TIMBER !! DB December Challenge

Our founders Ivonne of Cream Puffs In Venice and Lisa of La Mia Cucina decided to throw a log our way for the December Challenge. The blogging world is smoldering Yule Logs or Bûche de Noel! In the past weeks whisks have been whipping up a buttery storm to make frosting, ovens were spitting out genoise sheet cakes and chickens had a hard time keeping up with demand. And where did that leave me? Well, I was hiding in a dark corner, dreading the day that I had to make butter cream frosting... I still have a vivid memory of baking a last minute wedding cake. Shudder! It didn't help that our happy trio (Tanna, Ilva and me) was split due to travel and an already overflowing December month. It happened that I was on my own :: puts fist in mouth, scrunch up eyes:: So after a long bath, deep cleansing my hair, cleaning the kitchen, vacuuming the floor, reading Saturday's paper (hey, I know how to procrastinate!), I started by measuring out all ingredients and trying to decide with which part to start. Plenty egg yolks there because I used medium eggs and added an extra one.
Gosh I am sooooo organised...

Notice how my baking language became a mingle of Dutch and English?


Genoise: was a bit anxious about heating the eggs and sugar, but all went well and I had a perfect batter in minutes. Lined the baking sheet with waxed paper, and just finished smoothing the batter when my eyes fell on some print. It said -in German-: "this side down". Yeah right, and I was able to read it. Hmm, not very clever. Still I managed to unmold and tear away the paper without a hitch. Batter was a bit much for my square baking sheet resulting in a rather thick sheet and thus a little difficult to roll.


While the genoise was in the oven I started my first batch of buttercream frosting. The filling was going to be caramel flavoured. I used our Dutch soft brown sugar instead of granulated and added 1 tsp of caramel aroma and a dash of clementine syrup. Already had the butter out on a warm spot since morning and just gave it a quick microwave to make it even softer. Not melted but very soft. Turned out that both whipped meringue and butter had the ideal temperature to live happily ever after! No curdling!
No coincidence, I am that good! ::grins::

Immediately applied a generous layer of light brown buttercream on the cake and rolled it with the help of the slightly damp tea towel underneath. Wrapped in plastic it had a well deserved rest in the fridge. Another "must-do": merengue or marzipan mushrooms. Couldn't decide which ones I would make. Ehh. Oops and edited*!


And finally the assembly; cutting the cake's ends, piecing it together again to form a tree stump and swirling on the second batch of butter cream (I used melted chocolate as well as espresso powder and whisked that with 2 tbs of Mandarine Napoleon) frosting to resemble bark.



To see how many many other Daring Baker's survived this month's challenge please visit our Daring Bakers blogroll and click away!


Edit: due to unannounced but very welcome guests, merengue mushrooms making has been suspended! I hope I can squeeze in some time tomorrow, but since we're having a big dinner party at our house tomorrow night...let's just hope for a 24 hour day!


I'd like to take the opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! Enjoy the days and your company!