December Challenge - Buche de Noel

There aren't many things that terrify me in the kitchen when I'm baking. One is pastry flour, the other is yeast-rising type things, and the other three things are: anything involving a pastry bag and frosting; rolling cakes, and buttercream. The Buche de Noel uses these last three things, big-time.

Let's get started, shall we? I woked backwards when I made this cake: decoration, filling, cake, frosting.

The Mushrooms
I opted to make the meringue mushrooms - I'm not a fan of marzipan, so I braved the pastry bag and went for it. I preheated the oven to 225 d F and lined 22 baking sheets with parchment. I got my pastry bag fitted with my tip - I didn't have a #6 so I used a #4. To make the meringues, I combined 3 room temperature egg whites and 1/4 tsp cream of tartar in my mixer's bowl (making sure there was no trace of errant fat in the bowl) and beat them until very foamy. I slowly added 1/2 cup granulated sugar and increased the speed to high and beat until soft peaks formed. I continuted until the whites were very stiff and shiny, then folded in 1/3 cup confectioner's sugar with a rubber spatula.




I scooped the mixture into the pastry bag, and piped as many stems as I could onto one sheet- at first they looked like piles of white spaghetti but as I got more comfortable with the movements, I was able to make some decent stems. On the other sheet, I made caps - once I figured out that I could just squoosh a bunch of meringue into a ball, the caps came out beautifully. I smoothed out any points, and dusted everything with cocoa.



These all baked for 55 minutes, then I removed them, flipped the caps upside down, poked holes in them, took the stems and dipped them in the remaining meringue, and married the two together. They went back into the oven for 15 minutes, then got to spend the night in a tupperware container, until I was ready to garnish.




The Filling
I decided to make something different for the filling, so I went to my favorite chocolate pudding recipe and made that up. It's in the Joy of Cooking, and it is a miracle in a bowl. Lots of cocoa powder, sugar, and milk (I used 1/2 half and half and 1/2 milk to save a few precious calories).



When the pudding had set, I peeled off the skin (the best part, hands-down) and whipped up some cream. I let the pudding come to room temperature, and after the cream had been whipped, I slowly added it in. This made a beautiful, delicious mousse-like filling.

The Cake
The cake was a plain genoiose, and was very easy to make. I had been warned by people at work (I work for a food magazine, not in the kitchen) not to overcook, because this could end up being very dry.

I preheated the overn to 400 d F, prepped my jelly roll pan by buttering it and then putting a parchment sheet down and buttered that, then filled a medium saucepan with water and boiled it. I combined 3 large eggs, 3 egg yolks, a pinch of salt and 3/4 cup sugar in my mixer's bowl and placed the bowl in the hot water on the stove. I wisked until the mixture was 100 d, then put the bowl in the mixer and whipped with the whisk until the mixture had cooled and tripled in volume - this took about 20 minutes on medium-high.

After whisking 1/2 cup of cake flour and 1/4 cup of cornstarch together, I sifted them in three batched over the egg mixture and folded it in. It was tough to make sure i had gotten all the lumps out, because I didn't want to overbeat the batter. Finally it was ready to go in the pan and into the oven.



I baked the cake for only 10 minutes, then removed it from the oven and let it cool just slighly while I got the rolling stuff together. I had also been advised by my friends at work that it's best to roll the cake while it's still warm (which is why I made the filling first. They told me to put a clean kitchen towel down, then another piece of parchement, then dust the parchment with cocoa to keep the cake from sticking.



I quickly transferred the cake to the rolling station, and it was already cool enough to fill with the filling, so on it went, and away I rolled. I filled it with my chocolate mousse and rolled it up as tighly as I could. The cake was so delicate, it did crack a little, and I think I maybe had too much filling in there.



I transferred the cake to the plate, and I thought that that was really the biggest challenge. It was so mooshy, and so delicate, I thought I'd drop it or break it. But I made it, so it got wrapped up tightly and put in the fridge to set up overnight. I made the mushrooms, the cake, and the filling on Friday afternoon.

The Frosting
Yesterday (Saturday) I made the buttercream frosting, and was a little afraid It would separate. It kind of did, but it still tasted delicious. I made only 1/2 the recipe because I had used something else for the filling, and wouldn't need much for the outside.

I took 2 large egg whites and 1/2 cup of sugar and whisked it together in the bowl of my mixer, then put the bowl over more simmering water and whisked until the sugar had dissolved and the egg whites were hot. I put the bowl on the mixer and whipped with the whisk attachment on medium until it was cooled, then switched to the paddle and beat in 12 tbsp of softened unsalted butter. This went ok, but there was not as much of a consistent blend as I would have liked to see. I dissolved 1 tbsp instant espresso powder into 1 tbsp kahlua (I didn't have any brandy or rum, and figured the kahlua would bring out the coffee flavor) and put it into the butter/egg/sugar mixture. The frosting was too soft when I was done so I decided to let it set up in the fridge for a little while. It was quite liquid-y.

About an hour later, I frosted the cake with the buttercream and drew some fork lines in it - the lines were more like a shaggy bark than clean decoration, but I thought it looked good. I applied the mushrooms, and put a little green around the cake.


Then I thought: hey, it's winter, let's put some pow-pow on for snow!
So I did that, and it looked great.



We had a party to go to last night, so this was what I brought. People thought the mushrooms were really real, and were delighted at the taste of the cake, as was my husband. I'm pleased too - I wish the frosting had come out a little better, but all in all this cake reminded me that i have nothing to fear in the kitchen (excepting, perhaps, my inability to really decorate well). It was tasty, though! A little more work-intensive than I care to undertake when I want a cake, but it would be nice for a special occassion, for sure.

Happy Yule and Holiday to you all! Thanks for this challenge!