A Very Daring December Challenge

I awaited Decembers challenge with much excitement. After seeing the yule logs from last year I was curious as to what the challenge would be. Well, my heart nearly stopped when I saw the pages and pages of instructions. Very scared!
I must admit that it looked very difficult at first glance and I almost stopped reading and considered not even attempting the challenge. However, challenging is why I joined DB so there was no point in quitting now.


After reading a few other peoples comments about their completed challenges I shortened the instructions by deciding on what flavours to use for each layer and figuring out in which order to make the layers.

I decided on:
Element 1 Dacquoise Biscuit (Almond Cake)
Element 2 White Chocolate Mousse
Element 3 White Chocolate Ganache Insert
Element 4 Milk Chocolate Praline Feuillete (Crisp) Insert
Element 5 Vanilla Crème Brulée Insert
Element 6 Milk Chocolate Icing

I stared out with the Crème Brulée which worked fine. I know a few people had issued with it taking a long time to set so I cooked mine on a slightly higher temperature and it was done in the time stated.


I then made the mousse and thought all had gone well until it got to the washing up (which were was plenty of) when I found my gelatine still dissolving in a bowl!!!! Oops. I thought, hey its probably ruined anyway so decided to put the gelatine in at the end, refrigerate for a while and see what happens. By some form of miracle it was fine when I got it out of the fridge so I managed to save it.

Next up were the Dacquoise and the crisp insert. Both went fine although the Dacquoise made more than I thought it would so I ended up with it on the top and the bottom of the log.

I made mine for Christmas day so made it up in advance save for the icing. I only got round to buying the cream for the icing very late on Christmas eve so the shops were virtually bare. The only cream I could get was extra think double cream with Tia Maria but it worked really well and tasted lovely with a bit of alcohol in it.


It was very well received on Christmas day, the only down side is that I struggled to make people believe it was home made! If I were to make this again (which I wont be doing until we get a dishwasher!) then I would try and make the Crème Brulée layer thinner as it did not defrost as quick as the other layers.

- Denise