Saturday, January 1, 2011

Bûche de Noël

I haven't made one of these in a long time, but I kind of had an itch to. You know that itch just had to be scratched! A Bûche de Noël is a traditional French dessert honoring the Christmas Yule Log. We decided to save ours for celebrating the Solemnity/New Year today.

I read somewhere that servants use to go find the largest log they could for the Christmas hearth because tradition held that they didn't have to go back to work until the log was all burned up. Husband asked if he had to go back to work when our Yule Log was gone and I said, "Yes! That's why I left out all the sugar!" Tee hee!

~Gum Drop Holly Leaves and Berries~

Flatten gum drop on a little bit of sugar to keep it from sticking to the counter.

Start cutting off bits to form a holly leaf. You can squeeze in the sides and shape it with your fingers once you have it cut. Chop off the tips of the red ones for the berries.

~Truffle Mushrooms~
Traditional Bûche de Noël are usually decorated with marzipan mushrooms but we are not very fond of marzipan, so I used white chocolate truffles and Pepperidge Farm Pirouttes.

Dusted with some cocoa powder, they look pretty convincing!


16 comments:

  1. That turned out amazing and your mushrooms are just ingenious!

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  2. That looks really good! Reminds me I have one lonely molten cake left over from last night and I should eat it while everyone is busy! Those mushrooms look great.

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  3. This is very interesting. I have never made one, maybe next year. The mushrooms look so real, great job!

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  4. Clever girl -- love your mushrooms. Our Buche always has white cream, but yours looks really yummy.

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  5. Barb,
    It's a yummy mocha whipped cream filling- light but delicious!

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  6. How beautiful! I really thought those were real mushrooms! What a great idea for making them out of sweets...love it.:)

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  7. Wonderful! I love the mushrooms and gumdrop holly clusters. We used to have Buche de Noel cakes for my sister's birthday (the day after Christmas). Maybe next year I'll attempt to make one for her.

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  8. Just so fantastic, Charlotte! My French grandparents had a Buche de Noel every year for Christmas. Such wonderful memories you bring back. Now I'm teary eyed.
    I must try and do this with my kids so they can experience some of the traditions I was brought up with. I just need to get over being intimidated by it first, lol. Love, love, love the gumdrop holly and berries and the mushrooms are genius! Thanks so much for sharing this.

    May God bless you in the new year!

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  9. Fabulous and adorable. I love it. Love your cute mushrooms.

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  10. It looks delicious - especially the mushrooms! I wanted to make one for Christmas Day (Jesus's birthday cake) but it didn't happen...I think I might try it for Epiphany or The Baptism of our Lord!

    What is the cake recipe?

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  11. Raewyn,
    I used this recipe just for the cake. For the filling, I used my own combination of heavy cream, chilled decaf espresso, cocoa powder and powdered sugar.

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  12. I forgot to say... the cake was kind of bland. The filling and frosting were delicious so together, they worked well together. Next year though, (yes, my kids have already requested one for next year) I might try just a basic chocolate jelly roll cake recipe since the effort that went into this one really didn't seem worth it in the end.

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  13. Your log looks beautiful. For some reason, years ago I started making the Buche de Noel for New Year's Day. I think it was because Christmas Day was so full of Christmas candy and favorite cookies and breads. The kids call it the "Chocolate Yule Log." It is time consuming, but I think after all these years, I have it down and this year's went the fastest and was the best looking and tasting. I made a simpler chocolate mousse filling and frosted it with a whipped ganache. The kids had eaten all the green gum drops so I couldn't do the leaves (we don't like marzipan either). The cake ends cut off and "glued" on the log made good sawed off branches. My husband thinks mushrooms are intrinsically evil, so I didn't put any on - real or otherwise.

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  14. Thank you so much! I'm excited to try it...I'll see if I can whip one up with a cake mix (all we have on hand at the moment). :)

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  15. Love it! I used to make one of these each year but i haven't done one in forever. I used a fairly basic jelly roll cake recipe, but i did meringue mushrooms. they are actually quite easy once you get the hang of it.

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  16. I seriously thought those were real mushrooms, ha ha, and that the plan would be to just pick them off before eating! It is beautiful!

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