until smooth. Spread over the crust; refrigerate for 20 minutes. Spread with cool whip. Chill until serving.

The problem with making the cream puff part is that I was never sure if I was doing it right. Having done this only once before, I had no idea if I was doing it right or not, or if it looked right. While I was mixing it, I was thinking up contingency plans, such as "what time will I have to leave if I have to stop at Hannaford on the way to the Hinchliffe's to pick up a dessert," and "if this crust bombs, can I do something with just the pudding?" When the crust came out of the oven, it had risen quite a bit, was quite puffy indeed. When all was said and done, it certainly didn't look like the one in the picture. But it did look tasty. Once I added the filling it looked even better. Think of this as kind of an open-faced cream horn. It tasted so good! All the kids liked it at home fellowship, and the grown-ups did too. Definitely for sure 100% a keeper! If I find white chocolate pudding mix I'm going to try that next time too.