Buche de Noel - Daring Bakers December 2007 Challenge

Yule Log 2007
Originally uploaded by watchjennybake.

I have wanted to make a Buche de Noel, or yule log cake, for several years now but never got around to it. When it came out as the Daring Bakers Challenge for December, I was excited, to say the least. I knew I had a tree trimming party to go to and planned to make it for that day. The day of the party, it was pouring down rain, the kind of day that makes you want to lock the door, make a pot of tea, and watch movies or read books all day long.

I was actually worried it was going to be "one of those days" when I went to the post office to send holiday gifts (the day after the deadline, of course), and then to the grocery store. The only thing I needed was parchment paper, and guess what I forgot? Which meant I was going BACK out in the rain to hunt down parchment paper - which by the way, in my town, neither Walgreens nor CVS deemed important enough to carry - so I didn't get started until around 1 pm. I don't mind having a disastrous baking day (see last month's Daring Bakers Challenge) but was desperate not to have this day be one of them.

The first step is baking the genoise layer. I decided to do a chocolate version, and altered the recipe based on Nick Malgieri's suggestions on the old episode of Sara's Secrets (where he bakes this cake!). I watched that episode twice before I delved into this project.

I slightly overbaked the cake, knowingly, because it told me to start on the buttercream once the cake was in the oven, but then I had egg whites whisking on the stove when the cake was over and I freaked out a little. So later on, the cake cracked when it rolled up, but it was still all good.

I was worried that my buttercream would break after reading some stories of the other Daring Bakers, but I had my fears put to rest by Nick Malgieri, who said once the mixture had cooled completely down in the mixer, you could just throw the softened butter in one stick at a time and beat it until it came together - so I did, and it was wonderfully creamy and SO delicious. This is not the buttercream you make by mixing powdered sugar and butter. I didn't have rum or brandy, so I used Kahlua, which really amped the coffee flavor in this.

While the rolled cake and buttercream chilled, I went to work making meringue mushrooms. I have made meringue a zillion times -back in my tearoom days we had to have lemon meringue pies every Thursday (and oh look, I even made meringue earlier this month)- but I have never made meringue mushrooms. Lacking a pastry bag, I used a gallon ziploc and it worked pretty well.

The mushrooms added the most mystery to the cake - a lot of people at the party thought they were "actual" mushrooms and I had to prove they weren't by cutting them apart. The cocoa powder applied before baking really added a touch of realism.

I didn't do much to decorate the cake other than add fork marks (after the pictures were taken, ha!). I was late to the party, it was pouring down rain, and I realized too late that I had no covered dish large enough to transport the cake. So I used the umbrella on the cake and ended up at the front door looking like a drowned rat, but the cake was dry!


The recipe can be found on either blog of this month's challenge hosts - Ivonne and Lisa. All the Daring Bakers (I believe we're over 300 strong now) can be seen in the list here.


Categories: Buttercream, Cake, Chocolate, Coffee, Daring Bakers, Holiday, Meringue