13 cake: Bûche de Noël
25 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
in cake, chocolate, sweets Tags: baking, buche de noel, buche de noel image, christmas, genoise, meringue mushrooms, roulade, winter, yule log
this Bûche de Noël turned out more log-like than imagined, though the woodiness is obscured by the fantabulous mushrooms and holiday slugs. Decorating meringue mushrooms is fun for the whole crazy family! Remnant stems became holiday slugs; holiday only in that they are on the holiday cake. That’s mom’s micro-handiwork in the placement of the teeny eyes.
the Bûche is a French tradition, and today versions are made in countries of franco-influence (and colonization) from Canada to Viet Nam. And by seasonally intrepid home bakers everywhere. Designed in myriad stumpy forms for Christmas, the log cake is typically génoise, sometimes chocolate, almost always has chocolate frosting yielding a simple bark effect. Traditionally filled with the same chocolate frosting, today’s Bûche coils around everything from chocolate mousse to chestnut brandy cream to nothing at all (Scrooge).
this rendition is a roll of vanilla génoise (glorious! as always) with filling of fig preserves, crushed toasted hazelnuts and a drizzled web of honey.
like any tree at yuletide, the dessert log begs to be decked. Meringue mushrooms are standard; ours took a bit of a Suessian bend. Inventive bakers worldwide decorate with fleets of wintery stuffs: marshmellow snow people; plastic santas, reindeer, elves, et al; filigreed white chocolate; glacé fruits; fake holly and sugared rosemary branches & cranberries. Julia Child dresses hers in a spun caramel veil. Mom questioned what that gold web represents. The magic of Christmas? She was unconvinced, and our broom handle remained free of sticky hanging caramel strands and log unveiled. The mushroom painting got a little involved as it turned out anyway.
powdered sugar often makes a snowing; we skipped in favor of the arty high-gloss of the frosting alone. This chocolate frosting is of butter and semisweet chocolate melted in hot instant espresso folded into the vanilla meringue left over from the mushrooms.
happy holidays. Eat well; be merry.
