I like campy and I like rich, so I tried my hand at buche de noel (or “yule log”) this year not once, but twice. What you see here is the result of my first attempt, and both times I was very pleased with how it turned out — and so were my friends. I found my Buche de Noel recipe at All Recipes, although there are lots online including a slightly more complicated version from Martha, of course. The All Recipes version is unfortunately lacking details on how to ice and decorate the log, and luckily the comments fill them in:

- Be sure to grease the parchment paper well or the cake will stick to it.
- Definitely let the rolled-up cake cool for a full 30 minutes.
- Cut off a slice from the end of the log and use the chocolate whipped cream to “glue” it to the log as a stump.
- Draw the tines of a fork through the whipped cream to simulate tree bark.

And here’s a tip of my own: Martha wanted me to make meringue mushrooms, but I wanted to keep things as easy as possible. So instead I used a bit of the cake as a stem, topped it with a dollop of mousse, and then topped that off with a packaged pfeffernusse cookie. Instant mushroom cap! I finished the whole thing off with cranberries, mint leaves, and confectioner’s sugar “snow.” (And yes, it was delicious.) — Mary T.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 25th, 2007 at 2:08 pm and is filed under cooking, holidays. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.