Just before Christmas my friend Jessica and I set off on an afternoon's adventure of making our very first buche de noel. Jessica has been a baker for her whole life but since taking an advanced decorating class at night school over a year ago, there has been a storm of intricate goodies leaving her kitchen. Getting back into Christmas baking had me on a roll and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to work with an expert.
To give the sponge cake a more realistic look we had poured our dual-tone chocolate bark onto parchment lined cookie sheets and set them outside in our impromptu freezer to harden up. Once the cake had been rolled with it's chocolate whipped cream filling, we painted chocolate ganache on it's outer layer, folding the sheet of bark on top. Because the bark sheet had grooves and ridges shaped into it, when rounding it cracked pretty naturally I think. As a final touch we made meringue fungi, with Jess focusing on beautiful button mushrooms and myself on stacked tree shelves.
Below are some images of my log just prior to destruction. TIMBER!
Jessica's meringue button mushrooms on a pile of bark.
