Late to the gate in making this due to holidays and snowstorms, but well worth the wait. There are a number of recipes out there for this; we used https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/buche-de-noel-yule-log/. Definitely delicious. Sally’s stuff never disappoints.
For the cranberries, you only need 1/2 a cup berries; for the final toss in sugar, you also only need 1/2 a cup. Once we did the final toss, we placed them in the freezer to chill (vs fridge) to save time.
The cake itself was delicious and worked well. The meringue mushrooms were well worth doing, don’t skip the cocoa dusting. Follow directions closely for baking the mushrooms and once cool, store in airtight container. For the whipped cream, we skipped the Frangelico and hazelnuts and used Amaretto instead, no nuts. This is a two day recipe; we started the cranberries, made the mushrooms and ganache and cake on day one (two + hours); day two we finished the cranberries, assembled the mushrooms, made the whipped cream filling and assembled the cake (1+ hour). This easily serves 8-10 people. Don’t skip the chilling times. (Our serving platter needs work.) Super yummy.
If you google Italian Rainbow Cookies, you’ll find a number of different recipes – I chose the one from www.tastingtable.com. While I rarely bake with food coloring, as it doesn’t feel natural, this recipe requires it (1/4 tsp) to make the layers pop. The result is very impressive looking, with the taste not far behind. The recipe calls for a 9×13 pan (well actually three of them, although I used the same pan and baked three times) – it seems to me a slightly smaller pan would have been better, as I found it tough to spread the batter thinly enough to meet the edges. (Although, in hindsight, you trim all the edges off, and the batter is thick enough that it sits in place, so perhaps it doesn’t matter.) The amount of time to make these is a bit misleading as you do need to refrigerate for several hours, or overnight; add in if you are using only one pan, you have to triple the amount of time allotted to baking. (Note: If you use one pan over and over, for rounds 2 and 3, spread your batter on the parchment and THEN put it on the pan, otherwise the pan is so hot that the batter won’t spread properly.) The key tastes (almond, raspberry and chocolate) come shining through, so make sure you use a good quality almond paste, a good quality raspberry jam (I chose seedless – Wilkin & Sons) and a good quality chocolate, otherwise your taste is compromised. I used a fork to stripe the top, adding just that touch of fancy. All in all, both a fun and fairly easy bake!
Today’s bake – an Orange Pie from Sarah Kieffer’s cookbook, The Vanilla Bean Baking Book. I have renamed this pie the Orange Dreamsicle Pie, oh my goodness. To start with it’s a homemade graham cracker crust. I still need to master the art of a non-sticky one that slides right out of the pie plate; Sarah uses a metal pie plate, maybe that’s the trick?. The main part of the pie is similar to key lime pie, instead using orange juice (sweetened condensed milk, egg yolks, lemon juice, heavy cream). The topping is a whipped cream that has four ounces of cream cheese in, just a touch of sugar, some Triple Sec (I used Grand Marnier), orange zest, and a scraped vanilla bean – this results in a cream topping that holds it’s shape, has nice subtle flavors, but is not too sweet. All together, just a dream!
Today’s bake was a good one – and while somewhat involved, the end result is amazing. Recipe from Frosted by Bernice Baran. The cake is a chocolate sponge cake, so is very light and airy. I chose to do 10 individual small cakes rather than one large sheet cake, as I am giving these as holiday gifts. The sponge cake is then topped with a dark chocolate ganache which thanks to a few poke holes in the cake, drips down into the sponge. Using a dark chocolate makes this ganache more on the chocolate side than on the sweet side. On top of this is a French buttercream (my first attempt) which involves beating egg yolks until thick, then streaming in a very hot sugar syrup, beating that a long time, and then adding butter and again, beating another 7-10 minutes. The result is a very silky but not overly sweet buttercream frosting. I think this frosting may come in second to good old ABC frosting. Guinness in both the cake and the ganache. And yes I went totally overboard and paired it with homemade vanilla ice cream. High marks for this!
First lesson on this triple layer 6″ cake – the size is deceptive. I rarely make a three-layer cake, and I don’t use my 6” pans that much. Since I give most of my baked goods away, I was thinking that this wasn’t going to make all that much to share. Wrong. Because it’s three layers (and the layers really rose nicely), and because it’s rich, each slice can be thin and be plenty for one person. I easily got 8 slices and could have gotten 10 from this dessert. The recipe called for vanilla bean paste, which I have not yet found in the stores (but currently have on order from Amazon). Instead, I used a vanilla bean, scraped. I’ve started using vanilla beans more, and while expensive, they really do give much more of a vanilla taste than just the extract. So try using one when the taste is key – ie the main focus is vanilla. Btw, I’m also finding quite a difference in the quality of the vanilla beans, and can’t tout Penzey’s Spices enough for their quality and pricing. Finally, this was my first attempt at an American Meringue Buttercream frosting. (The cookbook I’m using to work through these different types of frostings and fillings is a fantastic one – highly recommend Frosted by Bernice Baran from whence this recipe came as well.) I thought this frosting to be kind of a mix between an Ermine taste and an American Buttercream, although Ms. Baran mentions the similarity to Royal Frosting. It’s super easy to make, made with pasteurized egg whites and no cooking (but lots of beating). Overall, this cake was definitely very yummy and very well received.
