Log Blog

Who hasn't looked at a mossy, mushroom-covered log and thought, "I wish that was made out of chocolate cake, so I could eat it"? That's right, at some point or another, we've all made that wish, and, thankfully, it has finally come true. My family has always had a traditional büche de nöel (I've got mad punctuation skills) yule log cake for Christmas dinner, and for the last few years I have made it from scratch. The full recipe (find it here) takes the whole day- the log consists of a chocolate genoise cake rolled around a chocolate mousse center, frosted with chocolate ganache, and garnished with chocolate "bark" and meringue and chocolate mushrooms. It's surrounded by candied rosemary sprigs and cranberries, and then dusted with cocoa and powdered sugar. I take pleasure in the whole production of it, but it's a labor of love and care, and, I'm realizing, a total waste of time. At least, this year. My husband and I will be arriving at my childhood home in California on the afternoon of the 23rd, and I don't think I will be able to pull off the Christmas miracle it will take to put that thing together, and get all of my other baking in (and also spend the afternoon sunbathing and swimming in the pool with my friends and fam.) It pains me, but something's gotta give, and it looks like it's gonna be the log.
However, I have a couple strategies up my sleeve to make a close approximation of the original log, with very little of the elbow grease. My plan is to make this cake in its original log form, frost it with chocolate whipped cream, and decorate with pieces of store-bought toffee to represent the bark. See?- I know how to cut back and simplify.

Well, I might make the mushrooms ahead of time and pack them in my suitcase.