Friday, December 21, 2007

There's No Fear in Yule Log Baking!

pixie - yule log 025

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

11 comments:

michelle said...

I'm happy to have survived my first challenge, too, Pixie!

I like the texture that the chocolate added to your log.

Lis said...

I absolutely love the "bark", Pixie! What a creative idea! :)

Thank you so much for participating and welcome to the Daring Bakers! I can't wait to see what you come up with next month. :D

Happy holidays!
xoxo

Anonymous said...

Awesome!

Ann

Lunch Buckets said...

I like your bark too. And I can promise I've never before said that to anyone else. Ever!

Sandicita said...

The bark does look beautiful! I bet it tasted good too. Great job!

Helene said...

Very creative Pixie!
Welcome to the Daring Bakers!

Anonymous said...

Pixie, I love your mushrooms and bark! Great job!

Dolores said...

I'm with Lis and the others Pixie... I LOVE your creative approach to tree bark. Congratulations on a successful first challenge!

Gabi said...

Hi Pixie! What a lovely log-I love the choc strips for bark!
Welcome to the DBs- nice job!
Wishing you lots of happy baking in 2008!
xoxo
Gabi

Karen Baking Soda said...

Inventive "cover-up", nice looks!

Jen Yu said...

Nice touch with the bark. It's beautiful. Congrats on completing your challenge and welcome to the DBers!

jen at use real butter