Today’s adventure in baking was a recipe from a tried and true website, Sally’s Baking Addiction. I have made umpteen recipes from that site, as well as purchasing one of her cookbooks, and everything is always excellent. Chocolate peppermint cookies. Well, it goes without saying that you have to like peppermint, because they are quite pepperminty. The cookies are a nice combo of chocolate and peppermint and are a bit chewier than a sugar cookie but pillowy enough not to be dry in anyway, AND they have chocolate chips in, yum. The cookie is topped with an American buttercream flavored with peppermint, and then topped with crushed candy canes which gives them a nice holiday color. Rich, pretty, and a great choice for gift giving (today it’s the UPS and Fed Ex driver). I’ve given them about an hour sitting out in the air so that the buttercream gets a light crust on it and then I can stack them carefully for gift giving. Highly recommend her website and recipes!
Working my way through the buttercreams! American Buttercream – so far my favorite I think. It is the frosting of the grocery store bakeries, sweet, puffy with a thin crust on it when it air dries. I have found that if I go halvesy using butter and margarine, it is a bit more to my liking. Just a little less intense in the butter department. I do like sweet things, though, and this is definitely very sweet. Swiss Meringue Buttercream – tried this earlier in the week. This one you cook the egg whites with sugar until the sugar dissolves (5-10min) and then beat 10 min or so, then add butter, then beat another 10 min or so. This one came out well and held the jam taste very well; it is pillowy, no crust to it, and not that sweet. Was not that hard to make although the note to myself says to make sure the sugar dissolves all the way and ideally to use a candy thermometer. The long beating time is key though, so time it. And so far one of the best ways to get the jam taste to shine through. Note: if you want the pillowy texture, eat at room temp. If you want more of a solidified buttery texture, eat cold. German Buttercream – had more trouble with this one. You make an egg custard first on the stove which I did successfully, then, when cool, beat that into whipped butter for about 5 minutes. For some reason the custard didn’t fully incorporate, or I overcooked the custard just a little, so I had minute chunks of custard in the frosting instead of smooth, although it was not really that noticeable. More noticeable to the eye than in taste, and not nearly as fluffy, as you can see from picture below (although it would have been pipeable if I had wanted). In the example below, I flavored the buttercream with a salted caramel sauce; flavor was not overly intense but subtle. Note: if you want the pillowy texture, eat at room temp. If you want more of a solidified buttery texture, eat cold. Ermine Buttercream – this one I tried last year. This is another make a custard first and then whip into butter, though this one doesn’t use egg in the custard, whereas German Buttercream does. This one was SO buttery tasting to me (just thick with butter, I felt like i was eating a stick of butter); although the recipe touts it as a very neutral buttercream, I wasn’t a fan. Russian, Italian and French – Stay Tuned!
So today I was going to make a Cardamon Cake with Espresso Buttercream frosting. Not even sure what cardamon tastes like, so a true experiment. But the frosting calls for FIVE sticks of butter. Thinking of that much butter all in one place is just giving me the eebie jeebies (what a great word. Did I spell it right?) So change of plan – going with a Raspberry Almond Cupcake. Stay tuned for a picture! (I’m still tempted by the sound of the Cardamon Cake – maybe I can find a different Espresso Buttercream frosting recipe).
Okay, so here’s the Swiss Meringue Buttercream rant (this is the type of frosting on the cupcakes). I’ve never tried to make it before because, well, it seemed difficult. It wasn’t so much difficult, as it was tricky – the trickiest part being ‘mix until the meringue and the butter emulsify into buttercream, which may be 10 minutes’. Well, after 10 minutes it had souped and curdled and changed textures a few times, but was it emulsified? Hard to tell. The good news is I did get the sugar completely melted (Swiss Buttercream starts with egg whites and sugar melted over the stove until all the sugar is melted (this is key), then whipped into peaks). Last week we made an attempt at a Lemon Meringue Cake where the Meringue (started out the same way – melting sugar with egg whites) became marshmallow because I didn’t cook it long enough on top of the stove (still tasty, but definitely not meringue). The end result is certainly creamy, and while I stlil need to brave French and Italian Buttercream, I am leaning towards being an American gal and liking the normal ‘light and airy with a slight crust to it’ buttercream that good old fashioned buttercream has. (This did pipe nicely, though, don’t you think? Especially since I still have one hand in a cast!) The verdict? It was much less sweet than the American Buttercream. It is one of the better ones for taking up jam; the jam flavor (and color) really showed through. It has a lighter pillowy texture to it. Not bad for a much less sweet but good subtle taste frosting. Love to hear comments if you have tried Swiss Meringue Buttercream (making or eating!)
