There's No Fear in Yule Log Baking!

Whew, my first challenge is done and I’m so relieved. It was a very long and arduous process but well worth the results! But before I get into the details, I’d like to thank everyone who gave such helpful hints that steered me clear of the gravest mistakes!

I first decided on the components of my yule log- I opted for a coffee pudding filling and a chocolate flavored genoise. I figured the pudding would be a great way of using up some of the extra egg yolks. The genoise, which I made with some trepidation turned out okay. I think I lost a little volume while folding in the dry ingredients but it came out light enough. Gone is my fear of genoise!

While warm, I rolled up the chocolate genoise with a kitchen towel as I would do with the jelly rolls I made. Then I attacked the butter cream. I chose to use dark chocolate and crème de cacao instead of coffee. I took extra care to make sure it didn’t break following all the wise advice available. I felt though that the color was still too pale.

Then came one of the best parts… making the meringue mushrooms. They are so cute that whatever fatigue I was experiencing after 6 hours dissipated once these lovely creations came out of the oven!

Then came the assembly. I filled and frosted my roll taking care to add the little branch on the top. I still didn’t like the color of my log. So I melted some dark chocolate and spread it on a baking sheet. I broke this into strips and then I covered up my roll and tried to make it look like bark. I succeeded in some areas but it wasn’t as neat as I had hoped.

With all the mushrooms sticking out and the crumbly chocolate bark, I am loathe to slice this pretty cake! Thank you so much for a wonderful induction to the daring bakers… I’m looking forward to January’s challenge!

Pixie